20 C.F.R. § 416.1121

Types of unearned income

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Some types of unearned income are—

(a) Annuities, pensions, and other periodic payments. This unearned income is usually related to prior work or service. It includes, for example, private pensions, social security benefits, disability benefits, veterans benefits, worker's compensation, railroad retirement annuities and unemployment insurance benefits.

(b) Alimony and support payments. For SSI purposes, alimony and support payments are cash or in-kind contributions to meet some or all of a person's needs for food or shelter. Support payments may be made voluntarily or because of a court order. Alimony (sometimes called maintenance) is an allowance made by a court from the funds of one spouse to the other spouse in connection with a suit for separation or divorce.

(c) Dividends, interest, and certain royalties. Dividends and interest are returns on capital investments, such as stocks, bonds, or savings accounts. Royalties are compensation paid to the owner for the use of property, usually copyrighted material or natural resources such as mines, oil wells, or timber tracts. Royalty compensation may be expressed as a percentage of receipts from using the property or as an amount per unit produced. (See § 416.1110(b) if you receive royalties as part of your trade or business and § 416.1110(e) if you receive royalties in connection with the publication of your work.)

(d) Rents. Rents are payments you receive for the use of real or personal property such as land, housing, or machinery. We deduct from rental payments your ordinary and necessary expenses in the same taxable year. These include only those expenses necessary for the production or collection of the rental income and they must be deducted when paid, not when they are incurred. Some examples of deductible expenses are interest on debts, State and local taxes on real and personal property and on motor fuels, general sales taxes, and expenses of managing or maintaining the property. (Sections 163, 164, and 212 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1954 and related regulations explain this in more detail.) We do not consider depreciation or depletion of property a deductible expense. (See § 416.1110(b) for rules on rental income that is earned from self-employment. For example, you may be in the business of renting properties.)

(e) Death benefits. We count payments you get which were occasioned by the death of another person except for the amount of such payments that you spend on the deceased person's last illness and burial expenses. Last illness and burial expenses include related hospital and medical expenses, funeral, burial plot and interment expenses, and other related costs.

Example:If you receive $2,000 from your uncle's life insurance policy and you spend $900 on his last illness and burial expenses, the balance, $1,100, is unearned income. If you spend the entire $2,000 for the last illness and burial, there is no unearned income.

(f) Prizes and awards. A prize is generally something you win in a contest, lottery or game of chance. An award is usually something you receive as the result of a decision by a court, board of arbitration, or the like.

(g) Gifts and inheritances. A gift is something you receive which is not repayment to you for goods or services you provided and which is not given to you because of a legal obligation on the giver's part. An inheritance is something that comes to you as a result of someone's death. It can be in cash or in kind, including any right in real or personal property. Gifts and inheritances occasioned by the death of another person, to the extent that they are used to pay the expenses of the deceased's last illness and burial, as defined in paragraph (e) of this section, are not considered income.

(h) Support and maintenance in-kind. This is shelter furnished to you that we value depending on your living arrangement. (Food is not included in the calculations of in-kind support and maintenance.) We use one rule if you are living in another person's household, you receive shelter from others living in the household, and others within the household pay for or provide you with all of your meals. We use different rules for other situations in which you receive shelter. We discuss all of the rules in §§ 416.1130 through 416.1148.

[45 FR 65547, Oct. 3, 1980, as amended at 56 FR 36000, July 30, 1991; 59 FR 43471, Aug. 24, 1994; 70 FR 6345, Feb. 7, 2005; 89 FR 21209, Mar. 27, 2024]

Notes of Decisions

Cited in 40 cases (3 in the last 5 years), 1983–2025 · leading case: Lopes v. Dep't of Soc. Servs., 696 F.3d 180 (2d Cir. 2012).

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Lopes v. Dep't of Soc. Servs., 696 F.3d 180 (2d Cir. 2012). · cites it 2× “But one SSI regulation, 20 C.F.R. § 416.1121 , supports the classification of the payment stream from such an annuity as income: Some types of unearned income are .”

