Recently, the Social Security Administration (SSA) issued a new rule: starting September 30, 2024 food support is no longer considered in kind support, and will not effect supplemental security income payouts. This change is potentially huge. It simultaneously provides new flexibility AND simplifies record-keeping and reporting.
What is Supplemental Security Income?
Supplemental Security Income (also known as SSI) is a needs-based government benefits program. The program provides monthly payments to people with disabilities and adults over the age of 65. For many, SSI benefits help pay for basic needs like rent, food, clothing and medicine. And, the amount of money an individual gets depends on the person’s income, living situation, the things that they own and other factors. You can apply for benefits through the Social Security Administration website.
Eligibility for Supplemental Security Income
To be eligible for SSI, you must meet a few requirements. The simple version: First, you must either be disabled or over the age of 65. Second, you must earn less than $1,971 per month from your employment. But, if you are married or are a parent applying for your child, that amount may be different. It’s also noteworthy that income from sources such as disability benefits, unemployment benefits and pensions can also limit your SSI eligibility. Third, you must have under $2,000 (or $3,000 for a married couple) in available resources. Those numbers increase by $2,000 for parents applying for their child.
Note that there are lots of qualifications to those basic rules, and we have over-simplified them here. But that is the structure of eligibility from which we can work to explain the new provisions.
If you are applying for SSI based on a disability, there are a few additional requirements. Your disability must qualify as one that makes you eligible for SSI. The disability must affect your ability to work for a year or more, result in death, or severely limit daily activities.
Even once you qualify for SSI, you must report your earnings to maintain your eligibility. You must report your monthly gross wages, if you start or stop working, increases or decreases in wages, work expenses related to your disability, among other things.
In-kind support and maintenance (ISM)
You also must report any “in-kind support and maintenance” you may receive. That generally includes support provided by friends and family without charge. For these purposes, “support” includes shelter and food. Once, years ago, it also included clothing. Happily, that category was eliminated.
For example, if you live in a friend’s house while receiving SSI benefits, that in-kind support may affect your benefits payout. Social Security considers this kind of support as unearned income and it affects your eligibility and may also reduce benefit amounts.
In-kind support and maintenance is often very difficult to understand. There are specific items of shelter included, for instance. Payment of your property taxes results in an income categorization. But purchase of new appliances does not. Payment for most utilities can affect benefits or eligibility. But payment of cable or internet bills will not. And “food” has been its own problem. Groceries count, and so do restaurant bills. But not always.
Changes to SSI
Currently, the SSA also counts food as in-kind support that needs to be reported when you apply for SSI. Thanks to a new rule that will take effect September 30, 2024, the Social Security Administration will no longer include food in these ISM calculations. This new policy removes a critical barrier for SSI eligibility. It will also make reporting much less burdensome for those applying for benefits. Now, benefit recipients will not have to keep track of food their friends and family are providing them.
What does this mean for SSI recipients? A lot. Family members can take them out to dinner, or buy them groceries, without any concerns about the effect on SSI. And SSI recipients who have special needs trusts can have food added to the list of items the trust could pay for.
Remember, though: this change is not effective yet. The proposed rule has to become final, which is scheduled to occur at the end of September. In the meantime, keep records and keep food off the list — for most purposes, anyway.
Effect on other programs
Other benefit programs, like Medicaid, SNAP, housing support and TANF, have their own eligibility rules. Some of them (but not all of them) borrow the SSI eligibility rules. Where SSI rules apply, the elimination of “food” from ISM will be a double blessing.
The most important of those is general Medicaid (not, at least in Arizona, long-term care Medicaid, or ALTCS). In Arizona, as in most states, beneficiaries who qualify for SSI automatically receive Medicaid benefits. Effectively, that means that most Medicaid recipients in Arizona will benefit from the SSI change, come September.
