Trump’s New Rule Threatens to Slash Benefits for 400,000 Disabled Adults Living With Family

The Trump administration is advancing a devastating policy shift that could strip hundreds of dollars each month from as many as 400,000 adults with severe disabilities, including Down syndrome and autism, who rely on Supplemental Security Income (SSI) to survive. ProPublica’s investigation reveals that the new rule would penalize disabled adults living with family by reducing their SSI benefits based on the “value” of their bedroom, even if the family is poor enough to qualify for food stamps.

Currently, SSI benefits provide a lifeline of around $600 to $700 monthly to about 7.5 million Americans with severe disabilities or indigent elderly people. These payments help cover basic needs like food and shelter but are far from enough to live independently, which is why many recipients live with family. The administration’s proposed rule would revert SSI to outdated 1980s criteria, ignoring that families receiving public assistance like SNAP have incomes well below the poverty line.

Kathleen Romig and Devin O’Connor from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities explain that the current rules protect SSI recipients in households receiving public assistance from benefit reductions. The Trump administration’s rollback would eliminate this protection, slashing benefits by up to a third or cutting them altogether for some of the most vulnerable Americans.

The human cost is clear in the story of 22-year-old Shy’tyra Burton from Philadelphia, who has Down syndrome. She faces a $330 monthly cut to her $994 SSI benefit because she lives with her father, a sanitation worker earning $24,000 a year—well below the poverty line. Even with SSI, her father struggles to make ends meet.

Representative Mike Levin (D-CA) condemns the rule as a “monstrous” attack on disabled Americans and their families. He points out that SSI applicants undergo a rigorous approval process and that this policy is not about rooting out fraud but punishing families who care for their own.

The rule is currently under review by the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB), led by Russell Vought, a key architect of the far-right Project 2025 agenda. Vought has a history of pushing policies to slash benefits for the poor, disabled, and elderly, including attempts to raise the disability insurance age threshold that could have cut payments for hundreds of thousands.

This policy move is part of a broader assault on social safety nets under the Trump administration, targeting the most vulnerable Americans while funneling millions into vanity projects like a $400 million ballroom. It is a stark reminder that under this administration, compassion and support for disabled and low-income families are being sacrificed for political and ideological goals.

For disabled adults living with families barely scraping by, this rule change threatens not just their benefits but their very ability to survive. We must hold this administration accountable for policies that punish the vulnerable and reward the powerful.