Give so she keeps
her full check
For someone on SSI, a cash gift can lower the monthly check. Giftwise checks every gift against Social Security’s rules. PayPal pays the shops and clinics the rules picked, in one order captured once, and the ABLE share goes through the plan’s own gift page. Claude reads the bills; the rules do the math.
For people on SSI, their families and benefits counselors.
Gift Checker
Her January 2027 check drops to$109
Cash counts as income, so $920 of it is counted. Giving the item itself keeps her January 2027 check at $1,029.
Counted in November, paid in January 2027
Money can reach only a payee the rules picked: one PayPal order, captured once, with a report anyone can check.
How it works
Wheelchair repair
Reading the quote
First a need arrives.
Wheelchair repair
Rule found
Then the rule is checked.
Wheelchair repair
Paid
Then PayPal pays the shop.
Her check
Steady
Her month stays steady.
What routing keeps
$331 to $663 a month kept at 2026 rates in 4 of 14 real SSI court cases, where help from family was counted against the person in all 14.What routing keeps, in dollars
$38,103 for two families in real court cases; $1,747.33 in Maya's sample year
- $331 to $663 a monthFamily help counted against the person in all 14 real court cases; routed through Giftwise, the same help keeps this in 4 of them at 2026 rates$38,103 kept by two families over the 41 and 37 months their cases cover
- $1,747.33kept in Maya’s sample year by one shared page, against 6 givers each paying on their own10 monthly checks whole that would have dropped
Every request, routed
Cash counts as income and paying the shop does not: repairs, school costs, bills and birthdays, each the way it should arrive
The rule in one sentence
Cash gifts count as income. Paying the shop for her wheelchair 
, laptop 
or medicine 
does not.
Repairs, school costs, bills and birthdays. Each need has a best way to arrive, and Giftwise picks it.
Utilities count as housing support. Two reviewers agreed: send it to her ABLE account, and she pays the bill from it.
Who it reaches, and how the rules were checked
7.4 million people on SSI; 40 of 40 of SSA's own examples, 14 of 14 court cases scored, 59 of 59 bills
- 7.4 millionpeople on SSI keep their full check when a gift pays the shop, the clinic, the pharmacy or the school. Items, care and school costs reach everyone. CRS, January 2025
- Rentstays whole through an ABLE account, for anyone whose disability began before 46, including all 1.0 million children on SSI. Without one, the rules cap the cut: $800 of rent from family leaves the January 2027 check at $686 of $1,029, and Giftwise says so first. Measured
How the rules were checked
Housing and ABLE counts, the sample year month by month, and all 8 sources
- 793,000people on SSI whose check Social Security lowered in a single month for food or housing someone else provided. SSA, January 2022
- $410 millionin SSI overpayments in one year from in-kind support: help with food or housing that should have lowered the check, found after it was paid. SSA Inspector General, FY 2024
- 454,843people on SSI whose check was lowered in December 2024 for shelter someone else helped with, by an average of $247 a month; Giftwise exists so help from family does not become that line. SSI Annual Statistical Report 2024
- 9 percentof SSI overpayments in fiscal years 2020 through 2023 that SSA attributed to unreported living arrangements or in-kind support; Giftwise pays the shop or the ABLE account, so there is nothing in-kind to report. SSA Inspector General, February 2025
- $132 a monththe average rise SSA projected for about 41,000 people when its rental subsidy rule took effect: the agency's own pricing of how much housing help from others lowers a check. 89 FR 25507, April 2024
- 8 millionpeople potentially eligible for an ABLE account under the original law, and an estimated 6 million more since January 1, 2026. ABLE National Resource Center, 2025
- 246,000ABLE accounts opened by March 31, 2026, holding over $3.2 billion. Every Giftwise gift with money left over goes to one. ABLE NRC, June 2026
$0 counted against her all year
Sample household, January to October 2026: $6,328 of help from 6 people, every gift through Giftwise. Her check stayed $994 every month, the full 2026 check.
Grounded in 20 CFR 416.1103(g), POMS SI 00815.400, POMS SI 01130.740, 89 FR 21199 (2024), SSA Understanding SSI, Special Needs Alliance guidance, Help Hope Live survey (2026) and Berliner and Kenworthy (2017).
Two reviewers and a referee
Two Claude reviewers read two rulebooks; the referee in code keeps her check whole when they disagree
Is a $138 electric bill a housing cost? Two reviewers answer from two rulebooks.
“Shelter includes room, rent, mortgage payments, real property taxes, heating fuel, gas, electricity, water, sewerage, and garbage collection services.”
20 CFR 416.1130(b)(1). Found word for word by code.
“In household LA's, shelter costs (also known as “items of shelter” ) are mortgage payments, property insurance (if required by a mortgageholder), rent, gas, electricity, heating fuel, water, sewer, garbage collection service, and real property taxes.”
POMS SI 00835.020B.36. Found word for word by code.
The referee, in code. Both reviewers found it in their own rulebook: this bill is a housing cost. Giftwise sends it to her ABLE account, and her January 2027 check stays $1,029.
Replayed: Claude Opus 5.5’s recorded answers of Nov 5, 2026, run through the same quote check, referee and rules engine. When the reviewers disagree
What is new
A report anyone can check
PayPal pays only the payees the rules picked, in one order captured once, so every gift has a PayPal record. Each month's report to Social Security carries a code and a QR code: opening it rebuilds the report, asks PayPal live for every payment in it and checks the audit ledger, with no login.
November's report, with real sandbox paymentsTwo rulebooks, and a referee in code
When a bill might be a housing cost, two Claude reviewers read different rulebooks and must quote them word for word. Code checks every quote, takes a reading only when both agree, and otherwise picks the route that keeps her check whole either way: 59 of 59 labeled bills.
One bill, two reviewersAn AI assistant that asks first
Over MCP, an assistant checks a gift before it is given and starts a PayPal checkout that only the giver can approve, then reads the order back from PayPal's own MCP server.
Watch it talk June out of cash
Plain answers
Who can use it, why pay the shop instead of cash, rent and utilities, ABLE accounts, and who holds the money
- Questions
Giftwise explains Social Security's published rules and shows the source for every answer. For complex situations, such as couples or state programs, tap Ask a counselor to share the case with a benefits counselor.
Giftwise explains Social Security's published rules and shows the source for every answer. For complex situations, such as couples or state programs, tap Ask a counselor to share the case with a benefits counselor.
Start with one gift
Paste a fundraiser's link, or start from the sample
Start with
one gift
Paste a fundraiser’s link, or start from the sample. Giftwise turns each need into a gift that arrives the benefit-safe way.