SSI State Supplement for Board and Care Homes: 2026 Amounts

If your parent lives on SSI, an SSI state supplement for board and care homes can raise the $994 federal maximum to $1,045.77 a month in Vermont or $1,931.00 in Hawaii in 2026.1,2,3

When a licensed small home costs more than that check, it's natural to wonder how anyone on SSI manages it, and part of the answer is a state payment that's easy to miss. Below are the 2026 amounts for 14 states and DC from official Social Security Administration (SSA) or state sources, who the money goes to, what your parent keeps, and where to apply. New to these homes? Our guide to board and care homes covers what they offer.

In This Guide

• What Is an SSI State Supplement?
• 2026 SSI State Supplement Amounts for Board and Care Homes
• How the Supplement Works Once Your Parent Moves In
• When the Rate Is Also the Most the Home Can Charge
• What the Numbers Look Like in California
• How to Apply, State by State
• What the SSI Supplement Doesn't Pay For
• If Your State Isn't in the Table
• Frequently Asked Questions
• Learn More

What Is an SSI State Supplement?

It's a lot to absorb when the check your mother has lived on for years suddenly has to cover a care home. The reassuring part is that in many states, SSI isn't only the federal amount.

Supplemental Security Income (SSI) is the federal monthly benefit for people with very little income and resources; in 2026 the countable-resource limit is $2,000 for an individual and $3,000 for a couple.1 Our SSI income limits guide walks through the full financial test.

Many states add a state supplement, which SSA calls a State Supplementary Payment (SSP), on top of federal SSI. States fund it themselves to raise the total above the federal rate, and the amount isn't fixed: SSA says it varies with income, living arrangements and other factors. That's why the rows below are tied to specific licensed settings rather than to the state as a whole.2

Who funds the supplement and who runs it are separate questions. SSA administers the supplement for a list of states and the District of Columbia, including the eight states and DC in our first table below. Some are dual-administration states, where SSA handles some categories and the state handles others. The remaining states pay and administer their own supplements and have to be contacted directly.2 Massachusetts is one of them.2

2026 SSI State Supplement Amounts for Board and Care Homes

Every figure below is for one person and comes from the agency source linked in its row.

The first table covers states where SSA pays the supplement. These figures are payment levels: the most SSI and the state supplement together can pay, before your parent's other countable income is subtracted.

Sources for each row: California,3 the District of Columbia,10 Hawaii,3 Iowa,3 Michigan,3 New Jersey,3 Pennsylvania,3 Rhode Island3 and Vermont.3

If your mother lives in an Iowa family-life home on SSI alone, Iowa adds $20 a month to SSA's check, bringing her to Iowa's $1,156 standard for 2026; SSA allows a $20 income disregard that Iowa's program doesn't, so Iowa caps SSA's supplement at $142.00.3 In New Jersey, the $147.65 monthly maintenance needs allowance you may see for Medicaid long-term-care recipients in an assisted living residence or comprehensive personal care home in 2026 is a Medicaid figure, not SSA's, so it isn't in the table.3

The second table covers states that run their own programs. Their figures measure different things, so read the third column before comparing them with the first table.

Sources for each row: Florida,11 Kentucky,5 North Carolina8 and Virginia.12

If your parent is in Florida, don't read $184.40 as her whole check. In 2026 it's the most Florida's Optional State Supplementation (OSS) payment can be, and the $1,072.40 monthly OSS income standard is the income level the program works from.11 In North Carolina, the Enhanced rate applies if Mom lives in a licensed Special Assistance special care unit and has a diagnosis of Alzheimer's or a related dementia.8

The third table covers New York and Massachusetts, whose 2026 standards come from state benefit tables.

Sources for each row: New York13 and Massachusetts.14

In New York, the state share is what your parent receives if she has no countable income.13 In Massachusetts, the assisted living standard applies only if the state certifies that your parent lives in an assisted living residence served by a GAFC provider, gets no other rental assistance, and pays a fixed, non-separable fee for rent and services,14 so ask each residence you tour whether a certified GAFC provider serves it.

