How the Benefits Calculator Works: Every Rule, Figure and Assumption

The calculator works out each benefit the way the program itself does, from its published rules, for the household you describe. Then it works the same household out again at every level of pay, from nothing up, to find where each benefit ends. This page says how, program by program, what it assumes, and what it cannot know. Every figure it uses is listed, with its government source, on Sources.

What happens when you type?

Everything happens in your browser. When you choose your state, your browser downloads two files from this site: one with the federal figures (the poverty guidelines, SNAP’s amounts, tax rates and credits, and so on) and one with your state’s own rules and its counties’ housing figures. A script on the page then works out your answer. Nothing you type is sent to us or to anyone else, and nothing is stored: close the tab and it is gone.

Each program gets one of four answers. “Likely” means the published rules point to yes for the household you described. “Maybe” means the rules point to yes, but something the form does not ask decides it: a waiting list, a health check, money running out for the year, or a work rule. “Not now” means the rules say no at this income. “Not checked yet” means a figure the program needs for your state is not in our files yet, so we would rather say nothing than guess.

Who counts in the household?

Programs do not all count the same people. SNAP counts everyone who lives together and buys and makes food together. WIC counts everyone who lives together as one economic unit, sharing income and costs, and adds the baby a pregnant woman expects. Medicaid and the marketplace tax credit count the tax household: you, your spouse if you are married, and the children you claim on your taxes (children under 19, or under 24 if they are students, or any age with a disability). Another adult who lives with you, such as a grandparent or a grown child, is counted for SNAP but has their own tax household for health coverage. Child care help and TANF count the parents and the children.

Pay is the amount before taxes. If you type an hourly wage, the calculator multiplies it by the hours you give and by 52 weeks, then divides by 12 to get a month. Social Security, unemployment and other income are typed as monthly amounts.

How is SNAP worked out?

SNAP follows the federal rules in 7 CFR 273.9 and 7 CFR 273.10, with the figures in USDA’s cost-of-living memo for October 1, 2026 to September 30, 2027:

1. Gross income: all pay and other income, including any TANF or SSI the calculator finds you would get.
2. The gross income test: under 130% of the poverty line, or your state’s own higher limit if it uses broad-based categorical eligibility. A household with someone 60 or older or with a disability skips this test.
3. Deductions: 20% of pay, the standard deduction for your household size ($217 for 3 people), the child care you pay so you can work, medical costs over $35 a month for someone 60 or older or with a disability, and child support you pay.
4. Shelter: rent plus your state’s standard utility allowance if you pay for heating or cooling; the part over half your income after deductions comes off too, up to $769 a month unless someone is 60 or older or has a disability.
5. Net income must be under 100% of the poverty line, unless the household is categorically eligible.
6. SNAP is the most for your household size ($1,023 for 4 people) minus 30% of net income, rounded the way the regulation says. Households of 1 or 2 get at least $25 while they are eligible.

Adults 18 to 64 who can work and have no child under 14 at home can get SNAP for only 3 months in 3 years unless they work, volunteer or train 80 hours a month, under the time limit as Public Law 119-21 changed it. The calculator marks SNAP “Maybe” when such an adult has no pay, because it cannot know their hours.

How are Medicaid and CHIP worked out?

Each state sets its Medicaid and CHIP limits as a percent of the poverty line, separately for babies, young children, older children, pregnant women, parents and other adults. The calculator compares your tax household’s income (counted as modified adjusted gross income, which adds back Social Security that is not taxed) with your state’s limit for each person, and puts each person in Medicaid, CHIP or neither. A pregnant woman counts the baby she expects. In states that have not expanded Medicaid, most adults without children cannot get it at any income. People 65 or older or with a disability are checked against the state’s limit for them and marked “Maybe”, because states also look at savings and other rules.

How is the marketplace tax credit worked out?

For the people who would buy a marketplace plan, the calculator works out household income as a percent of the poverty line the coverage year uses (the year before it), finds your expected share of income in the IRS table for that year, and takes it away from the price of the benchmark plan, the second-lowest-cost silver plan where you live, as 26 CFR 1.36B-3 sets out. Above 400% of the poverty line there is no credit at all for 2027 coverage. Below 100% there is none either.

