Does a loan count as an asset or income?

The SSA does not count certain loans as assets, such as the following:

• Student loans, federal education loans, or any loan made under Title IV of the Higher Education Act
• Bank Loans – SSA will not consider the cash received from a loan as income. However, it will consider any cash one still has in the month after you received it as an asset.
• Informal loans – these are loans from friends or family, which constitute a bone fide loan agreement under the law. Just like a bank loan, SSA will not consider the cash received from this loan as income. However, it will consider the cash as an asset should you still have any of the borrowed cash in the month after it was received.

Should a loan not constitute a bona fide loan agreement (for example, a claimant received a gift of money that doesn’t actually have to be paid back), then SSA will consider that cash as income in the month it was received. It will also count as an asset if the individual retains that cash in the following month.