How Much Money Can You Make if You Are on Ssi?
Each year, the Social Security Administration (SSA) adjusts the income limits and do good payment amounts to account for increases in the price of living. The Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program is our focus in this blog, and nosotros'll get over how these increases impact your SSI.
At Scully Inability Law, our attorneys piece of work to keep all our clients fully informed of changes that affect their SSI program benefits. If yous have any questions virtually your SSI benefits, or if y'all want to know if you lot qualify for SSI benefits, telephone call our role now at 800.628.1934 for help.
2022 SSI Income Eligibility Limits
The 2022 income limits to be eligible for SSI require that a do good recipient'southward unearned income be less than $861 per calendar month. A couple who both go SSI must receive less than $1,261 a calendar month in unearned income. Detect that this limit applies to "unearned" income. (Just, run across Countable Income beneath.)
The Social Security Assistants (SSA) only counts some of your income when testing you lot for SSI benefits eligibility. We'll explain what income is exempt from beingness counted later in this blog mail service. The SSA understands that the monthly SSI do good payments are not enough to pay for all the daily needs of SSI recipients. The authorities assumes that other federal and state-paid programs for low-income and disabled family members will also contribute needed services and subsidies. As a upshot of this expected boosted support, some of the help from other programs is non counted as income.
Earned Income and Unearned Income — What's the Difference?
Earned and unearned income are treated differently by the SSA when considering SSI eligibility. To sympathize the divergence, let's first look at what is considered "income."
For the SSI benefits programme, the SSA defines income as,
"whatever item an private receives in cash or in-kind that can be used to meet his or her need for food or shelter. Income includes, for the purposes of SSI, the receipt of any item which tin be practical, either straight or by sale or conversion, to meet basic needs of food or shelter."
That means that any food or shelter y'all get for costless, or for less than market place value, counts as income.
- Earned Income — Earned income is wages and self-employment internet earnings, including any money or particular received in substitution for services yous provided, even as a disabled person working in a sheltered workshop.
- Unearned Income — Unearned income is the income you receive that was not earned. This includes whatever Social Security payments, worker'south compensation or other state-paid inability payments, unemployment benefits, pensions, interest or dividends, and any greenbacks you receive from friends or family unit.
What Become'due south Counted past SSI as Income (Countable Income)
The amount of countable income and SSI recipient gets each month is subtracted from the maximum monthly SSI benefit payment amount; for 2022, that amount is $841 for individuals and $1,261 for eligible couples.
Countable Income
The SSI counts some income and doesn't count other income when measuring your income against the allowable monthly income limit. Understanding which income is counted or not counted can brand a big difference in the corporeality of coin you lot can earn and how much your SSI do good payment will be.
Countable Earned Income — When counting earned income, SSI excludes the outset $65 earned per month plus up to another $20 from whatever unuse unearned income exemption that calendar month. SSI also exempts half of the remaining earned income. The SSI benefit payment is reduced past the amount of the not-exempt countable income.
If y'all earned $600 one month and received no unearned income, the formula to determine the SSI benefit would wait like this:
In this example, a person could earn $600 and however receive an SSI do good payment of $583.50. The Social Security Administration suggests that under some circumstances, "[b]ecause a larger portion of earned income isn't counted, a person who gets SSI tin earn up to $1,767 a calendar month ($2,607 for a couple) and notwithstanding become SSI."
Other earned income exemptions include impairment-related work expenses, some funds saved for the SSI Program to Achieve Self-Support (PASS), and more than.
Countable Unearned Income — Countable unearned income includes contributions to your rent by a roommate or another person other than funds received from state-paid or needs-based nonprofit organizations. The same applies to money or items that were given to y'all that you can use for food or shelter, clothes, or other in-kind gifts. Countable unearned income too includes payments SSDI, pensions, workers comp, unemployment, etc.
Non-countable unearned income is a much longer list. The SSI program does not count subsidies from state or local government needs-based programs, rent assistance from the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), the get-go $twenty of otherwise non-exempt unearned income, and the showtime $60 of irregular unearned income. Many other sources of unearned income are likewise exempt.
Source: https://scullydisabilitylaw.com/how-much-money-can-you-make-and-still-get-ssi/