How the Supplement Works Once Your Parent Moves In

A number in a table isn't the same as what reaches Mom each month. Three mechanics shape it.

First, other income shrinks the payment. In California and Pennsylvania, SSA subtracts your parent's countable income when it figures the federal payment, and any income left over comes off the state supplement level.3 Michigan says countable income can lower the total.3 Kentucky and Virginia work the same way in their own terms. In Kentucky, the payment is the standard minus countable income, so in 2026 an SSI recipient with $994 a month in a personal care home receives $616 a month from Kentucky State Supplementation.5 In Virginia, the Auxiliary Grant payment is the rate plus the personal needs allowance, minus countable income.9

So if Mom's Social Security puts her countable income above $994, she isn't necessarily shut out. In California and Pennsylvania, income left after the federal payment reaches zero comes off the state supplement level, so countable income between $994 and California's $1,626.07 standard can still leave a smaller state supplement.3 Massachusetts deducts income above the federal rate from its standard the same way,14 and Kentucky pays the difference between its $1,610 personal care home standard and her countable income.5

Second, most of the money is for the home. In Michigan, the state says these SSI payments include money for the cost of care plus an incidental allowance, and SSA's check includes the state-funded benefit.3 In the District of Columbia, SSA pays SSI and the supplement as one payment to your parent or a representative payee; it goes straight to an assisted living facility only if SSA approves the facility as the payee.10

Third, your parent keeps a personal needs allowance, the "Resident keeps" column above. Pennsylvania's rules require a personal care home's contract to let an SSI resident keep at least the current allowance, and a contract that says otherwise isn't valid.3 In 2026, Rhode Island lets residents of state-licensed assisted living and residential care keep at least $55 a month from their SSI before paying any monthly fees.3 Our personal needs allowance guide explains how the allowance works more broadly.

When the Rate Is Also the Most the Home Can Charge

In a few states, the supplement rate isn't only what the program pays. It's also a limit on what the home can collect from a resident on the program.

• North Carolina: The State/County Special Assistance rate is the maximum monthly amount a Special Assistance facility may charge a Special Assistance recipient. If a facility chooses to offer a lower rate, the lower rate is what the calculation uses.8 To take part, an adult care home must agree to accept the state rate.15

• Virginia: To participate in the Auxiliary Grant, an assisted living facility signs a provider agreement to accept the established rate as payment in full for services rendered. It also agrees not to charge the resident, family or authorized representative a security deposit or other compensation as a condition of admission or continued stay. Providers must give each recipient a written list of the goods and services the grant covers, stating that they can't charge more for anything on it.9

• Kentucky: A personal care home must accept the 2026 State Supplementation standard of need minus the personal needs allowance ($1,610 minus $60 a month) as full payment for the cost of care; for a family care home, it's $1,166 minus $40.5

• Michigan: Michigan's 2026 reference tables set the "maximum monthly amount an individual is to pay the provider" at $1,037.00 a month for domiciliary care, $1,107.50 for personal care and $1,129.30 for a home for the aged.3

• California: In 2026, a board and care resident on SSI/SSP gets a personal and incidental needs allowance of at least $182.00 a month that must go to them. A resident with income beyond the SSI/SSP check can be charged the $1,444.07 monthly basic-services amount, plus an extra $20 if they agree to pay it in the admission agreement.3

In the other states, the "Resident keeps" column is the protection to know. Iowa's 2026 standard, for example, has a family-life home resident pay the home $1,026 a month and keep $130.3 Before your parent moves in, ask the home in writing what it charges a resident on SSI and the supplement, and what that price includes.

What the Numbers Look Like in California

California's licensing agency spells out how its standard is divided, a useful model for what to ask any home.

How to Apply, State by State

Applying for benefits while you're also touring homes and packing up a household is exhausting. The route depends on who runs the supplement, and in most rows the first step is the same SSI application.

