SSI Exempt Assets and Resource Exclusions: Home, Vehicle, Trusts

Supplemental Security Income counts almost everything you own toward a $2,000 resource limit for an individual and $3,000 for a couple, but a specific list of SSI exempt assets stays off the ledger entirely: your home, one vehicle, household goods and personal effects, burial spaces and up to $1,500 in burial funds, limited life insurance, ABLE account balances up to $100,000, properly drafted special needs trusts, and property you use to earn a living.¹ The limits and the exclusion list have not changed since 1989.² Everything not on the list counts, and even one dollar above the limit makes you ineligible for that month.

Your Home and the Land It Sits On

The home you live in is fully excluded no matter what it’s worth.³ A house worth half a million dollars doesn’t disqualify you if you live in it. The exclusion covers the land underneath, any adjoining land, and structures on that land like garages, sheds, or barns. There is no acreage cap as long as the land is part of your residential property.

A temporary absence — a hospital stay, staying with family during recovery — doesn’t break the exclusion as long as you intend to return, and the exclusion also continues while your spouse still lives there. What the home exclusion does not cover is a second property. A vacation home, an inherited house you don’t live in, or a rental you own is a countable resource unless it qualifies under a different rule.

One Vehicle, Household Goods, and Personal Effects

SSA excludes one vehicle used for transportation by you or a household member, regardless of value or age.³ Cars, trucks, vans, and motorcycles all qualify. A second vehicle is where people get squeezed: SSA counts its equity — trade-in value minus what you still owe — against your $2,000 limit, and even a modest second car will usually exceed that. Vehicles specifically needed for medical treatment or modified for a disability may be treated differently, but the default rule counts the second vehicle.

Furniture, appliances, electronics, clothing, jewelry, books, and hobby equipment are fully excluded regardless of value.³ You generally don’t need appraisals for ordinary household belongings during eligibility reviews.

Burial Spaces and Burial Funds

Cemetery plots, crypts, caskets, urns, vaults, and headstones are excluded with no dollar cap, and the exclusion covers items purchased for you, your spouse, and immediate family members.⁴

Burial funds are treated separately. You can set aside up to $1,500 for burial expenses, and your spouse can do the same.⁴ The money has to be clearly designated, either in a separate account, in a signed statement, or in a prepaid burial contract. Interest earned stays excluded. Spend any of the designated money on something other than burial expenses and it loses its protected status.

Life Insurance

The life insurance rule is narrower than most people expect. If the total face value of all policies you own on any one person is $1,500 or less, the cash surrender value of those policies is excluded.⁵ Term policies and burial insurance don’t factor into the calculation because they have no cash surrender value.

Once face value on a single insured person crosses $1,500, the full cash surrender value of every policy on that person becomes countable. A whole life policy with a $5,000 face value has its entire cash surrender value counted, even if that value is only a few hundred dollars. Face value is the trigger, not the cash you’d actually receive.

ABLE Accounts

An Achieving a Better Life Experience account is one of the strongest savings tools available to SSI recipients, and eligibility just widened. Starting January 1, 2026, anyone whose disability began before age 46 can open one, up from the previous age-26 cutoff.⁶ That change roughly triples the eligible population.

The first $100,000 in an ABLE account is excluded from SSI resources.⁶ If the balance goes above $100,000, SSI payments are suspended, not terminated, and resume once the balance drops back below. Medicaid usually continues regardless of the account balance. Money in the account can pay for qualified disability expenses including housing, education, transportation, and health care.

Contributions are capped at $19,000 in 2026, matching the federal gift tax exclusion.⁶ Working account holders who aren’t in an employer retirement plan can contribute more than that, up to the lesser of their annual earnings or the federal poverty level for a one-person household in their state (roughly $15,650 in the continental U.S. for 2026). Contributions can come from the account holder, family, friends, or a special needs trust.

Special Needs Trusts and Pooled Trusts

A properly drafted trust can hold assets for a disabled person without touching SSI eligibility, but the requirements are strict and getting them wrong makes the entire trust a countable resource.

First-Party Special Needs Trusts

A first-party trust holds the disabled person’s own money, typically from an inheritance or lawsuit settlement. To qualify for the exclusion, the beneficiary must be disabled and under age 65 when the trust is established, and the trust must benefit only that individual during their lifetime.⁷ Since December 2016, the beneficiary can set up their own trust; before that, only a parent, grandparent, legal guardian, or court could.

