My 25 year old daughter is totally and permanent disabled. Her only income is SSI, but her SSI benefits are enough to provide more than half of her total support.
I'm struggling to understand whether I can claim her as a dependent. I was initially under the impression that I cannot (because her SSI benefits are being used for provide for more than half of her total support).
However, I've come across some publications online saying that SSI does NOT count as "own support", and is instead treated like TANF (i.e. support from the state). In that case, a child who is paying half of her own support using her SSI benefits is NOT treated as paying half of her own support when it comes to determining whether she is a Qualifying Child - so the parent can still claim her as a dependent.
Is that correct? It is very confusing and I cannot find a definitive answer anywhere. My daughter otherwise meets all the criteria for me to claim her as a dependent, except for this "providing half of her own support" factor - and it's not clear whether SSI benefits count as "own support".
