The SSI Federal Benefit Rate, Every Year Since 1975
SSI federal benefit rate, 2026
$994/mo
$1,491 for a couple. Both derive from an unrounded annual amount, not from last year's monthly figure — the difference is real money.
The federal benefit rate is the SSI standard before any state supplement and before countable income is subtracted. It moves with the same cost-of-living adjustment as Social Security — but it is not computed the way almost everyone computes it.
The derivation nearly everyone gets wrong
The rate comes from an unrounded annual amount, not from last year’s monthly figure. Applying the 2.8% adjustment to the 2025 couple rate of $1,450 and flooring gives $1,490. Applying it to the unrounded annual of $17,404.87 gives $17,892.21, which divided by twelve and floored is $1,491 — SSA’s published figure. The naive method is wrong by $1 a month. Why the individual rate hides the error and the couple rate exposes it.
| Year | Individual | Couple | Unrounded annual, individual |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | $994 | $1,491 | $11,929.46 |
| 2025 | $967 | $1,450 | $11,604.53 |
| 2024 | $943 | $1,415 | $11,321.49 |
| 2023 | $914 | $1,371 | $10,970.44 |
| 2022 | $841 | $1,261 | $10,092.40 |
| 2021 | $794 | $1,191 | $9,530.12 |
| 2020 | $783 | $1,175 | $9,407.82 |
| 2019 | $771 | $1,157 | $9,259.67 |
| 2018 | $750 | $1,125 | $9,007.46 |
| 2017 | $735 | $1,103 | $8,830.84 |
| 2016 | $733 | $1,100 | $8,804.43 |
| 2015 | $733 | $1,100 | $8,804.43 |
| 2014 | $721 | $1,082 | $8,657.26 |
| 2013 | $710 | $1,066 | $8,529.32 |
| 2012 | $698 | $1,048 | $8,386.75 |
| 2011 | $674 | $1,011 | $8,095.32 |
| 2010 | $674 | $1,011 | $8,095.32 |
| 2009 | $674 | $1,011 | $8,095.32 |
| 2008 | $637 | $956 | $7,651.53 |
| 2007 | $623 | $934 | $7,479.50 |
| 2006 | $603 | $904 | $7,240.56 |
| 2005 | $579 | $869 | $6,955.39 |
| 2004 | $564 | $846 | $6,772.53 |
| 2003 | $552 | $829 | $6,633.23 |
| 2002 | $545 | $817 | $6,541.65 |
| 2001 | $531 | $796 | $6,375.88 |
| 2000 | $513 | $769 | $6,160.27 |
| 1999 | $500 | $751 | $6,010.02 |
| 1998 | $494 | $741 | $5,932.89 |
| 1997 | $484 | $726 | $5,810.86 |
| 1996 | $470 | $705 | $5,647.09 |
| 1995 | $458 | $687 | $5,503.99 |
| 1994 | $446 | $669 | $5,354.08 |
| 1993 | $434 | $652 | $5,218.40 |
| 1992 | $422 | $633 | $5,066.41 |
| 1991 | $407 | $610 | $4,885.64 |
| 1990 | $386 | $579 | $4,635.33 |
| 1989 | $368 | $553 | $4,427.25 |
| 1988 | $354 | $532 | $4,256.97 |
| 1987 | $340 | $510 | $4,085.38 |
| 1986 | $336 | $504 | $4,032.95 |
| 1985 | $325 | $488 | $3,911.69 |
| 1984 | $314 | $472 | $3,779.41 |
| 1983 | $304.30 | $456.40 | $3,651.60 |
| 1982 | $284.30 | $426.40 | $0.00 |
| 1981 | $264.70 | $397 | $0.00 |
| 1980 | $238 | $357 | $0.00 |
| 1979 | $208.20 | $312.30 | $0.00 |
| 1978 | $189.40 | $284.10 | $0.00 |
| 1977 | $177.80 | $266.70 | $0.00 |
| 1976 | $167.80 | $251.80 | $0.00 |
| 1975 | $157.70 | $236.60 | $0.00 |
Notes on this series
Unrounded annual amounts are published by SSA for 2025 and 2026 and reconstructed backward to 1983; each reconstructed year is verified by recomputing SSA's published monthly rate from it.
Rates floor to the whole dollar from 1984; earlier statutory rates carry cents and floor to the dime.
1983: P.L. 98-21 (Social Security Amendments of 1983) raised the federal benefit rate by a flat $20 (individual) / $30 (couple) in lieu of the COLA it had just delayed. SSA's table labels it 7%, but it is a statutory dollar increase and there is no OASDI COLA payable in 1983.
Backward reconstruction stopped at 1978: the rounding step no longer pins a unique prior-year value.
The other rate series
- Social Security Wage Base
The maximum earnings subject to the Social Security payroll tax, and the employee contribution it implies.
- Quarter of Coverage
What one Social Security credit costs in earnings, indexed to the average wage index each year.
- PIA Bend Points
The two dollar hinges in the benefit formula, fixed for life at the year you turn 62.
- Family Maximum Bend Points
The three hinges that cap the total payable on one earnings record.
- Retirement Earnings Test
How much you can earn before benefits are withheld, at both the lower and the FRA-year threshold.
- Substantial Gainful Activity
The monthly earnings level that defines disability work activity, non-blind and blind.
- Trial Work Period
The monthly earnings that make a month count against the nine-month trial work period.
- Maximum Social Security Benefit
The highest benefit a worker retiring at full retirement age can receive, and what the COLA does to it.
- Average Social Security Benefit
What SSA publishes as the average payment for each beneficiary category, and the distribution behind it.
- National Average Wage Index
The wage series that indexes the wage base, the bend points and the cost of a credit.
- SSI Student Earned Income Exclusion
How much a student under 22 can earn before SSI counts it, monthly and annually.
By programme
- Retirementretired workers
- DisabilitySSDI
- SSIthe federal rate
- Survivorswidows and widowers
- Spousalon a worker record
- Childrenand the family maximum
Sources and freshness
- SSA OACT — SSI payment standards, 1975 and later — verified 10 August 2026
- SSA Office of the Chief Actuary — Cost-of-Living Adjustments — verified 10 August 2026
Series keyed by: Payable year.
Figures effective 2026. Page figures last verified against the sources above on 10 August 2026. Corrections: the correction log · support@inventum.com.au