by establishing elderly people as disabled and supplementing with SSI. This is why it gets progressively easier to get when you're over 60. They don't put elderly people through the same years of rejection/appeal while they have to go on welfare, become homeless, etc. as the government does to younger disabled people.

Now, with that in mind, think about what it means when the GOP orates against SSI as "wasteful" and "stealth welfare" for people with "backache and depression". Think about what it means that there is no cost of living increase for SSI - it's handled by block grants and more liable to be cut. Think about what it means in California that people on SSI can't get food stamps, and the cost of rent now far exceeds SSI amounts in major urban areas.

It would be better to make a floor to Social Security rather than to use SSI for these purposes. This would also free more SSI funds for younger people who need it, so they aren't subjected to long delays and homelessness while the State is short on funds.

I make $9,648 on my SS. Luckily I own my home and land. My taxes are my biggest burden.

I would be living in a cardboard box in an alley if not for other income (husband's SS & my dinky pension $366.05 a month)..

To compute your actual payment, they take (as i recall) the top 25 years of your earnings and use a formula which straight lines the benefit versus the average earnings (higher earnings = higher benefit). At the lower end, they bend the curve up to give very low wage workers a plus up to their income. If you are drawing a pension based on earnings not covered by SS (e.g. Fed Svc under the old CSRS system), you don't get the bend up but straight line on down. Is the bump up enough? That is the question. The mechanism is there. This is "old age" social security and not disability.

There are a fair number of grandparents with grandkids belonging to a parent who's below the poverty threshold. Often it's three generations under one roof, but it would be easy enough to transfer "dependency" from the parents to the grandparent without actually changing how the household's run. Now such things are decided without thinking or by default--there's no real benefit it playing games with who claims whom as dependent. But put $3k or $4k on the line, and that'll change.

Social Security's under enough stress without becoming a SNAP-replacement.