The provision that catches families off guard is Medicaid payback. The trust document must state that when the beneficiary dies, remaining funds reimburse the state for Medicaid paid on their behalf, before any other debts or heirs.⁷ Labeling a document a “Medicaid payback trust” or citing the statute isn’t enough. The specific payback language has to be written in.

Pooled Trusts

A pooled trust is run by a nonprofit that keeps separate accounts for each beneficiary but invests the funds collectively. There is no age cap on joining, which matters for someone over 65 who can’t create a first-party trust.⁷ Transferring assets into a pooled trust after age 65 may still trigger a transfer penalty (see below). The same Medicaid payback rule applies to funds not retained by the trust after the beneficiary dies.

Property You Use to Earn a Living

Property used in a trade or business is excluded with no dollar limit. Tools, equipment, inventory, livestock, machinery, and the land or buildings used in the business all qualify.⁸ Forcing someone to liquidate their livelihood would defeat the point of the program.

Property that produces income outside a trade or business, like a rental, gets a smaller break. SSA excludes up to $6,000 of your equity, but only if the property returns at least 6 percent a year on the excluded equity.⁹ Multiple properties are evaluated one at a time for the 6 percent test, then equity from the qualifying properties is totaled. Anything above $6,000 counts. Property you use to produce goods for personal consumption, like a food garden, is also excluded. Bank accounts don’t qualify under this exclusion even if they fund a business; the rule applies to tangible property.

Plan to Achieve Self-Support

A Plan to Achieve Self-Support, or PASS, lets you set aside income or resources for a specific work goal without counting them against the resource limit.¹⁰ Common goals include starting a business, paying for vocational training, or buying equipment for employment. SSA has to approve the plan, which must describe the occupational goal, the steps, and a timeline.

Resources set aside under an approved PASS are excluded for as long as the plan is active. If you hold the money in a bank account, it has to be used only for the plan and can’t be mixed with other funds.¹⁰

Lump Sums With a Ticking Clock

Several kinds of payments are protected only for a limited window. Miss the deadline and whatever’s left becomes a countable resource. SSA doesn’t send reminders when a temporary exclusion is about to expire, so the dates below are worth marking.

Retroactive SSI and Disability Payments

A lump-sum retroactive payment from SSI or Social Security Disability Insurance is excluded for nine months after the month you receive it.¹¹ After that, whatever remains counts. The nine months are your chance to pay down debts, buy excluded assets, or move funds into an ABLE account.¹²

Federal Tax Refunds

Federal tax refunds, including refunds from the Earned Income Tax Credit and Child Tax Credit, are excluded for 12 months after the month of receipt.¹³ After that, unspent refund money counts.

Grants, Scholarships, and Educational Gifts

Grants, scholarships, fellowships, and gifts used for tuition, fees, or other educational expenses are excluded for nine months after receipt.¹⁴ The exclusion does not cover any part of the money spent on food or shelter, which counts as both income and a resource under standard rules.¹⁵

Disaster Assistance and Crime Victims’ Compensation

Federal disaster assistance under the Stafford Act, and comparable state, local, or private disaster relief, is permanently excluded as long as it was also excludable from income.¹⁶¹⁷¹⁸ You have to be able to show the payment was compensation for losses tied to the qualifying event.

Joint Bank Accounts

Joint accounts are one of the fastest ways to lose SSI. If you’re the only SSI claimant on a joint account, SSA presumes all the money belongs to you, not just your share.¹⁹ A joint account holding $5,000 can disqualify you immediately even if $4,500 of it belongs to the other account holder.

You can rebut that presumption, but SSA wants written statements from every account holder about who owns what, why the account is joint, who has deposited and withdrawn money, and how withdrawn funds were spent, along with account records covering the disputed months. If SSA agrees you own none of the funds, you have to remove your name from the account. If you own a portion, you have to move your share into a solely owned account.¹⁹ The cleaner solution is to stay off joint accounts.

Parents’ Resources and Children on SSI

When a child under 18 applies for SSI and lives with a parent, some of the parent’s resources are treated as belonging to the child. This is called deeming.²⁰ A stepparent’s resources are included when the biological or adoptive parent also lives in the home. Deeming stops the month after the child turns 18.

Not everything gets deemed. The family home, one vehicle, and burial arrangements are excluded under the standard rules. Retirement accounts — IRAs, 401(k)s, Keogh plans, and other pension funds — owned by an ineligible parent or the parent’s spouse are excluded from deeming, along with the dividends and interest they generate.²¹ Worth noting: this retirement-fund exclusion applies to the parent’s or spouse’s accounts. An adult SSI applicant’s own retirement accounts are generally countable, because they don’t appear on the statutory exclusion list.

