How In-Kind Income and Support Affects Your SSI Disability Payment

"In-kind income and support" refers to free room and board, and the Social Security Administration (SSA) wants to know if you're getting it. Why does it matter? When you receive monthly Supplemental Security Income (SSI) checks from the government, any type of income you receive can reduce the amount of your payment. And Social Security counts things other than money as income.

Here's how Social Security defines in-kind income and support and how receiving it can affect your SSI benefits.

What Does Social Security Consider In-Kind Income?

In-kind income is something you get for free, according to Social Security. It can include goods given to you as a gift or in trade for services. Social Security also categorizes free room and board as "in-kind support and maintenance" (ISM).

You're receiving ISM if someone else is paying any of the following for you:

• shelter (a shared room, apartment, or house)
• rent or mortgage payments
• homeowners' insurance
• real estate taxes
• utilities, including electricity, natural gas, propane, or heating oil
• water and sewer services, or
• garbage removal.

If someone provides you with shelter (room and board) that you don't pay for, Social Security will reduce your monthly SSI payment to account for this in-kind support and maintenance using specific rules (more on this below).

ISM used to count both food and shelter provided to you by others as income, but in 2025, Social Security no longer includes the cost of food in calculating in-kind support and maintenance you receive. (89 F.R. 21199.)

What Does Social Security Not Count as In-Kind Support?

What's not considered in-kind support and maintenance? Under Social Security rules, when someone else pays for any of the following, it doesn't count as ISM and won't affect your SSI benefits:

• food (although it can affect how Social Security calculates ISM, discussed below)
• cable, telephone, and internet services (including cell phone service)
• vehicle expenses (including purchase or lease, fuel, maintenance, and insurance)
• household furnishings and furniture
• pet expenses (including pet food and vet bills)
• clothing
• travel and entertainment expenses
• tuition or scholarships used for your education
• medical expenses (including treatment, medication, therapy, and medical equipment), and
• taxes (other than real estate taxes).

In addition, Social Security doesn't count the following forms of government assistance as in-kind support:

• food stamps (SNAP)
• Section 8 assistance or other rental supplements from the government or a nonprofit, or
• public assistance payments (sometimes called general assistance).

Are You Receiving In-Kind Support and Maintenance?

You're not receiving ISM under Social Security's rules if you:

• live with other people and pay your share of the housing expenses
• live only with your spouse and minor children, and nobody outside the household pays for your shelter (although a working spouse's income might affect your SSI eligibility in other ways), or
• live alone and pay for your own housing.

If the first situation applies—say you live with three roommates and pay a portion of the rent and utilities—Social Security will examine the amount you pay, and if it's at least one-fourth of the actual shelter costs, you aren't receiving ISM. But if your monthly contributions are less than one-fourth of the monthly expenses, Social Security will find that you're receiving in-kind support and will reduce your SSI benefit.

Are You Receiving Free Room and Board as a Loan?

If you're given free rent as a loan and need to pay it back, it won't count as in-kind income. Because it's not ISM, it shouldn't affect your SSI payment—but the loan must meet certain requirements. For details on the requirements for this exception, see our article on how loans of food and shelter affect SSI.

Do You Live in a Public Assistance Household?

If you live in a "public assistance household," Social Security doesn't count the free shelter you receive as in-kind support and maintenance. A public assistance household is one in which anyone (other than you) is receiving public assistance based on low income, including:

• SNAP benefits (food stamps)
• Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF)
• SSI benefits
• needs-based veterans benefits (like VA pension)
• state or local government assistance programs based on need
• needs-based Refugee Act payments
• needs-based payments under the Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act, or
• general assistance benefits from the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

If even one person (besides you) living in your household receives one of the above government benefits, Social Security considers your household a public assistance household and won't reduce your SSI payment if you receive free room and board from others in the household. But in-kind support you receive from anyone living outside the household can still affect your SSI payments. (20 C.F.R § 416.1142(b).)

How Will Free Room and Board Lower Your SSI Payment?

First, know that the amount of your SSI payment is based on the current "federal benefit rate" (FBR), a value established by the government that changes each year. In 2025, the FBR is $967 for an individual and $1,450 for a couple. This is the maximum monthly amount you can receive in SSI benefits (unless your state pays an extra supplemental payment).

If you're awarded SSI benefits and have no income, you'll receive the FBR amount each month—$967 or, if your spouse receives SSI too, $1,450 for both of you. But Social Security will reduce your monthly payment if you have any other income, including in-kind income. The SSA uses one of two rules when calculating the value of your in-kind support and reducing your SSI payment.

SSI and the One-Third Reduction Rule

Social Security will use the "one-third reduction rule" if your situation meets both of the following conditions:

• you lived in another person's household for the full calendar month, and
• you received both shelter and food from others living in that household.

