Supplemental Security Income sets its monthly federal benefit rate by dividing a yearly amount by 12 and dropping the cents. For 2027, that works out to $1,029 a month for an individual and $1,544 a month for a couple. Every dollar of other income a person has is then measured against that rate, which is why a small pension can shrink an SSI check by nearly the same amount.

How the federal rate gets its whole dollars

The Social Security Administration publishes the figures on its SSI federal payment amounts page. The agency says the new unrounded amounts are divided by 12 and the resulting amounts are rounded down to the next lower multiple of $1. The page lists the yearly unrounded rate for 2026 as $11,929.46 for an individual and $17,892.21 for a couple.

For 2027, the unrounded yearly amounts are $12,358.92 for an individual and $18,536.33 for a couple. Divide the individual figure by 12 and the result is $1,029.91. SSA drops the 91 cents and sets the rate at $1,029. The couple figure divides to $1,544.69, and the rate becomes $1,544.

The rounding always goes down. A rate that works out to $994.12 becomes $994, which is the individual rate SSA uses in its own worked examples for 2026. The same rule, applied to the yearly figure, sets the number every SSI recipient starts from.

The rounding applies to the rate, not the check

The whole-dollar step belongs to the rate. It does not mean every payment is a round number. SSA’s operations manual, in section SI 02009.005, Rounding of Payments, says that when a payment amount would include a fraction of a cent, the agency raises it to the next higher cent.

The same section treats income the other way. When income with a fractional cent is entered in a recipient’s record, the fractional cent is removed, and the manual says income should not be rounded up. In practice, the rate falls to a whole dollar, income is cut to the cent and the payment is figured to the cent from there. For a recipient, the question is why a small pension or gift cuts the check by almost the same amount.

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Why a small pension cuts SSI almost dollar for dollar

SSA’s page on how income affects SSI says the more countable income a person has, the less the SSI benefit will be. Unearned income is all income that is not earned, and SSA lists Social Security benefits, pensions and interest as examples. The benefit is figured in two steps. First, the agency subtracts income that is not counted from total gross income, and the remainder is countable income. Second, it subtracts countable income from the federal benefit rate.

That second subtraction is the answer for anyone asking why a small pension seems to take back almost everything. After the small amount SSA does not count, unearned income reduces the check by what is left. A recipient who starts receiving a $200 monthly pension is not $200 better off. Most of that money moves from the SSI payment to the pension.

A worked example from SSA

SSA’s own Example A on the income page shows the steps. It starts with $300 of income, marks $20 of it as not counted and leaves $280 in countable income. The federal benefit rate of $994 minus $280 gives a monthly SSI benefit of $714.

The $20 appears in the page’s examples as an amount that is not counted, but the page does not label it in a separate row. Anyone checking an award letter against SSA’s arithmetic should expect that first small slice of most income to drop out before the subtraction starts.

SSA’s page calls the result of the second subtraction the monthly SSI federal benefit. The earned income rule is also stated per month, as earnings received in a month. The arithmetic is monthly from start to finish, so a change in income shows up in the check for the month it applies, and the same subtraction repeats every month after.

Wages are treated differently

Earnings get a more generous rule. The SSA page says the first $65 of earnings and one half of earnings over $65 received in a month are excluded. A worker is therefore not hit dollar for dollar, which is why a part-time job usually leaves a recipient with more total money than a pension of the same size.

The gap between the two rules explains many confusing statements. Two people with the same $500 a month in other income can see very different SSI checks if one of them earns it from a job and the other gets it from a pension or an annuity. The income page is the place to check which category a payment falls into.

The rates also change each year. SSA’s page shows the 2027 amounts of $1,029 and $1,544 alongside the 2026 yearly figures, so a recipient comparing a letter from this year with one for next year will see the starting point move before any outside income is counted.

Payment dropping every time other money arrives?

The federal rate is a fixed starting number, and countable income decides how much of it is left. When a pension, annuity or other income starts or changes, the SSI payment can fall by most of the new amount.

The SSI & Disability Action Kit is a 74-page guide that covers the 2026 SSI income and resource limits, the review and reporting steps, and the rules for working without losing benefits, with an income and resource organizer for tracking what comes in each month.

Get the SSI income-counting guide with the income and resource organizer →

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