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Benefits

The money side: what your child may be entitled to each month, how the income test really works, and how to save for them without losing it.

Apply anyway — the income test is not the one you thinkRead more +

If you read nothing else: apply for SSI, even if you are fairly sure you earn too much. The income test is not the one most parents assume — it runs on a deemed figure after several deductions, not on your salary — and in much of the country an SSI approval is also what opens the door to Medicaid. Being turned down costs you an afternoon. Not applying can cost you both.

Federal rules, state detailsRead more +

This page is about money: the cash benefit your child may be entitled to, and the account that lets you save for them without losing it. The other half — Medicaid and EPSDT, waivers, CHIP, and what IDEA obliges your school district to do — is on our benefits and legal support page, and it is linked from each section here rather than repeated. SSI itself is federal and works the same way in every state. What your state adds on top of it, and whether an SSI approval brings Medicaid with it automatically, is set state by state.

Supplemental Security Income — the monthly payment for a disabled child

A federal cash benefit of up to $994 a month in 2026. Two tests have to be met: a medical one about your child, and a financial one about your household.

SSI is a monthly payment from the Social Security Administration for people with disabilities and very limited income, and children under 18 can qualify in their own right. For 2026 the federal benefit rate is $994 a month for one person, following a 2.8% cost-of-living increase. Some states add a supplement on top, so the actual amount where you live may be higher.

These figures change every January. Check SSA's own rates page, linked in the sources below, before relying on a number here.

The medical test is set out in the regulation itself. A child under 18 counts as disabled if they have a medically determinable physical or mental impairment, or combination of impairments, that causes "marked and severe functional limitations", and that has lasted or is expected to last at least 12 continuous months, or is expected to result in death.

"Marked and severe functional limitations" is the whole test, and it is about function rather than diagnosis. An autism diagnosis does not by itself qualify a child, and the absence of one does not by itself disqualify them. What SSA is deciding is how much your child's day is limited compared with another child their age — which is, in substance, the same question the UK asks for DLA.
The financial test, and why "we earn too much" is usually a guess

A child living at home is assessed on their own income and resources plus a portion of their parents' — a process called deeming. Deeming is not the same as counting your salary. It works through a sequence of deductions first, and what survives the sequence is a good deal smaller than what you earn.

  • Start with the parents' gross income.
  • Take off an allocation for each child in the home who does not get SSI — $497 each in 2026.
  • Apply the standard exclusions: $20 general, then $65 of earned income, then half of everything left.
  • Take off a living allowance for the parents themselves — $994 for one parent, $1,491 for two.
  • Only what remains after all of that is deemed to the child, and it reduces the child's payment rather than cancelling the claim outright.

There is also a resource limit — $2,000 in countable resources for an individual — but a great deal is not countable, including the home you live in and normally one car.

Because of the deductions and the per-child allocation, families are routinely wrong about whether they qualify, and larger families and single-parent households are wrong in the direction that costs them money. Apply and let SSA run the arithmetic.
How to apply

You start online, on SSA's site, but you cannot finish there — the application has to be completed by phone or in person. The online part is the Child Disability Report, which is where you set out your child's condition, their schools, and the doctors and therapists who have seen them.

Have the medical and school contacts to hand before you start. SSA requests the records itself, so the completeness of that list is one of the few parts of the process you directly control.

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What an SSI approval opens up

In much of the country the health coverage matters more than the cash — and there are routes into Medicaid that do not depend on SSI at all.

For many families the most valuable part of an SSI decision is not the monthly payment. It is what the approval connects to — above all Medicaid, and with Medicaid the EPSDT rule, which can require your state to cover medically necessary treatment for a child under 21 even where the state plan does not otherwise cover it for anyone.

Whether an SSI approval enrols your child in Medicaid automatically, or whether you have to apply separately, depends on your state — the two arrangements are commonly called 1634 states and 209(b) states. We are not naming which yours is here, because we could not verify a current state-by-state list against a primary source, and a wrong answer on this sends a family away from coverage they are entitled to. Ask your state Medicaid agency directly.
If your income is too high for SSI, that is not the end of the Medicaid question. Katie Beckett / TEFRA pathways and 1915(c) waivers exist precisely to let a disabled child qualify on their own circumstances rather than the household's. Those, EPSDT and CHIP are covered in full on our benefits and legal support page.
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ABLE accounts — saving without losing the benefit

The $2,000 resource limit is what stops most families saving anything. An ABLE account is the legal way around it.

An ABLE account, set up under Section 529A of the tax code, lets a disabled person hold savings that need-based benefits do not count against them. Up to $100,000 in an ABLE account is excluded from the SSI resource limit — the limit that would otherwise stop you putting aside more than $2,000 for your child without jeopardising their payment.

The money is not restricted to medical spending. It can go on education, housing, transport, assistive technology, employment support and more. ABLE funds do not affect eligibility for SSI, Medicaid, Medicare, SSDI, SNAP, HUD assistance or FAFSA.

The eligibility rule changed in 2026 and this is the single most useful thing on this page for families who looked at ABLE before and were turned away. The disability must have begun before age 46 — raised from age 26. A very large number of people who did not qualify under the old rule now do.

You meet the eligibility test either by already receiving SSI or SSDI, or by having a licensed physician sign a disability certification recording marked and severe functional limitations beginning before age 46.

One thing to go in with your eyes open about: Medicaid payback. When the account holder dies, Medicaid may claim reimbursement from what is left for services provided after the account was opened. Accounts are run state by state and most states let non-residents join, so it is worth comparing plans on fees and investment options before opening one.
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What happens at 18 — and why it can work in your favour

SSA re-decides the case against the adult test. Parental income stops being deemed at the same moment.

When a child receiving SSI turns 18, SSA reviews the case again and applies the adult definition of disability rather than the child one. The two tests are genuinely different: the child test asks about marked and severe functional limitations compared with other children, the adult test asks about the ability to work. An award can be lost at this point, and families are rarely warned it is coming.

The same birthday cuts the other way too. Deeming of parental income stops at 18, because your child is now assessed as an adult on their own income and resources. A young person who never qualified as a child because the household earned too much may qualify at 18 on exactly the same family finances. If you were turned down years ago, apply again.

This sits alongside the education transition rather than separately from it. IDEA entitlements run to age 21 or 22 depending on the state, and transition planning is part of the IEP — covered on our benefits and legal support page.

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Health coverage, school services and your rights

The other half of what your child is entitled to — Medicaid and the EPSDT rule, waivers when your income is “too high”, CHIP, and what IDEA obliges your school district to do — is covered in full on our benefits and legal support page, with the free federally funded advocates who help you enforce it. If your child is newly diagnosed, start with the step-by-step pathway.

This is general information gathered from the sources linked above, not legal or financial advice, and it isn't a substitute for advice on your family's specific situation. SSI amounts change every January and state rules vary — check the linked source before relying on a figure. Every claim on this page was last checked against its source on 2026-09-20.