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Why trust us?Supplemental Security Income, or SSI, offers a monthly benefit check worth up to $941, though, you need to have assets worth less than a certain dollar amount: $2,000 for individuals or $3,000 for couples and two-parent families. Assets (also called resources) can include the value of some vehicles you own.
Let’s talk about how the SSA values cars and when you need to be worried about one making you ineligible.
The role of your car’s value in determining SSI eligibility depends on how many vehicles you own. Your first car doesn’t count but any others do count.
The SSA lets you keep one car without it affecting your resources total, even if it is the latest model with all the bells and whistles. Specifically, the SSA says one car won’t count toward your resources limit if you or someone in your household uses the vehicle for transportation. That means the car has to be drivable. If you have a vintage ride sitting in your garage that doesn’t work but is still worth a lot, it won’t count as a vehicle, though it will count against your resource limit.
If you have a second vehicle — or if your spouse has one — you better believe that the SSA will include it in your resources total.
There’s one bit of good news, though. If you have two cars, the SSA lets you apply the non-counting rule to the more valuable one. So if, for example, you have a rusted-up truck you bought in 1994 and a brand new car you bought last year, your new car will be the one that doesn’t count toward your asset limit. It doesn’t matter that you owned the truck first.
You should also know that the SSA doesn’t limit its definition of “vehicle” to cars and trucks. Any registered or unregistered mode of transportation, including motorcycles, snowmobiles, boats, and even animals or animal-drawn vehicles (we’re not joking), can count if you use them primarily for transportation. A temporarily broken down car still counts, though a junked car wouldn’t count since it isn’t drivable.
Keep in mind that even if something doesn’t count as a vehicle for this exclusion, it can count toward your total resource limit. As an example, a boat that you only use occasionally for fun won’t qualify as a vehicle in the eyes of the SSA, but its value will count as an asset.
