A cap of the amount of in-kind support that a person can receive from supplemental security income (SSI). This rule only applies when an individual or couple receives some form of in-kind support or maintenance but does not receive food and shelter from the household that the individual or couple lives in. Disability Benefits Help. The Social Security Handbook lays out certain calculation criteria for presumed maximum value: the presumed maximum value for an individual is not more than an amount equal to one-third of the applicable federal benefit rate (FBR) plus $20; and if an individual or couple can show that the actual value of the food and shelter that they receive is less than the presumed maximum value, then the actual value is used in computing countable income. The Social Security Handbook also lays out certain situations where the presumed maximum value rule applies: it may apply when an individual or a couple live in another person’s household but receives neither food nor shelter from that person; when an individual or couple live in their own household but someone else pays for rent and food; or when an individual of couple live in a non-medical institution. It also outlines an exception when in-kind support and maintenance is provided to an individual or couple while they are living in a private nonprofit retirement home, provided the institution furnishes the support and maintenance without an express obligation to do so, then the presumed maximum value rule does not apply.
[Last updated in September of 2020 by the Wex Definitions Team]