New York Codes, Rules and Regulations
Title 18 - DEPARTMENT OF SOCIAL SERVICES
Chapter II - Regulations of the Department of Social Services
Subchapter B - Public Assistance
Article 2 - Determination of Eligibility-Categorical
Part 360 - MEDICAL ASSISTANCE
Subpart 360-4 - Financial Eligibility
Section 360-4.6 - Net available income and resources
Universal Citation: 18 NY Comp Codes Rules and Regs ยง 360-4.6
Current through Register Vol. 46, No. 39, September 25, 2024
Not all of the income and resources available to an applicant/recipient is counted in determining his/her financial eligibility for MA. Certain types and amounts of income and resources are disregarded. After these disregards have been applied, what remains is the applicant'/recipient' net available income and resources. This section lists the types and amounts of income and resource disregards.
(a) Income disregards.
(1) Disregards applicable
to all MA applicants/recipients:
(i) any
payment received under title II of the Uniform Relocation Assistance and Real
Property Acquisition Policies Act of 1970;
(ii) any loan made to a family under title
III of the Federal Economic Opportunity Act;
(iii) Federal energy assistance
payments;
(iv) payments received by
foster parents for care of foster children;
(v) the value of garden produce or livestock
when used solely by the applicant/recipient and dependents;
(vi) the value of free school
lunches;
(vii) the value of other
free meals, except when more than one meal per day is furnished or when the
applicant/recipient receives an allowance for meals away from home;
(viii) the value of food stamp
coupons;
(ix) the value of
federally donated foods;
(x) the
value of WIC benefits;
(xi)
payments made to participants in the Retired Senior Volunteer Program under the
Domestic Volunteer Services Act for services provided to adults who have
exceptional needs;
(xii) payments
made to participants in the Foster Grandparent Program under the Domestic
Volunteer Services Act;
(xiii)
payments made to compensate for expenses incident to employment under
subparagraph (xi) or (xii) of this paragraph;
(xiv) payments made to volunteers under the
VISTA program;
(xv) any funds
received by an applicant/recipient from the department of Housing and Urban
Development community development block grants;
(xvi) any support and maintenance provided
based on need according to section
352.22(s)
of this Title;
(xvii) income from
roomers/boarders. The first $90 per month of any income received from a person
living in the home who is not a member of the family household. If the family
can document out-of-pocket expenses greater than $90 per month incurred in
providing room and board, these documented expenses will be
disregarded;
(xviii) any portion of
a grant, scholarship or fellowship used for tuition, fees, or other necessary
educational expenses (excluding general living expenses);
(xix) regular cash assistance payments based
on need and furnished as supplemental income by the Federal government, a state
or political subdivision;
(xx)
payments provided as a preventive housing service under section
423.4(1)
of this Title;
(xxi) benefits paid
to eligible Japanese-Americans or Aleuts under the Federal Civil Liberties Act
of 1988 and the Aleutian and Pibilof Islands Restitution Act;
(xxii) payments made from the Agent Orange
Settlement Fund or any other fund established pursuant to the settlement in the
In re Agent Orange product liability litigation, and payments received from
court proceedings brought for personal injuries sustained by veterans resulting
from exposure to dioxin or phenoxy herbicides in connection with the war in
Indochina in the period of January 1, 1962 through May 7, 1975;
(xxiii) refunds or advance payments of the
Federal Earned Income Tax Credit;
(xxiv) payments made for child care services,
or the value of any child care services provided to a recipient of
employment-related and JOBS-related child care services, transitional child
care services, at-risk low income child care services or child care and
development block grant services;
(xxv) bona fide loans, as described in
section
352.22
of this Title;
(xxvi) any Federal
major disaster and emergency assistance provided under the Disaster Relief Act
of 1974 ( P.L. 93-288), as amended by the Disaster Relief and Emergency
Assistance Amendments of 1988 ( P.L. 100-707), and any comparable disaster
assistance provided by states, local governments, and disaster assistance
organizations;
(xxvii)
distributions to Native Americans of funds appropriated in satisfaction of
judgments of the Indian Claims Commission or the United States Court of Federal
Claims;
(xxviii) up to $2,000 per
year of income from interests of individual Native Americans in trust or
restricted lands, from funds appropriated in satisfaction of Indian Claims
Commission or United States Court of Federal Claims; and
(xxix) any other income that a Federal law or
regulation requires to be disregarded.