If you only get a free room, but not free board, the one-third reduction rule doesn't apply (instead, the presumed value rule applies, discussed below). The one-third reduction rule only applies if someone in the household pays for or provides you with all of your meals. If you receive food stamps, you're not receiving all of your food from someone in the household, so the one-third reduction rule would not apply.

The one-third reduction rule simply means that Social Security will reduce your SSI payment by one-third—even if the value of the food and shelter you received for free is more or less than one-third of your SSI payment. This means that, if you get free room and board and receive SSI in 2025, and have no other income, you'll receive $644.67 per month instead of $967.

If you're subject to the one-third reduction rule, Social Security won't deduct any other ISM you receive from any source. (20 C.F.R § 416.1131(c).)

The Presumed Value Rule and Your SSI Benefit

The one-third reduction rule doesn't apply to you if, for example, you lived in your own household but someone else paid your bills, or you lived in someone else's household but they didn't provide all of your meals. In that case, Social Security will apply the "presumed value rule."

Under the presumed value rule, the value of the housing you receive is set at the "presumed maximum value" (PMV), which is one-third of the federal benefit rate ($967), plus $20. But unlike the one-third reduction rule, if you believe the actual value of your ISM isn't as much as the PMV, you can dispute the amount. You can show that the amount of in-kind support you receive is actually less by proving that:

• the actual amount that another person pays for your room or other housing is less than the presumed value, or
• the current market value of the in-kind support you receive is lower than the presumed value.

If Social Security determines the value of your ISM is less than the presumed maximum value, the SSA will deduct only the actual value from your monthly SSI payment. But if the value of the ISM is more than the maximum presumed value, Social Security will deduct the PMV from your monthly SSI payment.

For 2025, the PMV is $342.33. After deducting $20 for your general income exclusion, only $322.33 will be subtracted from your SSI check in 2025. (20 C.F.R. § 416.1140(b).)

Additional provisions can apply to children who receive SSI benefits, as well as homeless adults and those living in a medical institution.

When Do Rental Subsidies or Discounts Count as ISM?

If someone pays all your rent or lets you live in their home or another property—like a condo your brother owns—for free, it counts as in-kind income. But what if you pay a reduced rent? That discount might count as ISM, depending on how much you're actually paying.

If you're paying at least the PMV amount ($342.33 in 2025), Social Security will consider it as a "business arrangement" and won't count any discount or rent reduction you're receiving as in-kind support. It doesn't matter how much your rent is discounted or who you're renting from. (20 C.F.R. § 416.1130(b).)

But if you're paying less than that (say $250, as mentioned in the above example), Social Security will calculate the fair market value of your rent in order to calculate the discount you're getting.

How to Avoid a Reduction of Your SSI Benefits Because of In-Kind Support

The simplest way to avoid a reduction of your SSI benefits because of in-kind support is to avoid receiving anything that counts as ISM. Of course, that's hard to do if you're living with someone who isn't charging you rent. But if someone is paying for your rent or light bill, pay for those things yourself and ask for help with other expenses instead, like:

• phone bills
• cable bills
• internet bills
• transportation
• medication copays, or
• doctors' visits.

However, you can't receive cash for these items or they'll count as gifts. Instead, the family member or friend helping you must make direct payments for these items to the providers (such as your phone company or your doctor).

Other strategies to protect your monthly SSI payment include:

• treating the room and board you're receiving as a loan (which you'd need to repay eventually), or
• establishing an ABLE account (if you became disabled before turning 26). Others can deposit money into your ABLE account without affecting your SSI.

What If You Have Other Unearned Income Plus Free Room and Board?

If you receive other money (besides from working), that income is also subtracted from your SSI benefits—after the one-third reduction or presumed value reduction.

Does Social Security Count Gifts as In-Kind Income?

Social Security will count some types of gifts against your SSI payment, including cash gifts. But you can receive up to $60 in cash per calendar quarter without it lowering your SSI amount—only if the cash gifts are infrequent or irregular.

Social Security considers frequent cash gifts and gifts over $60 as unearned income and will lower your SSI payment by the amount of the gifts, dollar for dollar. And any non-cash gifts you receive that count as in-kind income (like gift cards that can be resold or used to pay rent) are simply valued at their current market value and subtracted from your SSI payment like other income.

Many types of gifts won't count against you, however, including personal gifts of clothing, jewelry, and bus and plane tickets. (20 C.F.R. § 416.1124(c).) In fact, any gift that would be excluded as a resource, such as a computer, a piece of furniture, or a car (if it's your only one), would not be counted as income.

If you do receive a non-cash gift that wouldn't be excluded as an asset, such as a second vehicle, a stock, or a piece of valuable artwork, Social Security will ask you to estimate its value and will treat it as income for the month.

For more information on income rules and financial eligibility for SSI, see our article on SSI income limits.