The larger-than-expected increases come as a surprise. On average, income limits rose by 6.2 percent, with most areas seeing noticeable upward adjustments. While some regions experienced moderate gains, others saw more significant changes—more than 70 percent of the country had increases above 5 percent, and over 40 percent exceeded an 8 percent rise. In fact, 27 percent of areas reached the maximum allowable increase of 9.2 percent, hitting HUD’s cap.
We’ll break down the new HOTMA methodology, explain the two categories of student financial assistance, and show you how to calculate what counts as income. We’ll also go over considerations for applicants with Section 8 assistance versus those without.
Income limit increases to be capped at 10 percent. On Jan. 10, HUD published a notice on changes the agency is intending to implement to the methodology used for calculating Section 8 income limits. HUD publishes these income limits each year based on changes to each housing area’s median income. In calculating the income limits for each housing area, HUD relies on census data, subject to various rules and adjustments. We’ll take a closer look at the changes HUD is making to the income limit calculations.
We review how to anticipate 2024 income with deductions for business or medical use of a car. The IRS recently issued Notice 24-08, which contains the 2024 standard mileage rates used to calculate the deductible costs of operating an automobile for business, charitable, medical, or moving purposes.With the recent notice, the 2024 business standard mileage rate is increasing to 67 cents, up 1.5 cents from 2023. In addition to the rate per mile driven for business use, the IRS also announced the standard mileage rate for 2024 will be:
The Social Security Administration (SSA) recently announced that the Social Security and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) benefits for approximately 71 million Americans will increase 3.2 percent in 2024. The cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) will begin with benefits payable to more than 66 million Social Security beneficiaries in January 2024. Increased payments to approximately 7.5 million SSI beneficiaries will begin on Dec. 29, 2023. The COLA increase also applies for Americans who rely on VA disability, military retirement, and other government benefits.
The average increase across all areas was 5.45 percent. On May 15, HUD issued the fiscal year 2023 income limits that determine eligibility for various HUD-assisted housing programs, including the Public Housing, Section 8 Project-Based, Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher, Section 202 Housing for the Elderly, and Section 811 Housing for Persons with Disabilities programs. The income limits became effective immediately and can be found at https://www.huduser.gov/portal/datasets/il.html.
