Married filing jointly or separately with a spouse that WAS on SSI?

Here's the deal. We got married in July '08 but my husband was still getting SSI benefits through July '09. They never asked & he never told them he was married. I did some research & found out that he was not eligible to received benefits if he was married to me because I earned too much. so he got off SSI on his own & told them he didn't want the payments anymore to avoid any problems & we've been living off my salary since then which was July '09. So now I'm getting ready to file my taxes for '09 and I'm going to owe $1,100 if I file Married Filing Separately. I wanted to do it that way just in case my filing will get him in trouble & he'll have to pay back 6 months of SSI benefits that we can't afford. But if I file Married Filing Jointly I GET BACK $1,000. I have no idea how to file my personal taxes without getting my husband in trouble for having those benefits for 1/2 of 2009. Help anyone? I'm totally lost.