These rules mean your child can keep Medicaid even while making a lot of money at work:

• If your child gets SSI benefits while working, Medicaid will continue automatically.
• If your child used to get SSI benefits, but now makes enough money that SSI benefits ended, SSI's 1619(b) rule means Medicaid will continue automatically even if your child makes up to $43,627 per year.
• If your child doesn't get SSI, but is under 22, gets Medicaid based on a disability, and is also regularly attending school, the Student Earned Income Exclusion (SEIE) means that if your child gets a job, Medicaid coverage will probably continue.
• Freedom to Work lets your child pay a monthly premium to get Medicaid coverage.
  • When applying, your child's countable income must be at or below $3,260 per month, but earned income and unearned income are counted differently, so your child could work and make more than the limit and still qualify.
  • After coverage starts, it doesn't matter how much your child earns and your child can have up to $75,000 in resources — your child can still have Freedom to Work coverage!
• If your child's income is even higher than that, he or she can get private health coverage through work or on HealthCare.gov. Private insurance companies cannot deny coverage to your child.

Getting a job doesn’t mean your child will stop getting Supplemental Security Income (SSI) benefits. SSI makes sure your child will be better off when working.

SSI Rules that Help Young People who Get Jobs

SSI is based on financial need. That’s why people worry that if they get jobs, they’ll lose their SSI benefits. These rules show why you don’t need to worry:

• The Student Earned Income Exclusion (SEIE) means that if your child gets a job while in school, his or her SSI benefit probably won’t go down. That means your child will get money from work and SSI at the same time.
• With the SEIE, anyone under 22 and regularly attending school can make up to $2,350 per month up to a total of $9,460 in a year, without having that money reduce their SSI benefits at all!
• If your child doesn’t qualify for the SEIE, working is still a good idea, because SSI counts less than half of what a person earns at a job when calculating his or her benefit.

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As your child makes more money, he or she can start saving for bigger goals, like college, a car, or someday buying a home. Building assets will be a key to comfort and security for your child’s entire life.

SSI and Medicaid Rules Help People Who Work and Save

Supplemental Security Income (SSI) and SSI-related Medicaid have resource limits. However, your child can save way more money if they get a job.

SSI resource rules for people who work:

• Not all resources are counted, so your child can own a car or get certain types of financial aid for school that won’t be counted against the resource limit.
• An ABLE account will let you and your child put money into a special account where the first $100,000 will not count against the SSI resource limit.
• Savings in a Plan to Achieve Self-Support (PASS) are not counted. This is a way for your child to save for specific expenses, like school tuition.
• Assets in certain types of trusts do not count.

Medicaid resource rules for people who work:

• The SSI resource rules also apply to Medicaid.
• None of the money in an ABLE account is counted against Medicaid resource limits.
• If your child has income from a job, your child can pay a premium to get coverage through the Freedom to Work program.
  • When applying, your child's countable income must be at or below $3,260 per month and your child's resources must be less than $9,660.
  • After coverage starts, the amount of earned income doesn't matter and your child can have up to $75,000 in resources (or more, if your child puts money into retirement accounts).
• There is no resource limit for income-based Medicaid, no matter how old your child is.

The more your child works, the more money your child can make. If he or she makes enough, Supplemental Security Income (SSI) benefits may stop, but overall your child will be much better off!

SSI Has a Safety Net for People who Lose Benefits and Need Them Later

Even if your child makes a lot more money than he or she ever got from SSI, you will probably worry about what would happen if the job ended due to a disability. Would your child be able to get back on SSI if needed?

Yes.

SSI’s 1619(b) rule helps people who stop getting SSI start getting them again. If a job ends or earnings go down, your child can just report the change to Social Security and SSI benefits will start up again. He or she will not even have to reapply.

1619(b) is for people earning less than $43,627 in a year. If your child earns more than that, other rules can help your child start getting SSI benefits again if they are needed.