Will I Lose My SSI if I Inherit a House?

As a Supplemental Security Income (SSI) recipient, should you be concerned about losing your benefits if you inherit a home?

If you already own a home when you inherit another one, it could put you over the resource limit for SSI, making you lose your benefits. However, if you move into the inherited home as your primary residence, the Social Security Administration (SGA) won’t count it against you as a resource. Selling homes while getting SSI can temporarily complicate eligibility, and our lawyers can help recipients plan and prepare for these changes. Disclaiming an inheritance while on SSI might have adverse effects, so do not take such steps before confirming doing so is the right course of action.

For a free and confidential case assessment, call Young, Marr, Mallis & Associates’ disability lawyers at (215) 515-2954 or (609) 557-3081 today.

Will Inheriting a House Make You Lose Your SSI?

Inheriting a house could make you lose your SSI, as eligibility is based on need. The Social Security Administration considers a recipient’s income and resources when giving SSI, and inheriting a home could put your aggregate assets over the threshold.

To qualify for Supplemental Security Income, your total resources, or the things you own, may not exceed $2,000 for individuals or $3,000 for couples. Thresholds differ when parents apply for SSI on behalf of their children. This applies to most assets, like vehicles and personal property. Generally speaking, the SSA won’t count your primary residence toward your resources for SSI eligibility. If you inherit a home and do not move into it as your primary residence, the SSA would count the home as an additional resource, potentially revoking your monthly SSI payments.

Inheriting assets other than homes to make your primary residence could put you over the resource limit for SSI. There are ways to prevent this, such as by establishing Special Needs Trusts to place inheritances into or spending down small inheritances to purchase resources that won’t count against you, like one vehicle for you to drive.

While SSI is a need-based program, other Social Security benefits are not, meaning an inheritance will not affect eligibility. For example, if you suffered a disabling injury and can no longer work after paying Social Security taxes for years, you may qualify for Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI). While income is still limited for SSDI recipients, inheriting a home won’t affect their monthly benefits or continued eligibility.

What to Do if You Inherit a Home and Get SSI Benefits

Suppose you inherit a home from a family member, giving you a new place to live while receiving SSI. In that case, you must quickly alert the SSA and make a plan to keep your monthly payments.

The Social Security Administration doesn’t count SSI recipients’ primary homes toward their resources, regardless of the property’s value. So, provided you properly inform the SSA of your inheritance and move into your new home relatively quickly, it may not affect your ability to get monthly checks from the SSA.

Things can get complicated if you own the current home you live in and plan to move into the newly inherited home as your primary residence. Your previous home would become a countable resource, as would any proceeds from the sale that did not go toward buying a new residence. If you sell your home because you inherited a property you prefer, you may have to pay some benefits back to the SSA, or payments may temporarily pause.

SSI recipients who sell their homes and use the proceeds to purchase new ones within three months will not see the proceeds used against them or their eligibility.

Swift reporting of inheritance to the SSA is crucial. You must report any potential changes to your eligibility, like an inheritance, within 10 days of the end of the month the change occurred. So, if you inherited a home in January, you would have just over a week into February to inform the SSA of the change. Our Allentown, PA disability lawyers can help you do this so the SSA is aware of your plans to treat the inherited home as your primary residence so that it will not be counted against you as a resource. Failure to report changes, large or small, could result in overpayments from the SSA that it will expect back. The SSA might even sanction payments in some situations, stopping them for six months or longer.

Can You Disclaim an Inherited House to Keep Your SSI?

If you already own a home and recently inherited another property, your concerns about potentially losing your SSI benefits might make you consider disclaiming the inheritance. This could have serious unintended consequences for recipients that our lawyers can help avoid.

In most cases, the SSA views disclaimed inheritances as “constructively received.” This means that, even if you do not accept a home or amount of money left to you, the SSA will act as though you have. The SSA takes a similar approach to assets given away or sold for less than they are worth, what it calls “transferring a resource.” In response to these tactics by SSI recipients, the SSA could stop benefits for up to three years. This could leave you without your disclaimed inheritance or the monthly SSI payments you rely on for financial support.

If you anticipate inheriting a home and you already have a primary residence, we can confirm if your SSI benefits will be affected and, if so, for how long. Assuming that disclaiming an inheritance will solve your problems could leave you in a worse situation than you were in previously, which we can help prevent.

Call Our Disability Lawyers to Discuss Your Case

Call Young, Marr, Mallis & Associates at (215) 515-2954 or (609) 557-3081 to get help with your case from our Levittown, PA disability lawyers.