(2) Additional disregards applicable to MA
applicants/recipients who are 65 years of age or older, certified blind or
certified disabled. These disregards are to be applied in the following order:
(i) [Reserved]
(ii) all reparations payments received from
the Federal Republic of Germany;
(iii) the first $20 per month of any unearned
income. Only one $20 disregard is permitted per couple. A certified blind or
certified disabled child living with parents is entitled to a separate $20
disregard from his/her total unearned income. If a person' unearned income is
under $20, the balance will be deducted from earned income;
(iv) the first $65 of earned
income;
(v) for disabled MA
applicants/recipients, nonmedical, impairment-related work expenses;
(vi) one half of the remaining earned income
after the disregards listed in subparagraphs (ii)-(v) of this paragraph have
been applied;
(vii) health
insurance premiums;
(viii) aid and
attendance benefits and housebound benefits received from the Veterans'
Administration;
(ix) any refund
received from a public agency of taxes paid on real estate or food
purchases;
(x) infrequently or
irregularly received income up to $20 of unearned income per month and $10 of
earned income per month;
(xi) for
persons who are certified blind, all remaining reasonable work-related
expenses, after the disregards set forth in subparagraphs (i)-(xi) of this
paragraph are applied;
(xii) one
third of any support payments received by a certified blind or certified
disabled child from an absent parent;
(xiii) any payments made under the Federal
Vocational Rehabilitation Act;
(xiv) income, up to $1,200 per calendar
quarter but not more than $1,620 per calendar year, earned by a child under 22
years of age who is regularly attending a school, college, university, or a
course of vocational or technical training;
(xv) [Reserved]
(xvi) home energy assistance payments which
are based on financial need;
(xvii)
interest earned on excluded burial funds and appreciation in the value of an
excluded burial arrangement which are to become part of the separately
identifiable burial fund;
(xviii)
any assistance to an inparaidual (other than wages or salaries) under the
Federal Older Americans Act of 1965;
(xix) retroactive benefits under the SSI
program;
(xx) payments received
from a fund established by a state to aid victims of crime;
(xxi) relocation assistance received on or
after May 1, 1991 that is provided by a state or local government and is
comparable to assistance provided under title II of the Uniform Relocation
Assistance and Real Property Acquisitions Policies Act of 1970 which is subject
to the treatment required by section 216 of such Act;
(xxii) payments made by the Austrian
government under paragraphs 500 to 506 of the Austrian General Social Insurance
Act provided that the payments remain identifiable as such;
(xxiii) income received from hostile fire pay
(pursuant to section 310 of title 37, United States Code) received while in
active military service; and
(xxiv)
for certified blind or certified disabled persons under 65 years of age, and
for certified blind or certified disabled persons age 65 or over who received
SSI payments or aid under the State Plan for the certified blind or certified
disabled for the month preceding the month of their 65th birthday, any
remaining countable income may be set aside for a plan to achieve self-support.
The plan must:
(a) be current, in writing and
approved by the local commissioner of social services for not more than 18
months, with the possibility of an extension for an additional 18 months. A
second extension for an additional 12 months may be allowed in order to fulfill
a lengthy educational or training program;
(b) specify planned savings and/or
expenditures to achieve a designated feasible occupational objective and a
specific period of time to achieve the objective;
(c) provide for the identification and
segregation of money and goods, if any, being accumulated and saved;
and
(d) be followed by the
individual.
(3) Additional disregards applicable to needy
individuals under 21, pregnant women, persons ineligible for ADC solely because
their income and resources exceed the ADC eligibility standards, parents
described in section 360- 3.3(b)(7) of this Part. These disregards are to be
applied in the following order:
(i) the first
$90 of earned income;
(ii) all of
the earned income of a child under 21 who is attending a school, college or
university or vocational or technical training designed to prepare a person for
gainful employment will be disregarded if the student is employed part-time. If
a full-time student is employed full-time, his/her income will be disregarded
for up to six months in a calendar year;
(iii) after the disregards in subparagraphs
(i) and (ii) of this paragraph have been applied, $30 plus one third of the
remainder of monthly earned income will be disregarded for four consecutive
months, and $30 per month will be disregarded for an additional eight months
after that. This disregard will apply only if:
(a) the applicant received ADC payments in
one of the four preceding months;
(b) the period of four consecutive months in
which the $30 plus one-third disregard is applied includes any period in which
the disregard was applied under the ADC program according to section
352.20
of this Title;
(c) the additional
eight-month period begins with the month following the fourth consecutive month
that the $30 plus one-third disregard was applied, and ends with the eighth
consecutive month regardless of whether the $30 disregard is actually applied
to the person's earned income; and
(d) except as provided in this subparagraph,
the disregard is applied in the same manner and subject to the same
restrictions as the disregard provided to ADC applicants. Section
352.20(c),
(d) and (e) of this Title explain the ADC
disregard;
(iv) for
individuals employed full-time throughout the month, an amount equal to the
actual cost, but not to exceed $175, for the case of each dependent child two
years of age or older or incapacitated adult living in the same home and
receiving assistance, and an amount equal to the actual cost, but not to exceed
$200, for the care of each dependent child under two years of age living in the
same home and receiving assistance; for those individuals working less than
full-time or not employed throughout the month, an amount equal to the actual
cost, but less than $175 for the care of each dependent child two years of age
or older or incapacitated adult, and an amount equal to the actual cost, but
less than $200, for each dependent child under two years of age;
(v) the first $50 of any child or spousal
support payments received in a month;
(vi) money received by a family based on the
enrollment of a youth in the Job Corps under the Job Training Partnership
Act;
(vii) health insurance
premiums; and
(viii) for a person
providing family day care for children other than his/her own, $5 per day for
each such child.
(b) Resource disregards.