Giving Assets Away: Transfer Penalties

You can’t give assets away or sell them below market value to qualify for SSI. SSA looks back 36 months from your initial claim date and presumes any such transfer was made to get benefits.²² The penalty period begins the first day of the month after the transfer and can last up to 36 months, depending on the uncompensated value.

You can beat the presumption with evidence that the transfer had nothing to do with SSI. Situations that may support a defense include:

A court ordered the transfer and you didn’t ask the court to do so.
You became disabled after the transfer from an accident or a newly diagnosed condition and couldn’t have foreseen needing SSI.
You unexpectedly lost income or resources after the transfer that would otherwise have kept you off SSI.
You transferred resources to a religious order under a vow of poverty.
Even keeping the transferred asset, your total resources would have stayed under $2,000 (or $3,000 for a couple).

A shorter review applies when the transferred item was worth less than $2,000 ($3,000 for couples) and your total resources including that item would have stayed under the limit at the time.²³

Selling Property You Can’t Immediately Liquidate

If you own non-liquid property that puts you over the limit — a second parcel of land, say — SSA may keep paying benefits while you sell it. You sign a written agreement to dispose of the property, and SSA gives you nine months to find a buyer.²⁴ These conditional payments have to be repaid from the sale proceeds.

SSA expects real effort. You have to list with an agent or actively advertise within 30 days of signing the agreement. Turning down an offer at two-thirds or more of estimated market value requires an explanation. Stop making reasonable efforts to sell and the conditional benefits end, with the full amount owed back.²⁴

Reporting Resource Changes

Any change in your resources has to be reported by the 10th day of the month after the change.²⁵ An inheritance, a new bank account, a settlement, a gift — all of it. Failing to report a change that puts you over the resource limit creates an overpayment, and SSA will demand repayment. If you can’t pay in full and you’re still receiving benefits, SSA withholds a portion of your monthly check until the balance is recovered. If your SSI has stopped, the debt can come out of a federal tax refund or future Social Security benefits, and it stays with you into any later period of eligibility.²⁶

1
Social Security Administration. 2026 Cost-of-Living Adjustment (COLA) Fact Sheet
2
Social Security Administration. POMS SI 01110.003 – Resources Limits for SSI Benefits
3
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 42 USC 1382b – Resources
4
Cornell Law Institute. 20 CFR Part 416 Subpart L
5
Social Security Administration. POMS SI 01130.300 – Developing Life Insurance Policies
6
Social Security Administration. Spotlight on Achieving a Better Life Experience (ABLE) Accounts
7
Social Security Administration. Exceptions to Counting Trusts Established on or After January 1, 2000
8
Social Security Administration. 20 CFR 416.1220 – Property Essential to Self-Support
9
eCFR. 20 CFR 416.1222 – How Income-Producing Property Essential to Self-Support Is Counted
10
Social Security Administration. Plan to Achieve Self-Support (PASS) Exclusions
11
Social Security Administration. 20 CFR 416.1233 – Exclusion of Certain Underpayments from Resources
12
Social Security Administration. POMS SI 01130.600 – Retroactive SSI and RSDI Payments
13
Social Security Administration. POMS SI 01130.676 – Federal Tax Refunds and Advance Tax Credits for SSI Resources
14
Social Security Administration. 20 CFR 416.1250 – How We Count Grants, Scholarships, Fellowships or Gifts
15
Social Security Administration. POMS SI 01130.455 – Grants, Scholarships, Fellowships, and Gifts
16
Social Security Administration. POMS SI 01130.620 – Disaster Assistance
17
Social Security Administration. POMS SI 01130.665 – Victims’ Compensation Payments
18
Social Security Administration. POMS – Victims’ Compensation Payments and State or Local Relocation Assistance
19
Social Security Administration. 20 CFR 416.1208 – How Funds Held in Financial Institution Accounts Are Counted
20
Social Security Administration. Spotlight on Deeming Parental Income and Resources
21
Social Security Administration. POMS SI 01330.220 – Deeming Parent-to-Child Exclusions from Resources
22
Social Security Administration. POMS SI 01150.110 – Period of Ineligibility for Transfers on or After 12/14/99
23
Social Security Administration. POMS SI 01150.125 – Exceptions – Transfers for Purposes Other Than to Obtain SSI
24
Social Security Administration. 20 CFR 416.1245 – Conditional Benefits
25
Social Security Administration. Report Changes to Your Situation While on SSI
26
Social Security Administration. Understanding Supplemental Security Income Overpayments