I'm Aisha Rascoe, and this is the Sunday story.
When you think about Social Security, you might think about someone who's retired getting a check, you know, living on a fixed income with help from Social Security.
But Social Security includes a wide range of programs that make up the social safety net in the U.S.
growing up, I knew of extended family or friends of family who depended on these monthly checks because they had disabilities or children with disabilities or they didn't have a lot of money and they needed this money to survive.
My mom actually worked for Social Security in the 80s and she helped a lot of people get these benefits.
Today we're going to focus on a program that supports people with disabilities and Americans who are very, very poor.
It's called Supplemental Security Income, or ssi, and it serves some of the most vulnerable Americans.
NPR correspondent Joseph Shapiro has been reporting on this program over the last year.
He recently published a series of investigative stories on NPR about ssi.
We sat down to talk about the ins and outs of this program and he told me a lot of stories, including one about Karen Williams, a 63 year old woman in Philadelphia.
Karen Williams couldn't work because of a disability.
She was struggling to pay for her everyday expenses, but she was proud of how she managed the little money she did have.
And I was just making a dollar, not only holler, but make it scream.
And that's what I was doing.
I knew how to juggle money and save and put up and all that.
But it wasn't enough.
One of her healthcare providers told her about this program called ssi.
So she applied.
And the monthly benefit she got several hundred dollars a month was a relief.
It made her life better.