Many States provide SSP benefits with State-only dollars on a monthly basis. These payments are intended to cover such items as food, shelter, clothing, utilities, and other daily necessities. The amount of the benefit is determined by the individual States. States may provide supplemental payments to all persons who receive SSI, and/or to individuals who meet all SSI criteria, other than income.

States also may choose to provide SSP benefits only to particular groups, such as elderly persons living independently in the community without special needs, or elderly individuals who require in-home personal care assistance or home-delivered meals. In all of these cases, States decide whether to extend Medicaid coverage to all SSP recipients, to only some of these recipients, or to none at all. When a State provides Medicaid eligibility to persons receiving only SSP-and not SSI-then the maximum income eligibility standard for Medicaid is an amount equivalent to the combined Federal SSI payment and the SSP benefit. For 209(b) States, however, the effective maximum financial eligibility standard for these individuals is the 209(b) categorical eligibility standard plus the SSP payment.