A student under 22 who gets Supplemental Security Income can set aside up to $9,730 of earnings in 2026 before those wages cut the benefit. The Social Security Administration caps the exclusion at $2,410 a month, and it stops at $9,730 for the year. The rule matters to families where a teenager or young adult on SSI has a part-time or summer job.
What the student exclusion covers
SSA’s page on how income counts for SSI lists the exclusion as earnings up to $2,410 per month, to a maximum of $9,730 per year, effective January 2026, for a student under age 22. The agency’s student earned income exclusion spotlight says the provision lets a person who is under age 22 and regularly attending school exclude earnings from income.
The spotlight also covers students who are homebound. They can count as students if they take a course from a school, college, university or government agency and have a home visitor or tutor. Earnings that fall under the cap do not reduce the SSI payment.
Can a grandchild work and keep SSI?
For a student under 22 who is regularly attending school, yes, within the limits. A grandparent or parent managing the household budget needs to know that there are two caps, not one. The monthly cap is $2,410, and the yearly cap is $9,730, which is far less than twelve times the monthly figure.
The arithmetic shows how the limits work together. Twelve months at $2,410 would be $28,920, but the yearly cap is $9,730. A student who earns $2,410 a month hits the yearly maximum after four full months and a small part of a fifth. After that, the exclusion is used up for the year.
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What happens to wages above the cap
Earnings above the student limits are not counted in full. The spotlight says the student exclusion applies before any other exclusion. Wages over the limits still get the standard earned income rules, which exclude the first $65 of earnings in a month and one half of the earnings over $65.
SSA’s example on the spotlight page shows a student excluding up to the monthly limit each month until the yearly limit is reached. Once that happens, later paychecks are treated like any other wages on SSI, and the benefit begins to shrink as the countable amount rises.
A short example shows the order. Take a student who earns $3,000 in a month. Under SSA’s stated order, the first $2,410 is set aside by the student exclusion. That leaves $590. The standard earned income rule then excludes $65 and half of the remaining $525, which is $262.50, so about $262.50 of that month’s earnings counts toward the benefit.
The same student earning $1,000 in a month has nothing left to count after the exclusion, as long as the year’s total stays under the $9,730 cap. The monthly cap and the yearly cap have to be tracked together, and the paystubs are the record that shows where a student stands in the year. These figures are illustrations of SSA’s published steps, not a prediction of any one person’s award.
The numbers change every January
The exclusion is not a fixed dollar amount. The spotlight says SSA usually adjusts the monthly amount and the yearly limit each year, based on increases in the cost-of-living index. In January 2025 the amounts were $2,350 a month and $9,460 a year. In January 2026 they rose to $2,410 and $9,730. That is $60 more a month and $270 more a year than a student could set aside in 2025. The 2027 amounts in SSA’s manual are $90 higher a month and $350 higher a year than 2026.
SSA’s operations manual already lists the next step. Section SI 00820.510 on the student earned income exclusion, revised Oct. 15, 2026, shows $2,500 a month and $10,080 a year for 2027. SSA’s public income page still shows the 2026 amounts, so a family planning a student’s summer job for next year is working from the higher manual figures, and the $9,730 cap applies only through this December.
Who qualifies and who does not
The age line is firm. The exclusion applies to a person under age 22, and SSA’s manual describes it as covering a working student on a record. A 22-year-old who is still in school does not get it. A 21-year-old who has left school does not either, since the rule requires regular attendance.
The exclusion is also about earnings. SSA’s income page defines unearned income as all income that is not earned, and it names Social Security benefits, pensions and interest as examples. Those still count against the SSI benefit under the usual rules, with the benefit worked out by subtracting countable income from the federal benefit rate.
For questions about a specific student, SSA lists a toll-free number, 1-800-772-1213, for general information. The TTY line is 1-800-325-0778.
Student job about to cut a benefit?
A student’s paychecks can run past the monthly or yearly cap without anyone noticing, and the SSI payment starts to shrink once the exclusion is used up. Families end up guessing at the numbers.
The SSI & Disability Action Kit is a 74-page guide that includes the 2026 SSI income and resource limits and an income and resource organizer for keeping a student’s monthly earnings in one place.
Get the student-earnings rules and income organizer for SSI →
This article was produced with AI assistance and edited for accuracy against the sources linked above.