The benchmark plan’s price depends on your ZIP code and everyone’s ages, and the federal data on it could not be read when we built the site. So the calculator always works out the part that is certain, your expected share of income and the income where the credit stops, and shows the credit in dollars when you type the benchmark plan’s price from HealthCare.gov’s tax tool. If a job offers anyone affordable coverage, the credit is ruled out.

How are the tax credits worked out?

Federal income tax uses the tax year’s brackets, standard deduction and the deduction for people 65 and older from Rev. Proc. 2025-32. Your filing status follows from the household: married filing jointly with a spouse, head of household with a dependent, otherwise single. The Earned Income Tax Credit follows 26 U.S.C. 32 exactly: it grows with each dollar earned to its maximum, stays there, then shrinks. The IRS’s own table works in $50 bands, so it can differ by a few dollars. The Child Tax Credit counts children under 17; the part that can be paid to you even when you owe no tax is 15% of earnings above $2,500, up to the limit per child. Tax credits come once a year, with your tax return; the calculator spreads them over 12 months so you can compare them with monthly help. State earned income and child tax credits are added where your state has them and its figures are in our files.

Social Security and Medicare taxes are 7.65% of pay, and the calculator takes them off too. State income tax is not taken off: the answer says so.

How are TANF, SSI and child care help worked out?

TANF cash help is set by each state: the most it pays for your family size, the part of earnings it ignores, and its income tests. The calculator uses your state’s own figures where we have a current official source, and says “Not checked yet” where we do not. SSI follows 20 CFR part 416, subpart K: the federal rate ($994 for one person in 2026) minus countable income, after the $20 general exclusion and the $65 and half of the rest of earnings, plus your state’s supplement where it pays one. It checks savings against SSI’s limit and treats a spouse’s income as SSI does, and for a student under 22 with a disability it first leaves out the student earned income exclusion, month by month until the year’s amount is used, counting the average month over the year when it runs out (20 CFR 416.1112(c)(3)). Its card also sets out section 1619(a) and (b), with your state’s 1619(b) amount for 2026, and ABLE accounts, as the SSI page explains. Someone who gets SSI at the pay you typed keeps Medicaid at higher pay under section 1619(b), as a “Maybe”, while yearly pay stays under the state’s amount (20 CFR 416.264). SSA also decides whether a disability is severe enough; the calculator assumes it is when you tick “Has a disability”. Child care help compares your family’s income with your state’s limit to start, or to keep help if you already have it, and works out your share of the cost from the state’s fee rules.

For a child you are raising who is not your own, such as a grandchild, tick “A grandchild or other relative you are raising” and a card for child-only TANF shows what the rules say: in most states the grant counts only the child’s own income, and the amount where we have read the state’s rule (Washington, DC and Wyoming). Where both the family’s grant and the child-only grant are worked out, the month counts the larger. A child-only grant the month counts is income for SNAP and housing help, and TANF for school meals, Summer EBT, WIC and energy help. For Medicaid and CHIP, such a child is worked out on their own household, the child and their brothers and sisters, with their own income, even if you claim them on your taxes (42 CFR 435.603(f)(2)(i)).

How are Summer EBT, Extra Help and FDPIR worked out?

Summer EBT is for children aged 5 to 18: they are enrolled without applying when the household gets SNAP or TANF, and otherwise qualify on the reduced-price school meal limit in force today (7 CFR 292). The card works out the summer coming up, and shows the amount only when that summer’s federal amount and your state’s own page are both in our files; for summer 2027 it says “Not checked yet”. It is paid once for the summer, so it is not counted in your month.

Extra Help is for people on Medicare. It comes without applying to a person who gets SSI, Medicaid or a Medicare Savings Program themselves in the calculator’s own answers (42 CFR 423.773(c)(1)), and then lasts at least to the end of the year, even after a raise; otherwise the calculator counts income as SSI does and compares it with 150% of the poverty line for the family, and checks savings against the year’s limit (42 CFR 423.772). What it saves depends on the drug plan, so it is not counted as money.