(1) Burial funds of MA applicants/recipients
and their families will be disregarded as follows:
(i) for needy individuals under 21 years of
age and persons ineligible for ADC solely because their income and resources
are above eligibility limits, a burial fund will be disregarded if it is
separately identifiable as a contractual funeral agreement with a maximum
equity value of $1,500 per family member; and
(ii) for persons 65 years of age or older,
certified blind or certified disabled, and for spouses of such persons, a
burial fund of up to $1,500 will be disregarded if the funds are separately
identifiable and monitored as a burial fund. Such burial fund will be made up
first of any life insurance policies with a face value of $1,500 or
less.
(2) For MA
applicants/recipients who are 65 years of age or older, certified blind, or
certified disabled, the following additional resources will be disregarded:
(i) all property which is contiguous to the
applicant's/recipient's homestead. The term homestead is defined in section
360-1.4(f)
of this Part. Contiguous property is the land adjoining the homestead and the
buildings located on such land. To be considered contiguous, the land must
adjoin the plot on which the home is located and must not be separated from it
by intervening real property owned by others. Property will be considered to
adjoin other property if the only intervening real property is an easement or
public right-of-way such as a street, road, or utility line;
(ii) life insurance policies with a combined
face value of $1,500 or less;
(iii)
on or after September 1, 1987, pension funds belonging to an ineligible or
nonapplying legally responsible relative which are held in individual
retirement accounts or in work-related pension plans, including plans for self-
employed individuals such as Keogh plans. However, amounts disbursed from a
pension fund to a pensioner are income to the pensioner which will be
considered in the deeming process;
(iv) reparation payments received from the
Republic of Germany provided that the reparation payments remain identifiable
as such;
(v) for a period of nine
months following the month of receipt, retroactive SSI and social security
benefits received during the period of October 1, 1987 through September 30,
1989; for a period of six months following the month of receipt, retroactive
SSI and social security benefits received on or after October 1,
1989;
(vi) for a period of nine
months following the month receipt, payments received from a fund established
by a state to aid victims or crime;
(vii) for a period of nine months following
the month of receipt, relocation assistance provided by a state or local
government that is received on or after May 1, 1991 and is comparable to
assistance provided under title II of the Uniform Relocation Assistance and
Real Property Acquisitions Policies Act of 1970 which is subject to the
treatment required by section 216 of such act; and
(viii) payments made by the Austrian
government under paragraphs 500 to 506 of the Austrian General Social Insurance
Act provided that the payments remain identifiable as such.
(3) For certified blind or
certified disabled MA applicants/recipients under 65 years of age, and for
certified blind or certified disabled MA applicants/recipients age 65 or over
who received SSI payments or aid under the State Plan for the blind or disabled
for the month preceding the month of their 65th birthday, any remaining
countable resources may be set aside for a plan to achieve self-support in
accordance with the provisions of subparagraph (a)(2)(xxi) of this
section.
(4) For all MA
applicants/recipients, payments provided as a preventive housing service under
section
423.4(1)
of this Title will be disregarded.
(5) A child's savings account of under $500
accumulated from gifts from nonlegally responsible relatives or from the
child's own wages will be disregarded in determining eligibility.
(6) Benefits received by eligible
Japanese-Americans or Aleuts under the Federal Civil Liberties Act of 1988 or
the Aleutian and Pribilof Islands Restitution Act will be
disregarded.
(7) For all MA
applicants/recipients, payments provided from the Agent Orange Settlement Fund,
from any other fund established pursuant to the settlement in the In re Agent
Orange product liability litigation, or from court proceedings brought for
personal injuries sustained by veterans resulting from exposure to dioxin or
phenoxy herbicides in connection with the war in Indochina in the period of
January 1, 1962 through May 7, 1975, will be disregarded.
(8) For all MA applicants/recipients, any
payment received under title II of the Uniform Relocation Assistance and Real
Property Acquisition Policies Act of 1970.
(9) For all MA applicants/recipients, for the
month of receipt and the following month, refunds or advance payments of the
Federal Earned Income Tax Credit.
(10) For needy individuals under the age of
21, pregnant women, persons ineligible for ADC solely because their income and
resources exceed the ADC eligibility standards, and parents described in
section
360-3.3(b)(7)
of this Part, bona fide loans will be disregarded. Bona fide loans are
described in section
352.22
of this Title.
(11) Any Federal
major disaster and emergency assistance provided under the Disaster Relief Act
of 1974 ( P.L. 93-288), as amended by the Disaster Relief and Emergency
Assistance Amendments of 1988 ( P.L. 100-707), and any comparable disaster
assistance provided by states, local governments, and disaster assistance
organizations will be disregarded.
(12) For all MA applicants/recipients,
interests of individual Native Americans in trust or restricted lands, from
funds appropriated in satisfaction of judgments of the Indian Claims Commission
or the United States Court of Federal Claims will be disregarded in determining
eligibility.
Disclaimer: These regulations may not be the most recent version. New York may have more current or accurate information. We make no warranties or guarantees about the accuracy, completeness, or adequacy of the information contained on this site or the information linked to on the state site. Please check official sources.
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