By Jeffrey Freedman
Article appeared in The Buffalo News on November 9, 2025
While running for office, Donald Trump promised to preserve Social Security, a popular, 90-year-old earned-benefit program designed to keep retired and disabled workers out of poverty.
Now, the Trump administration wants to change age eligibility to restrict access to Social Security Disability (SSD) and Supplemental Security Income (SSI). Accessing benefits is already challenging. More than two-thirds of SSD applications are denied, and it often takes two years or more to get a final decision on benefits. As of July 2025, nearly 1 million applicants awaited approval. In fiscal year 2023, 30,000 claimants died waiting for a decision.
According to the Urban Institute, the age eligibility change would cause a nationwide increase in poverty, with approximately 750,000 people barred from obtaining SSD or SSI over the next 10 years.
Most recent data from 2023 shows a direct connection between age and approval ratings. For ages 40-49, the approval rating was 42%; ages 50-54, it was 49%; ages 55-59 it rose to 57%; and ages 60 to 65 it stood at 62%.
Currently, SSA defines the 50-54 age bracket as “closely approaching advanced age” – age that may substantially interfere with an individual’s ability to switch occupations. According to the Wall Street Journal, changing the age criteria is a complete reversal of that concept, saying the SSA would, “no longer assume age seriously affects a person’s ability to adapt to simple, entry-level work.”
Today, half of all adults under 65 on SSD would be in poverty without benefits: at risk of going bankrupt, losing homes, and going without medical treatment.
Under the new rule, applicants in their 50s denied disability would have to draw on retirement savings until going on Social Security retirement at age 62. Their lifetime income would decrease 30% from what it would have been at full retirement age . And not only adults will be harmed. Many SSD claimants are still raising families when they become too disabled to work and their SSD benefits help them support their children.
With this rule change, President Trump is attacking the disabled, not preserving Social Security. Let your elected representatives know you do not want a huge hole in America’s safety net.