Add California's 2026 SSI/SSP payment standards

[MaxGhenis]

Summary

California's SSI/SSP payment-standard parameters stopped at 2025-01-01, so every 2026 calculation reused the 2025 amounts. For example, an aged individual living independently got a $1,206.94 standard instead of $1,233.94. An independent review of PolicyEngine/microcosm-dynamics#496 found this; that bridge currently overrides the value by hand.

This PR adds 2026-01-01 entries to all ten parameters under gov.states.ca.cdss.state_supplement.payment_standard. Each file cites the CDSS 2026 table and SSA POMS SI 01415.058.

Sources

• CDSS, "SSI Total Monthly Payment Amounts 2026" (Rev. 1/26, effective January 1, 2026). https://cdss.ca.gov/Portals/13/SHD/ParaRegIndex/SSI%20Monthly%20Payment%20Amounts%202026.pdf, retrieved 2026-09-30, sha256 75a99370…57228.
• SSA POMS SI 01415.058 §B, "Federally Administered Optional Supplementary Payment Programs for January 2026", California recipient and couple payment levels. https://secure.ssa.gov/apps10/poms.nsf/lnx/0501415058, retrieved 2026-09-30.
  • SSA pays California's supplement, so these are the levels SSA actually pays.
  • SI 01415.057 (January 2025) matches every 2025 value already in PE.
• CDSS Local Assistance Estimates, 2026 May Revision reference documents, p. 26, "SSI/SSP Payment Standards", January 2026. Cited only for the out-of-home-care conflict below. Retrieved 2026-09-30, sha256 d4a5a3be…ebd3a9.

Parameter (monthly)	2025	2026	CDSS table row	POMS §B row
aged_or_disabled.amount.single	1,206.94	1,233.94	Single aged/disabled, independent living	A/A Aged, Disabled
aged_or_disabled.amount.married	2,057.83	2,098.83	Couple aged/disabled, independent living	A/A Aged/Aged
blind.single	1,291.32	1,318.32	Single blind, independent living	A/A Blind
blind.married.two_blind	2,283.35	2,324.35	Couple blind, independent living	A/A Blind/Blind
blind.married.one_blind	2,197.44	2,238.44	Blind person with aged/disabled spouse	A/A Aged/Blind
dependent.amount	1,064.27	1,091.27	Minor child with disability	A/E Disabled
allowance.food.single	128.87	128.87	1,362.81 − 1,233.94 (no cooking facilities)	A/C − A/A
allowance.food.married	257.74	257.74	2,356.57 − 2,098.83	A/C − A/A
allowance.out_of_home_care	1,140.31	1,153.31	see below	3,252.14 − 2,098.83 (A/B − A/A)
allowance.medical_care_facility	62	62	Medicaid facility 62.00 (couple 124.00)	D/J All

The 2026 amounts equal the 2025 amounts plus the federal COLA: +$27 for individuals (SSI $967 → $994) and +$41 for couples ($1,450 → $1,491). California's state share did not change, except for couple out-of-home care.

One source conflict: couple non-medical out-of-home care

The CDSS monthly table lists $3,239.14 for couple NMOHC. SSA POMS and CDSS's own 2026 May Revision tables give $3,252.14 ($1,491.00 SSI + $1,761.14 SSP).

• The May Revision footnote says: "The Non-Medical Out-of-Home Care cost for couples is calculated by doubling the grant for an individual, then subtracting the SSI component." Twice $1,626.07 is $3,252.14.
• SSA's series follows that rule every year: $3,150.14 in 2024 and $3,198.14 in 2025.
• $3,239.14 equals the 2026 couple FBR ($1,491) plus the 2025 couple SSP ($1,748.14), so it looks like a state share that was not updated.

allowance.out_of_home_care keeps its existing convention (couple NMOHC minus couple independent living), so it becomes 3,252.14 − 2,098.83 = 1,153.31. It would be 1,140.31 under the CDSS monthly table.

CDSS ACIN I-59-25 (December 16, 2025), Attachment A, CAPI Payment Standards for January 2026 (p. 5), also lists $3,252.14 for couple NMOHC: https://cdss.ca.gov/Portals/9/Additional-Resources/Letters-and-Notices/ACINs/2025/I-59_25.pdf