FDPIR appears only when you say, under Household, that you live on or near a reservation; near one, it is for a household with a tribal member, which the tick “Someone here is a member of a Tribe” says, for any age. Its income test for October 2026 to September 2027 is not checked yet, so the card says so, except for a household where everyone gets SSI or TANF, which has no income test (7 CFR 253.6). The SNAP card then says that the two cannot be used in the same month.

Beside some boxes, small notes answer what people often believe keeps them out: a home, a car, a job, savings, WIC ending at the first birthday, a child counted with a parent. Each note gives the rule for each program, with its citation.

How is housing help worked out?

When you pick your county, the calculator uses HUD’s income limits and Fair Market Rents for it. Your share of the rent with a Housing Choice Voucher is the larger of 30% of your income after HUD’s deductions and 10% of your income before them, as 24 CFR 5.628 sets out; the deductions are $500 a year for each dependent, $550 for an elderly or disabled family, medical costs above 10% of income for those families, and child care. The voucher pays the rest of the rent up to the local limit, which the calculator takes as the Fair Market Rent for your family size. If you already have a voucher, its value counts in your budget. If you do not, the calculator says whether your income is under the limit, but does not count a voucher in your budget, because waiting lists are long and many are closed.

How does the calculator find a cliff?

It works your household out again with your pay at every step from $0 up to well past what you earn now, keeping everything else the same. For each step it adds up what you would have left in a month: pay and other income, benefits counted as money, tax credits spread over 12 months, minus federal taxes, your child care bill and health insurance premiums. Where that total falls as pay rises, it narrows the fall down to the dollar and names the programs that end or shrink there. A fall of more than $5 between one dollar of pay and the next is a cliff. Then it looks for the pay where you would come out ahead again.

1. Your pay goes upA raise, more hours, a second job
2. Taxes take a littleAbout 7.65% for Social Security and Medicare, then income tax
3. Help shrinksSNAP, tax credits and marketplace help fall a little with each dollar
4. A limit is crossedSome help stops all at once at a set income: Medicaid, child care help, CHIP
5. The cliffOne dollar more in pay, hundreds less in help
6. The climb backThe pay where you are ahead again: the calculator finds it

Medicaid and CHIP have no dollar value in this total, because coverage is not money in your pocket. What they save you shows up when you lose them, as the marketplace premium you would then pay, once you type the benchmark plan’s price. School meals are shown but not counted either: what a meal saves a family is the school’s own price, which no federal table gives.

What does the calculator not know?

• Immigration status, unless you choose to give it. Each person’s status is optional: left blank, it is worked out as a U.S. citizen, and the answer says so. Given, it changes SNAP, Medicaid and CHIP, the Medicare Savings Programs and the marketplace tax credit by each program’s own rules; for SSI, TANF and child-only TANF, Summer EBT, Extra Help, housing help, energy help and child care help, and for WIC and Lifeline when a person has no qualifying status, the rules for immigrants are not checked yet, and those cards say so. Whether getting a benefit could matter in an immigration case is not something the calculator answers: see the public charge rule.
• Exact timing. Offices count income over particular months, use a few months’ pay, and change amounts at your next renewal, not on the day your pay changes.
• Local rules. Housing agencies, child care offices and some counties set details of their own.
• Money that runs out. Energy help, child care help and housing vouchers depend on funds and waiting lists.
• Things it does not ask: self-employment costs, medical deductions beyond the box it has, assets other than savings, special needs, sanctions.

That is why each answer is an estimate, and only the office that runs a program can decide. Use the calculator to see what to apply for, and what a change in pay would do, then apply.

How do you know the figures are right?

The calculator is tested against hand-worked answers taken from the regulations’ own arithmetic and the agencies’ published tables, and against thousands of made-up households to check that no answer breaks a program’s own limits. The figures come only from government sources, each with the day we checked it, and each table on the site says the period its figures are for. When an agency publishes new figures, we add them with their start date, and the calculator and every page switch over on that day. If something looks wrong, please tell us.

Figures checked October 31, 2026.

Updated November 1, 2026