Supplemental Security Income will set aside more of a working student’s pay in 2027. Social Security’s new figures put the student earned-income exclusion at $2,500 a month, up from $2,410 in 2026. A yearly ceiling of $10,080 sits on top of that monthly limit, so the two numbers work together.

What is the SSI student earned-income exclusion?

Social Security’s 2027 fact sheet, published October 14, 2026, lists the exclusion for a student under 22 who attends school regularly. For 2027 it is $2,500 a month and $10,080 a year. For 2026 the figures were $2,410 a month and $9,730 a year.

The exclusion is a cap on the earnings that are set aside, not a payment. It does not hand a student $2,500. It tells Social Security to leave that much of a student’s wages out of the income it counts when it works out the SSI check.

The rise is $90 a month and $350 a year. That is small, but it matters to a family where a teenager works summers, or a college student under 22 holds a part-time job during the school year.

So how much can a student earn next year before it affects the SSI check? Under the 2027 figures, the first $2,500 of pay in a month is excluded, and the exclusion stops once $10,080 has been excluded in the calendar year. Pay beyond either limit is no longer set aside by this rule. Parents and guardians tracking a student’s paychecks have to watch both numbers at once.

Retirement deadlines, in your inbox: Miss an enrollment or claim deadline and the money can be gone. Join the Retirement Money Brief and we’ll send you our SSI & Disability Income Checkup as a welcome gift.

Get the Brief + the SSI checkup →

We may earn a commission from links on this page.

How far does $10,080 a year go?

The arithmetic shows why the yearly ceiling matters more than the monthly one. A student who earns $2,500 every month for four months has used $10,000 of the $10,080 annual limit. After a fifth month at that pay, the exclusion has run out, and later earnings in the year are counted.

The same four-month pattern in 2026 uses $9,640 of the $9,730 limit. A student who works full time in summer and then drops to a few shifts a week in the fall will often stay under the monthly figure and still run into the yearly one.

A student who earns less, say $1,000 a month, stays far below the monthly cap. At that pace the annual ceiling does not run out until the eleventh month. Which limit bites first depends on the pay pattern, which is why a month-by-month running total is the simplest way to keep track.

What else changed in Social Security’s 2027 SSI numbers?

The same fact sheet says beneficiaries will receive a 3.6 percent cost-of-living adjustment for 2027. The SSI federal payment standard rises from $994 to $1,029 a month for an individual, and from $1,491 to $1,544 for a couple.

The SSI resource limits do not change. They stay at $2,000 for an individual and $3,000 for a couple in both years. A student’s savings and bank balance are measured against those limits separately from earnings.

Two disability work figures on the sheet moved as well. Substantial gainful activity, the monthly earnings line Social Security uses for disability, goes from $1,690 to $1,770 for non-blind workers and from $2,830 to $2,950 for blind workers. The monthly trial work period amount rises from $1,210 to $1,270.

Who counts as a student under this rule?

The fact sheet describes the exclusion as covering a student under 22 who attends school regularly. A worker who is 22 or older, or a younger person who is not attending school, does not fall under it.

The 2027 rates start in January 2027, so the $2,410 and $9,730 figures still apply to pay earned for the rest of 2026. Families whose students work through the holiday season have two sets of limits to keep straight over the next three months.

Social Security’s fact sheet is the place the figures come from, and it gives the dollar limits but not a month-by-month schedule for any one student. That is the open question for a family: which month of 2027 the $10,080 will run out for their student.

Tracking a student’s paychecks against both SSI limits?

A student can stay under $2,500 in every single month and still pass $10,080 for the year. When pay passes either limit, the excess starts counting against the SSI check, and a family that tracks only one number finds out when the payment changes.

The SSI & Disability Action Kit covers the rules for working without losing benefits, plus an income and resource organizer for keeping a running total of what a student earns. It also lays out the 2026 SSI income and resource limits, with review and reporting steps for each.

Get the working-student SSI earnings kit and income organizer →

More Financial Reading

• 21 Ways to Stretch a $2,087 Social Security Check
• 15 Places to Find Your Share of the $4.25 Billion States Give Back
• 15 Ways Out of 22% Credit Card Interest

This article was produced with AI assistance and edited for accuracy against the sources linked above.