Maintaining financial independence and self-sufficiency remains a constant struggle for the elderly and people living with disabilities in the United States. Today, people with disabilities and many seniors struggle to meet their basic needs—including making rent and attending to their treatment to survive. The government is supposed to be there to help. That’s what it’s for.

The Supplemental Security Income, or SSI program, a critical safety-net program for these populations, supports nearly 8 million people with disabilities and older Americans. Yet the often-forgotten federal program is insufficient and grossly underfunded. SSI doles out just $794 a month to beneficiaries—if an applicant can get their case reviewed in a reasonable time frame to qualify, because it sometimes takes up to six months to receive approval. For those who do, the needs-based benefit has not kept up with today’s cost of living—the income conditions haven’t been updated since the program was started in 1972.

Giving beneficiaries just under $800 a month, or $9,528 annually, amounts to an income of about three-quarters of the federal poverty line. Furthermore, if you receive SSI and marry another SSI beneficiary, you share a benefit of $14,293.61, just 50% more than if you were single. Many elderly couples would be financially better off getting divorced than remaining married.

SSI beneficiaries also must have assets of less than $2,000 for an individual, or $3,000 for a couple. These outdated limits would disqualify anyone from the program who has even modest savings. Those limits were last updated in 1989.

The beneficiaries should not be penalized for working, getting married, or keeping a reasonable amount of savings for a rainy day or retirement. They should at least be able to live above the poverty line and maintain $10,000 in savings. But all these situations diminish or eliminate entirely the already paltry sum distributed to people in need.

Read the full article about reforming the SSI program by Vijay Das at YES! Magazine.