Lease Agreement

A fair share is your loved one's part of the household shelter costs. Add the rent or mortgage, property taxes, property insurance if the mortgage requires it, and the heating and utility bills. Divide that total by the number of people who live there.

If your loved one pays that share, Social Security generally does not count the housing as income. The lease only helps if the payment is real. Keep a simple record, even when it is a transfer between family accounts.

The full federal SSI rate for one person in 2026 is $994 a month, before other income. That figure is the federal benefit rate.

In-kind support and maintenance is shelter that someone else provides. It can be free rent, or help with the mortgage, electricity, gas, or heating fuel. Social Security counts that help as income when it figures the SSI payment.

Since September 30, 2024, food is no longer part of that count. Groceries from the family do not, by themselves, lower the check. Shelter still can.

Social Security does not count the whole rent. It uses a cap called the presumed maximum value. The cap is one-third of the federal benefit rate plus $20. In 2026 that cap is $351.33 a month.

If the real value of the shelter is lower than $351.33, Social Security counts the lower amount. The $20 general income exclusion can reduce it further. A check can fall by less than the cap. It does not fall by more than the cap under this rule.

A different rule, the one-third reduction, can apply when your loved one lives in another person's household for a full month and receives both food and shelter there. That rule lowers the 2026 federal rate by $331.33, to $662.67. A lease your loved one actually pays is how families stay on the full rate instead.

• In 2026, charge at least $351.33 a month if the landlord is a parent or a child of someone in the home. That includes an adult child. The amount is the presumed maximum value: one-third of the $994 federal rate, plus $20. It changes each year.
• If the rent is lower than $351.33, and lower than what a similar place would rent for, Social Security can still count the gap as help with housing. The reduction stops at that cap.
• Paying more does not lower SSI, and it does not raise it. Pick an amount your loved one can afford.
• The rent should also cover at least your loved one's share of the household shelter costs. Add the rent or mortgage, property taxes, insurance the mortgage requires, heat, gas, electricity, water, sewer, and trash. Divide by the people in the home.
• Their payment doesn't have to match their share exactly. Coming within $20 is close enough.

• A lease on paper is not enough. The rent has to be paid every month.
• A bank transfer or a check makes the strongest record.
• Cash works too, with a receipt each month signed by the family member who is the landlord. The receipt should show the date, the amount, the month covered, and the address.
• Keep every receipt or statement. Social Security may ask for them.

The download is a blank lease agreement. Names, the address, the dates, and the amounts are empty. Fill them in for your household, sign it, and keep a copy.

This form is not a benefits decision, and it is not legal advice. Rules can vary, and Social Security decides the payment.

Social Security explains living arrangements on ssa.gov.