How to Fill Out and Submit Form SSA-8011: Expenses, Contributions, and Filing

To fill out Form SSA-8011, the Statement of Household Expenses and Contributions, you report the entire household’s average monthly spending across ten expense categories in Part 1, list what the SSI claimant personally pays toward those expenses in Part 2, and answer four yes-or-no questions about food and shelter arrangements in Part 3. A claims representative at your local Social Security field office marks which lines need answers and provides a postage-paid envelope to return it.¹

One thing to know before you pick up a pen: since September 30, 2024, the SSA no longer counts food as in-kind support and maintenance when calculating SSI payments. The form still asks about food, and you still fill in that line, but the food figure will not be used to reduce your benefit. Only shelter costs now factor into that calculation.²

What to Gather Before You Start

The form covers a specific time period that the claims representative writes at the top. You report what the household spent per month during that window. For fixed costs like rent, use the current amount. For costs that fluctuate, like heating oil, use the monthly average.

Pull together:

Your lease or mortgage statement showing the monthly payment.
The property tax bill, if taxes are not rolled into the mortgage. Divide the annual amount by twelve and subtract any rebate or credit.
The property insurance bill, but only if the mortgage holder requires it and it is not already included in the mortgage payment.
Utility bills for electricity, gas, heating fuel, water, sewerage, and garbage removal. Each is reported separately.
The household’s monthly food spending, excluding anything bought with SNAP benefits.

You also need to know exactly who lives in the household and what each person contributes. The SSA divides total household costs by the number of residents to work out each person’s pro-rata share, so an accurate headcount matters.³

Part 1: Monthly Household Expenses

Part 1 has a dollar field next to each of ten categories. Enter the total amount the entire household spends on each item, not just the claimant’s share. The categories, in the order they appear:⁴

Food, excluding food bought with SNAP or food stamps
Rent or mortgage payment
Property insurance, if not included in the mortgage and required by the mortgage holder
Real property taxes, if not included in the mortgage, minus any rebate or credit
Electricity
Gas
Heating fuel (wood, coal, oil, kerosene)
Water
Sewerage
Garbage removal

If the household does not pay separately for a category, enter $0. When an apartment bundles water and sewerage into the rent, put zeros on those lines and note the bundling. Don’t estimate a value for included utilities and add it on top of the rent figure. Part 1 ends with a Total line where you add all ten categories together.

Part 2: Contributions to Household Expenses

Part 2 is about what the claimant actually pays. If a spouse’s or parent’s income can be deemed to the claimant, their contributions count too. The claims representative checks which expense categories need answers, so you may not have to fill in every line.¹

For each checked category, enter the dollar amount the claimant pays toward that specific bill each month. Earmarking matters. “I pay $200 toward rent” is different from “I give my mother $200 for household expenses,” and the SSA treats those situations differently. If the claimant hands over a general contribution that gets applied to several bills, explain that in the remarks section or raise it with the claims representative rather than guessing how to split the amount across lines.

Part 3: Other Arrangements

Part 3 asks four yes-or-no questions:

Does the claimant eat every meal during the month somewhere else?
Does the claimant buy all their own food with their own money?
Does the claimant pay a set amount just for household food? If yes, how much per month?
Does the claimant pay a set amount for household shelter expenses? If yes, how much per month?

These answers help the SSA decide whether the claimant has a sharing arrangement or is receiving a subsidy. When the claimant’s contribution equals or exceeds their pro-rata share of total household operating expenses, sharing exists and the one-third reduction does not apply. The claimant is treated as living in their own household for SSI purposes, even when they share the space with others.⁵

One privacy point: the SSA instructs that the claimant’s full Social Security number should not appear on the form. Use a partial number or whatever format the claims representative specifies in the identification fields.¹

Why Accuracy Cuts Both Ways

The numbers on Form 8011 feed directly into the pro-rata share calculation. Consider a three-person household with $2,400 in total monthly operating expenses. The pro-rata share per person is $800. If the claimant pays at least $800, the SSA treats them as living in their own household and pays the full SSI rate.³

Underreporting the claimant’s contribution or overstating household expenses can push the numbers into subsidy territory and trigger a reduction the claimant does not actually owe. Overreporting the contribution creates a different problem, since the SSA can request receipts, bank statements, or cancelled checks to verify what is on the form. Report what the records show.

Submitting the Form

Form 8011 goes to the local Social Security field office handling the case. In most situations the claims representative provides the form during an in-person or phone interview, marks the sections that need answers, and asks the appropriate household member to complete and return it. The SSA includes a postage-paid return envelope.¹

If you bring the form in person, the field office may capture the information electronically and not keep the paper copy. Photocopy it before handing it over either way. The claims representative may follow up to verify figures, and having your own copy avoids reconstructing answers from memory. Expect a request for original receipts or bank statements if something on the form doesn’t match other information in the claimant’s file.

What Happens After You Submit

Once the SSA processes the form, a written notice arrives if the agency plans to change the benefit amount. The notice specifies the dollar amount of any reduction and the reason for it, and no change takes effect without that advance notice.⁶

Form 8011 is not a one-time filing. The SSA redetermines eligibility and benefit amounts for most SSI recipients every one to six years, and a redetermination brings fresh questions about the claimant’s living arrangement and household expenses. Expect requests for updated lease agreements, utility bills, and receipts during those reviews.⁷

Between reviews, changes still need to be reported. If the claimant moves, a household member leaves, or someone starts or stops paying part of the shelter costs, the change must be reported no later than 10 days after the end of the month in which it happened.⁸ Late or missed reports carry escalating penalties: $25 for the first failure, $50 for the second, and $100 for each one after that. Unreported changes often create overpayments that the SSA later recovers from future benefits.⁹

1
Social Security Administration. SSA Code SI 00835.625 – SSA-8011 Statement of Household Expenses and Contributions
2
Federal Register. Omitting Food From In-Kind Support and Maintenance Calculations
3
Social Security Administration. 20 CFR 416.1133 – What Is a Pro Rata Share of Household Operating Expenses
4
Social Security Administration. SSA Form 8011 Statement of Household Expenses and Contributions
5
Social Security Administration. Program Operations Manual System (POMS) – SI 00835.160 Sharing
6
Social Security Administration. Understanding Supplemental Security Income Social Security Notices and Letters
7
Social Security Administration. Understanding Supplemental Security Income Redeterminations
8
Social Security Administration. Understanding Supplemental Security Income Reporting Responsibilities
9
Social Security Administration. POMS SI 02301.100 – Assessing Penalties