"disposable" income means "subtracting necessities like housing" so if disposable income is going up, by definition your claim cannot be correct

Officially, disposable income means income minus taxes. Lots of people assume it means minus necessities like housing and food, but that is discretionary income.

That's not correct.

From the article:

> Note that this includes taxes and transfers, including in-kind transfers like government-provided health care.

So excluding housing, health insurance and student loan repayments etc.