https://www.thenation.com/article/society/ssi-rules-families-poverty/
The Supplemental Security Income program (SSI) was created in 1972 under the Nixon administration to provide financial support to low-income seniors and disabled people. An effort to federalize state-level adult support programs across the country, SSI is a means-tested program—there are financial requirements to be eligible. In the case of SSI, as of its last adjustment in 1989, enrollees cannot have savings of more than $2,000 as an individual or $3,000 as a family. Furthermore, SSI beneficiaries are prohibited from having retirement accounts, life insurance policies, certain types of personal property, funeral/burial policies, and access to other types of income.
[emphasis mine]
OMG I'm gonna test some means! 
I'm so sorry. I don't have anything else to say about that, but I'm going to go to bed reflecting on that petty cruelty you've experienced.
Ah, shit, I've spent the last few days wondering how these people sleep at night and then I end up contributing to a comrade's insomnia instead.
I can't imagine. Every day you're looking people in the face telling them that a state that absolutely could help them is instead condemning them to torment and death. Every single day, all day long.