I was playing one of my morning online word puzzles when up popped a little blurb from a senior citizen advocacy group announcing that the Supplemental Security Income program has recently turned 50 years old. I’m sure most people who see a reference to SSI would say something like “Supplemental Security what?” And that’s because SSI is not very well known to most people. And as I’ve pointed out umpteen times, a lot of folks probably just figure, given its name, that Supplemental Security Income is some kind of supplemental Social Security benefit. It is not. So, I guess it’s time to dust off and update some of the columns I’ve written in the past that explain the SSI program.
To begin with, here is just a short history lesson. Back before the early 1970s, there were hundreds of different welfare programs in the country. Sometimes states administered welfare programs. Other times, counties had their own welfare programs. And in some places, cities or other jurisdictions had their own welfare programs. It was a mess.
