Soc Sec payments (from SS website) don't come close to B19065

Hi Tom, the Social Security page you link to is giving data for Supplemental Security Income (SSI), which is not the same as Social Security (even though it's administered by the Social Security Administration). Aggregate SSI is available in table B19066.

That said, there is still quite a discrepancy between table B19066 on SSI ($2.1 billion in 2019) and the amount given by the SSA ($258 million in 2019). I've used this SSA data frequently, and somehow, I never before noticed that it seems to indicate that the aggregate totals are for December only. It's very unclear; the page header says 2019, but the table header says December 2019. If you multiply their amount by 12, it's $3 billion, which is in the same ballpark (and at that point, there are differences to be expected by the ACS's survey data and the SSA's administrative data, as well as possible variation in months, since we're only getting December). TBH, I'm not convinced the SSA data is monthly; it would be worth emailing them for clarification. Why wouldn't they just provide the annual amount?

I'll put the question to both Census staff and SS staff on the data and differences making sure I get good clarification on the measures. I assume it will take 1-2 weeks plus, but I'll post any info I get on this thread.