Tests

• 2026 payment standards (integration.yaml, 8 cases). Each matches a CDSS/POMS total:
  • aged individual 1,233.94; no cooking facilities 1,362.81;
  • blind individual 1,318.32;
  • aged couple 2,098.83; without cooking 2,356.57;
  • two blind 2,324.35; blind with aged spouse 2,238.44;
  • disabled parent with a disabled child 1,233.94 + 1,091.27.
• End to end with SSI (ca_state_supplement.yaml, Cases 4–9, 2026):
  • Aged individual, no income: SSI $994/month, supplement $239.94/month (1,233.94 − 994).
  • Aged couple, no income: SSI $1,491, supplement $607.83.
  • Social Security of $500/month: SSI 514; supplement stays 239.94.
  • Social Security of $1,100/month: SSI 0; supplement 1,233.94 − 1,080 = 153.94.
  • Individuals at the boundaries (Case 8): Social Security of $1,013, $1,014 and $1,015 around the $994 federal benefit rate (supplement 239.94, 239.94, 238.94), and countable income exactly at the $1,233.94 and $1,362.81 standards (supplement 0). Includes a no-cooking household at $1,015 (supplement 367.81).
  • Couples at the boundaries (Case 9): countable income at the $1,491 federal benefit rate (supplement 607.83), at the $2,098.83 and $2,356.57 standards (supplement 0), and $2,098.83 without cooking facilities (supplement 257.74).
• Components: out-of-home care 1,153.31 and medical facility 62 for 2026-01.
• Mutation check (run at an earlier head, before the property test moved to YAML). Against the old parameters, 13 of the new YAML cases and all 4 property tests failed. The medical-facility case passes either way because $62 did not change.
• Two non-partner tests updated. spm_unit_benefits.yaml and snap_unearned_income_state_ssi_supplements.yaml had 2026 expectations built on the 2025 standard (341.81 → 368.81 a month). SNAP stays at the $24 minimum.
• Test runs:
  • At fd91c34aa1 (merged with main at 95eefa51e5): all 57 cases in the 12 CA state-supplement YAML files pass. So do snap_unearned_income_state_ssi_supplements.yaml, spm_unit_benefits.yaml and the CA partner file (13 cases across the three), and test_programs_registry.py.
  • Earlier: a targeted run of 710 baseline tests with 2026+ California households containing aged, blind or disabled people failed only the 3 partner cases below, which this PR now updates.
  • Earlier: a peer session ran all 1,249 CA 2026 baseline YAML tests and saw the same 3 partner failures, plus spm_unit_benefits.yaml, which this PR updates.

Partner contract test (updated after the three-question gate)

partners/analytics_coverage/edge_cases/state/ca/state_supplement.yaml computed its 2026 expected values from the 2025 parameters; its header says "2026 payment standards (2025-01-01 params)". With the 2026 standards, three cases change:

Case	Current expectation	2026 standards
Aged single, no income	4,101.72	4,425.72
Aged couple, no income	9,894.84	10,386.84
Aged single, $2,200/mo earnings	3,339.72	3,663.72

The resources-above-limit case stays at 0. Ziming Hua answered yes to the three partner-test questions on 2026-10-08 (edit confirmed; a team member and the API partner notified). The three expectations and the file header were updated in a02483d8e3.

Independent review

An independent Opus 5.5 reviewer re-fetched the CDSS table, POMS SI 01415.058, the May Revision and ACIN I-59-25. It found all ten 2026 values correct to the cent and re-ran the targeted tests and the mutation check. Its verdict was APPROVE with no blocking findings. This revision addresses its non-blocking notes: the #7787 overlap, the out-of-home-care comment, a programs.yaml note on the #7892 gaps, and the other-states caveats.

Invariants

For a 2026 California aged individual or couple living independently, with countable income c, federal benefit rate F (994 or 1,491) and payment standard S:

1. Reference: supplement = max(0, S − max(F, c)).
2. Conservation: SSI + supplement + c = max(S, c).
3. Plateau: while c ≤ F, the supplement equals the state supplement level POMS lists (S − F: 239.94, 607.83, 368.81, 865.57).
4. Bounds: 0 ≤ supplement ≤ S − F.
5. Monotonicity: the supplement never rises with income.

Cases 4–9 in ca_state_supplement.yaml check these at points below, at and above the federal benefit rate and at each payment standard.

Review follow-ups (fd91c34aa1)

• The Python property test is replaced by the YAML boundary cases above (Cases 8–9).
• The one-page CDSS table is cited without a page fragment.
• out_of_home_care.yaml names both sources that list $3,239.14 (the CDSS monthly table and SSA EN-05-11125) and cites ACIN I-59-25.
• The programs.yaml note is shortened to the verified scope.

Out of scope

• Facility and living-arrangement structure (CA SSP: payment standard double-counts for facility residents and stores combined totals requiring annual updates #7892, open). The payment standard adds the out-of-home-care and medical-facility amounts on top of the independent-living standard. A single aged person in NMOHC therefore gets a 2026 standard of 1,233.94 + 1,153.31 = 2,387.25 instead of 1,626.07, or 2,516.12 when the household cannot prepare food (the model default). The household-of-another ("reduced needs") rows are not modelled. This PR only updates the values under the existing structure.
• 1992–2024 history. Draft PR Backdate California State Supplement (SSP) parameters #7787 backdates these ten files and already conflicts with main. In four files (allowance/food/*, medical_care_facility, out_of_home_care) it replaces the 2025-01-01 line with a 2024-01-01 entry. A rebase has to keep both the 2025 lines and the 2026 lines added here. Its 2024 out-of-home-care value (1,140.31) is the 2025 figure; POMS SI 01415.056 gives 3,150.14 − 2,022.83 = 1,127.31.
• Future years. The CA parameters are not uprated, so 2027+ reuses 2026 while federal SSI uprates, and the modelled supplement shrinks. CA SSP: payment standard double-counts for facility residents and stores combined totals requiring annual updates #7892 also covers this.

