Rule Changes for SSI

The Social Security Administration is amending their Supplemental Security Income (SSI) regulations by making technical revisions to their rules on income and resources.

These final rules are effective on February 10, 2010. You can find the full Federal Register notice and full details HERE.

Below you will find a brief summary:

Statutory Employees:

- Previously, SSA treated statutory employees the same as employees for SSI eligibility and payment-amount purposes and considered their wages as earned income. After this change to the Act, SSA now treats statutory employees as self-employed individuals and counts only their net earnings, deducting business expenses before calculating their income.

Exclusion of Child Tax Credit (CTC) From Income and Resources


- SSA excludes from income the payment of a refundable CTC.
- SSA excludes the payment of a refundable CTC from resources for the 9 months following the month of receipt.

Exclusion of Flood Mitigation Payments from Income and Resources

- Payments made for flood mitigation activities are not counted as income or resources when determining SSI eligibility and payment amounts.

Exclusion of Energy Employee, Occupational Illness Medical Benefits, and Compensation Payment from Income and Resources

- Medical benefits and compensation payments made to energy employees because of occupational illnesses are not counted as income or resources for purposes of determining eligibility to receive, or for determining the amount of, certain Federal benefits, including SSI.

Home Exclusion to Victims of Domestic Abuse

- Currently, a victim fleeing from domestic abuse may return to a potentially dangerous home environment simply to avoid losing SSI because of an ownership interest in the home. SSA is extending the home exclusion to victims of domestic abuse who flee an abusive situation, but maintain an ownership interest in an otherwise excluded home. This exclusion continues until the SSI applicant or beneficiary establishes a new principal place of residence or takes other action rendering the home no longer excludable.

Conditional Payments

- Currently, SSA can make ‘conditional payments’’ to give an SSI applicant or beneficiary some time in which to sell excess non-liquid resources and convert them to cash. SSA conditions these payments on the SSI applicant’s or beneficiary’s written agreement to sell these non-liquid resources within 9 months for real property and within 3 months for all other non-liquid resources and repay the conditional payments with the proceeds. Under current rules, SSA will not make conditional payments if the SSI applicant or beneficiary has countable liquid resources in excess of 3 times the monthly Federal Benefit Rate (FBR).


- SSA is deleting the limitation on liquid resources that was a prerequisite to receiving conditional benefit payments to simplify their conditional payments rule.


Any questions may be directed to: rsi5@srt.com