Wahl v. Morton Cnty. Soc. Servs., 1998 ND 48 (N.D. 1998). · cites it 2× “Code § 75-01-03-08(11) provides any notice subject to a request for "fair hearing" may be supplemented at any time before the conclusion of the hearing, and the supplemental information must be considered in determining the adequacy of the notice unless the claimant shows…”

Mulder v. South Dakota Dep't of Soc. Servs., 2004 SD 10 (S.D. 2004). · cites it 2× “" 20 CFR 416.1121, 1123. The Department therefore concludes that his available income is the $701 which is deposited by the SSA.”

Martha M. BURNETT, Appellee, v. Margaret HECKLER, Sec'y of Health & Human Servs., Appellant, 756 F.2d 621 (8th Cir. 1985). “Unearned income like disability benefits is considered "income” for SSI purposes, 20 C.F.R. § 416.1121 (a), but cannot be counted until actually received, id.”

Florence Paxton v. Sec'y of Health & Human Servs., 856 F.2d 1352 (9th Cir. 1988). “20 C.F.R. § 416.1121 (a). As we noted earlier, many types of payments are not considered unearned income.”

Clark v. Comm'r of Income Maint., 551 A.2d 729 (Conn. 1988). “§ 1382a (a) (2) (B); 20 C.F.R. § 416.1121 (a). The defendant wrote to the plaintiff several times asking for her own asset information to determine whether any of Wilbur Clark’s income should be diverted to her to meet her maintenance needs.”

Cervantez v. Sullivan, 719 F. Supp. 899 (E.D. Cal. 1989). “§ 1328a(a)(2)(E); 20 C.F.R. § 416.1121 (b). Curiously, the Secretary asserts that the income should be treated as also available to the payor.”

Weatherbee Ex Rel. Vecchio v. Richman, 595 F. Supp. 2d 607 (W.D. Pa. 2009). “§ 1382a(a)(2)(B); 20 C.F.R. § 416.1121 (a). At issue in this case is whether DPW properly treated the income stream from the Weatherbee Annuity as an available resource in determining his MA-LTC eligibility.”

Johnson v. Flanagan, 347 S.E.2d 643 (Ga. Ct. App. 1986). · cites it 2× “20 CFR 416.1121 (a). Unearned income is counted "at the earliest of the following points: when you receive it or when it is credited to your account or set aside for your use.”

Allen Sheppard v. Louis W. Sullivan, M.D., Sec'y of the Dep't of Health & Human Servs., 906 F.2d 756 (D.C. Cir. 1990). “§ 1382 (c) (1988); 20 CFR §§ 416.1121 (a) & 416.420 (1989); Gallo v.”

Ford v. Iowa Dep't of Human Servs., 500 N.W.2d 26 (Iowa 1993). “§ 1382a(a)(2)(B) (for SSI eligibility purposes, unearned income *32 includes any payment received as annuity, pension, or retirement benefit); 20 C.F.R. § 416.1121 (a) (same). We find nothing in the regulations to overcome the reasonableness of DHS’s interpretation.”

Purser v. Rahm, 702 P.2d 1196 (Wash. 1985). “" 20 C.F.R. § 416.1121 (a) (1984). Resources are defined as cash or other liquid assets or any real or personal property that an individual (or spouse, if any) owns and could convert to cash to be used for his support and maintenance.”

Show all 40 citing cases →

— 20 C.F.R. § 416.1121(d) — 1 case

Wahl v. Morton Cnty. Soc. Servs., 1998 ND 48 (N.D. 1998). “Code § 75-01-03-08(11) provides any notice subject to a request for "fair hearing" may be supplemented at any time before the conclusion of the hearing, and the supplemental information must be considered in determining the adequacy of the notice unless the claimant shows…”

— 20 C.F.R. § 416.1121(h) — 1 case

(SS) Midwood v. Comm'r of Soc. Sec. (E.D. Cal. 2025).

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