Legal Definitions - conditional SSI payments

Conditional supplemental security income (SSI) payments are given to SSI recipients who have non-liquid resources that push them over the SSI resource limits. SSI is meant to serve low-income elderly or disabled citizens, and recipients must remain below a certain threshold limit on resources to receive benefits.

If a recipient has non-liquid assets that put them over the threshold, they may receive conditional SSI payments. However, unlike regular SSI payments, the recipient must repay the conditional payments. They have up to nine months to sell the property or other non-liquid resources to pay off the conditional payments.

If the recipient sells the assets and falls back under the threshold, they can begin receiving regular SSI payments again, subject to other SSI requirements.

Let's say that John is an SSI recipient who owns a car worth $10,000. The SSI resource limit is $2,000, so John is over the limit and cannot receive regular SSI payments. However, because the car is a non-liquid asset, John may be eligible for conditional SSI payments.

John receives $1,000 in conditional SSI payments, but he must repay this amount within nine months by selling the car. If he sells the car for $10,000 and falls back under the resource limit, he can begin receiving regular SSI payments again.

This example illustrates how conditional SSI payments work when a recipient has non-liquid assets that put them over the SSI resource limit.