• SSA-paid states (California, DC, Hawaii, Iowa, Michigan, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont): Apply for SSI online, by calling 1-800-772-1213 (TTY 1-800-325-0778) to make an appointment, or in person at a local Social Security office. Don't wait: SSA can't pay benefits for any period before the application's effective date, and if you call for an appointment, keep it and file, SSA may use the date of that call as the filing date.16 Our step-by-step SSI application guide covers the paperwork.
• Iowa: Iowa HHS determines eligibility for the family-life home supplement, and SSA determines and pays it.3
• District of Columbia: A resident of an assisted living facility must submit an application for the DC Optional State Supplemental Payment (OSSP); nursing facility residents on SSI receive it automatically. The District and SSA determine eligibility within 45 days.10
• Florida: Submit an ACCESS Florida Application (form CF-ES 2337) to the Department of Children and Families. Your parent must be 65 or older (or 18 or older and blind or disabled), live in Florida intending to stay, be a citizen or qualified noncitizen, have income within the department's standards and assets within SSI's, apply for every other benefit they may qualify for, and live in a licensed assisted living facility, adult family care home or mental health residential treatment facility that meets their needs.4
• Kentucky: Apply through the Department for Community Based Services in person, by phone, or by home visit if requested. You can't apply for State Supplementation on the kynect portal. An authorized representative can apply for someone who can't come in, and if your parent can't be interviewed at first contact, form PA-77 (Intent to Apply) protects the filing date. If your parent may qualify for SSI, an SSI application is mandatory.5
• North Carolina: Your parent or an authorized representative can apply the same day at any county department of social services. The county department in your parent's county of residence processes it. Applicants must also apply for every benefit they may be entitled to, including SSI.6
• Virginia: Apply at the local department of social services in the locality where your parent lives; for someone who entered a nursing home, rehabilitation center or other medical facility in Virginia, that's the locality they lived in before.9 A case manager or other qualified assessor has to evaluate your parent with the uniform assessment instrument on admission, every year after that, and whenever their condition changes enough to change the level of care.7 The payment starts on the date the local department approves it.9
• Massachusetts: The state pays and administers its own supplement, so contact the state rather than Social Security about it.2

What the SSI Supplement Doesn't Pay For

It's easy to assume Medicaid will cover the whole bill once a parent qualifies. Federal law lets a Medicaid home and community-based services waiver pay for personal care and supportive services in a setting like assisted living, but not for room and board, apart from two narrow exceptions (certain respite care and an unrelated live-in caregiver's share of rent and food), so housing and meals stay the resident's cost.17 Our guide to how to pay for assisted living covers the other ways families close that gap.

That's the gap a supplement can help fill. North Carolina describes Special Assistance as a cash supplement toward room and board,8 and California's 2026 breakdown sets aside $706.07 a month of its board and care standard for room and board.3

If Your State Isn't in the Table

If your parent's state is missing here, please don't read that as "no help exists." SSA lists only seven places that pay no supplement at all: Arizona, Arkansas, Mississippi, North Dakota, Tennessee, West Virginia and the Northern Mariana Islands. In states SSA doesn't administer, the state pays and runs its own supplement, so contact the state agency directly.2

South Carolina, for example, runs Optional State Supplementation, a monthly cash supplement that helps some low-income residents of licensed community residential care facilities afford care.18

Under Section 1616(e) of the Social Security Act, every state must set and enforce standards for the group living arrangements where a significant number of SSI recipients live or are likely to live, covering admission policies, safety, sanitation and protection of civil rights. Each state must publish a yearly summary of those standards and give anyone who asks a copy, with its enforcement procedures and a list of waivers and violations that have come to the enforcing authority's attention.19 Ask for that list before you choose a home.

Learn More

Chat with Brevy's care navigator about which supplement applies to your parent's home at brevy.com.

The information on Brevy.com is for educational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional legal, financial, or medical advice. Rules vary by state and program and change frequently. Always verify with the relevant agency or a qualified professional. Brevy is not a law firm, financial advisor, or healthcare provider.