Married couples in Maine who both receive the state’s SSI supplement are due the sum of two individual supplements, not 1.5 times one, under a law that took effect on July 29. The change ends a 25 percent reduction that applied to the state portion of the payment whenever two spouses were both on the supplement.
The rule covers only the state supplement. The federal SSI check for couples is unchanged.
What the law changed on July 29
The law is LD 840, titled “An Act to Modernize the State Supplement to Supplemental Security Income by Removing Marriage Disincentives.” Sen. Mike Tipping, D-Orono, sponsored it, and it was signed on April 16, 2026, according to the Maine Senate Democrats. It is non-emergency legislation, so it took effect July 29.
Before, when both spouses received the state supplement, their combined payment was 1.5 times a single person’s payment. The Legislature’s fiscal note describes the old rule as 150 percent of the individual benefit and the new one as the sum of each individual’s benefit amount.
The Senate release lists Maine’s minimum state supplement at $8 a month. At that amount, a couple paid 1.5 times one supplement would have received $12 a month, while two individual supplements come to $16. Larger supplements widen the gap in proportion.
Who gets the higher couple rate
The new rule applies to married couples where both spouses receive the state supplement. Neither document says what happens when only one spouse receives the supplement, or whether couples must apply or do anything to have the change applied.
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Maine pays and administers its own supplement, according to Social Security’s 2026 SSI guide, which tells recipients in such states to contact the state about their payment. The guide lists the federal rate at $994 a month for an individual and $1,491 for a couple. Social Security’s description of the program, dated January 2011, says Maine’s Department of Health and Human Services runs the supplement.
That description also shows how the supplement is built: Maine sets a state standard for total payments, and the federal payment and countable income are subtracted from it. In 2011 the optional supplement was $10 for an individual and $15 for a couple, an exact 1.5 ratio, which is the arrangement the new law ends.
What the law leaves alone
The federal couple rate of $1,491 is exactly 1.5 times the individual rate of $994, and it is $497 less than two individual rates added together, which would be $1,988. Maine cannot change that, and the new law does not try to. Tipping said the state cannot alter federal law on the marriage penalty but can change its own supplement.
Disability Rights Maine described the broader penalty in March 2025 testimony to the Health and Human Services Committee. Managing attorney Staci Converse gave an example of two unmarried people who each get $975 a month in SSI plus the state supplement, or $1,950 together. Once married, she said, the same couple would receive $1,462, about $488 less.
The group supports LD 840 and called it a step in the right direction, though not a full solution. SSI itself dates to the Social Security Amendments of 1972 and began paying in 1974, when the federal monthly payment for an individual was $140. It was $967 in 2025, the Senate release says, and about half of the states, Maine among them, add a supplement.
That example mixes the federal and state parts. Under LD 840, only the state share of that gap closes. What a given couple receives therefore still depends on the federal rate, the couple’s countable income, their resources and their living arrangements, and the supplement itself is a small piece of the total.
A bill that took two sessions to pass
LD 840 was introduced in March 2025, and a bill tracker shows it passed both chambers in April 2025, then waited on the Senate’s special appropriations table and was carried over to the next session. Both chambers completed enactment on April 13 and 14, 2026, and the governor signed it as Chapter 753 on April 16.
The fiscal note puts the cost at $36,828 a year from the state General Fund, starting in the 2026-27 fiscal year and continuing through 2028-29. It names the Department of Health and Human Services as the agency involved. Neither the note nor the Senate release says how many couples are affected.
A disability self-advocate, Jon McGovern, told the committee that “right now, the marriage penalty is damaging to them because they lose income and benefits,” the Senate release reports. He said people who want to marry often lose benefits, which makes it hard to cover rising living costs and health and dental expenses that insurance does not pay. Tipping called the old rule “discrimination” written into Maine law against people with disabilities who want to get married.
Has a married couple’s Maine supplement changed yet?
Maine’s change reaches only the state supplement, so a couple’s check still turns on the federal rate and the federal limits. A couple that counts on the extra money should know what those limits are before assuming the amount.
The turn from the Maine law to the wider SSI rules is the point of The SSI & Disability Action Kit, which includes the 2026 SSI income and resource limits and review and reporting steps. Part 2 covers the limits that decide whether a payment continues.
See the 2026 SSI limits and reporting steps for couples in The SSI & Disability Action Kit →
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This article was produced with AI assistance and edited for accuracy against the sources linked above.