Other states' SSP parameters with stale 2026 values (not fixed here)

26 other state SSP implementations were checked. For each state, one agent fetched primary sources and a second agent re-fetched them and tried to refute the claim. Each row's primary source is named in the table. The fetched copies, retrieval times, sha256 hashes and excerpts are kept in a local run folder and are available on request.

State	Parameter	PE value for 2026	Published	Effective	Primary source
MA	gov.states.ma.dta.ssp.amount (7 of 36 leaves)	blind spouse 391.74 (full cost, shared, rest home); household-of-another blind 472.07 / 633.40; rest-home aged/disabled spouse 535.00	398.24; 481.07 / 646.74; 541.50	2026-01-01	mass.gov CY2026 federal and state payment levels
IL	gov.states.il.dhs.aabd.payment.grant_amount	788.90	816.90	2026-01-01	IDHS MR 26.02; PM 11-01-07
NE	gov.states.ne.dhhs.aabd.standard_of_need.independent	564 / 887 (sizes 1–2)	764 / 1,187	2026-01-01	NE DHHS AABD guidance (Title 469). 477-000-044, a Medicaid eligibility table, agrees for sizes 1–2 but gives 1,509 against the guidance's 1,622 for size 3.
NE	gov.states.ne.dhhs.aabd.alternate_living_standard	LTC 60; board and room 798; adult family home 926; ALF 1,236; AL waiver 794; group home 862	75; 1,009; 1,137; 1,447; 994; 1,073	2026-01-01	NE DHHS AABD guidance
WA	gov.states.wa.dshs.ssp.amount STANDARD	35.50	33.00	2026-07-01	WSR 26-11-010 (WAC 388-478-0055)
MN	MSA housing assistance (0.5 × FBR)	497 all year	483.50 through June; 497 from July	2026-07-01	DHS Combined Manual 0023.24. PE is wrong for January–June only.
ID	gov.states.id.dhw.aabd.payment.basic_allowance RALF_CFH	96	135	2026-01-01	DHW BNA worksheet (certified family home basic needs allowance). In PE, RALF_CFH does not currently reach a computed benefit.
MD	gov.states.md.dhs.fia.paa.personal_needs_allowance	106	109	2026-07-01	MDH PT 05-27, a Medicaid nursing-facility transmittal. Applying it to PAA is inferred.

Flagged but not confirmed:

• ID: the SINGLE and COUPLE basic allowances (545 / 768) look stale, but the 2026 amounts (1,027 / 1,491) are derived from DHW income limits, not published as allowances.
• ME: PL 2025 c. 753, effective 2026-07-29, sets couple benefits to the sum of the individual benefits. DHHS has no implementing rule yet, and rows D–G are ambiguous.
• FL: DCF's A-12 prints a redesign couple maximum OSS of $386.80 against PE's $368.80. The verifier judged it a DCF transposition, so PE was left as is.
• IN: no 2026 primary source states the RCAP per diems. The in-force rule text gives $27 for unlicensed facilities; PE has $37, which matches FSSA's 2017 guide.

Checked, no change needed:

• Current for 2026 (a matching 2026 entry exists, or the published 2026 amount equals the carried-forward value): AK, CO, CT, DC, DE, HI, KS, KY, LA, MI, MO, SC, and MN's assistance standards.
• Flat amounts confirmed still in force: AL, GA, NM, TX, and IN apart from the RCAP per diems.

axiom: TheAxiomFoundation/rulespec-us#1450 queued

🤖 Generated with Claude Code

[MaxGhenis]

@hua7450, assigning this to you for the partner-test step.

The only failing check is Household API Partners. Three cases in policyengine_us/tests/policy/baseline/partners/analytics_coverage/edge_cases/state/ca/state_supplement.yaml still use the 2025 SSP standards with the 2026 federal SSI. Under the published 2026 standards, the annual ca_state_supplement values become:

Case	2025 fixture	2026
Aged single	4,101.72	4,425.72
Aged couple	9,894.84	10,386.84
Aged single, $2,200/month earnings	3,339.72	3,663.72

The 2026 combined monthly standards are 1,233.94 + 128.87 = 1,362.81 (single) and 2,098.83 + 257.74 = 2,356.57 (couple). Sources: SSA POMS SI 01415.058 and the CDSS 2026 standards. An independent review approved all ten 2026 values.

Editing partner tests needs the usual three checks: that the edit is right, that a team member knows, and that the analytics_coverage API partner knows. Those are yours to make.