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Anticipated 2025 ALTCS Community Spouse Standards and Home Equity Limit

Mon, 11 Nov 2024 22:18:39 GMT

Effective January 1, 2025...

According to my calculations, the 2025 ALTCS Community Spouse Resource Deduction (CSRD) minimum will be $31,548, the maximum CSRD will be $157,920, the Maximum Monthly Maintenance Needs Allowance will be $3,948.00, and the ALTCS home equity limit will be $730,000.

Community Spouse Resource Deduction (CSRD)

The CSRD plus $2,000 is the resource limit for a legally married couple applying for ALTCS. Each couple's CSRD is determined by calculating the total assets the couple had when the spouse who needs ALTCS first received paid long-term care services for 30 consecutive days or more and/or when that spouse is determined to be medically qualified for ALTCS, and dividing that total by half. The spouse who doesn't need long term care ("well spouse") gets to keep their half of the total, up to a maximum set by federal law, and the spouse who needs ALTCS gets to keep up to $2,000. It's a bit more involved than that, but that's the gist. Every married couple gets to keep at least the minimum CSRD even if their half is less than the minimum.

Maximum Monthly Maintenance Needs Allowance (MMMNA)

The Maximum Monthly Maintenance Needs Allowance (MMMNA) is used in the share of cost calculation for a married ALTCS recipient. "Share of cost" is the amount that ALTCS determines the ALTCS recipient must pay toward the cost of their care. Not everyone has to pay a share of cost, though. The MMMNA is the maximum monthly allowance the well spouse may receive from the ALTCS recipient spouse's income and is a standard set by federal law. The allowance the well spouse is entitled to receive from the recipient's income is based on a combination of actual expenses and federal need standards minus the well spouse's income and cannot exceed the MMMNA except as otherwise ordered by the court or an Administrative Law Judge on administrative appeal of the ALTCS share of cost decision.

Home Equity Limit

The ALTCS home equity limit does not apply if the ALTCS recipient's spouse, child under age 21, or blind or disabled child of any age resides in the home, or if a hardship exception applies. If your home equity exceeds the limit and no exception applies, you can obtain a reverse mortgage or home equity loan to reduce your home equity; however, how you receive the loan proceeds and what you do with them may impact your eligibility, so you should seek legal advice before you take any action.

Basis of These Federal Standards

These standards change each year in January based on the September Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers ("CPI-U") for the prior year. The September 2024 CPI-U was provided in the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics press release issued on October 11, 2024 .

ALTCS 2024 Income Limit

The ALTCS income limit will be $2,901 per month in 2025. The ALTCS income limit is three times the Federal Benefit Rate, which is the maximum monthly Supplemental Security Income (SSI) payment available to a single individual. The individual Federal Benefit Rate for 2025 is $967.

For more information about the ALTCS resource and income limits and share of cost, please visit our Public Benefits page .

SSI Will No Longer Consider Food in In-Kind Support and Maintenance (ISM) Calculations

Thu, 06 Jun 2024 18:46:19 GMT

Finally some good news...

When SSI beneficiaries receive assistance in the form of In-Kind Support and Maintenance (ISM), their benefit payments are reduced by either the actual value of the ISM or one-third of the maximum SSI payment plus $20. Effective September 30, 2024, Supplemental Security Income (SSI) will no longer include food in its calculation of In-Kind Support and Maintenance (ISM). This means SSI will no longer consider informal food assistance received by the SSI beneficiary as income to the beneficiary that may reduce the amount of the SSI benefit payment. SSI will still consider assistance provided to the SSI beneficiary for shelter expenses as ISM, though. Shelter expenses include room, rent, mortgage payments, real property taxes, heating, fuel, gas (for a home, not a vehicle), electricity, water, sewer, and garbage services.

However, SSI will still ask about food assistance to determine whether to use the Value of the One-Third Reduction (VTR) rule or the Presumed Maximum Value (PMV) rule in cases in which the SSI beneficiary receives ISM in the form of shelter. The VTR rule values ISM at one-third of the maximum SSI payment (in 2024, $314.33 for an individual and $471.66 for a married couple who are both SSI beneficiaries). The PMV rule values ISM at the lesser of the VTR amount or the actual value of the ISM received.

Under the new rules, SSI will apply the VTR rule when all of the following apply:

The SSI beneficiary lives in another person's household through a calendar month; AND
The SSI beneficiary receives shelter ISM from others living in the household; AND
Others within the household pay for or provide all the SSI beneficiary's meals.

Under the new rules, SSI will apply the PMV rule when the SSI beneficiary:

Lives in someone else's household and receives shelter ISM from others in the household, but others in the household do not provide the SSI beneficiary with all of their meals; OR
Lives in their own household, but someone helps with their shelter expenses; OR
Lives in a non-medical institution as described in 20 C.F.R. Section 416.1141(c) .

This is a small step, but one that may have a very large positive impact on SSI beneficiaries because now their families, friends, and communities can buy them food without causing them to lose part of their benefit payments, which are already critically insufficient as it is. Now if only they would increase the resource limits, which haven't been changed since 1989...

In Memoriam: Chester B. McLaughlin IV

Wed, 10 Apr 2024 22:00:43 GMT

"The loss of a friend is like that of a limb; time may heal the anguish of the wound, but the loss cannot be repaired. - Robert Southey.

Chester "Chip" B. McLaughlin, IV, my long-time mentor and friend, passed away on March 30, 2024. Mere words cannot properly express the sorrow that my staff and I feel at losing him. It's difficult to lose someone you love, even when you know it's coming. I learned a great deal from Chip, and it's largely due to his encouragement and mentorship that I became a lawyer. He supported my professional advancement every step of the way and has always been a great friend to me as well, like a cross between a protective older brother and a fun uncle. He was an outgoing, honest, and humble man who worked hard all his life to help people in need and to give back to his community, and he will be sorely missed by all who knew him well.

I'm so grateful to his wonderful, devoted wife, Nanci, for taking such excellent care of my friend during his final days. I wish they'd been able to have more time together to do all the fun things they'd planned for their retirement.

Chip's obituary, which is the source of the above picture of him, which I think he would have really liked, provides additional details about his life and his upcoming memorial service: https://www.dcourier.com/news/2024/apr/09/obituary-chester-bond-mclaughlin-iv/ .

Anticipated 2024 ALTCS Community Spouse Standards and Home Equity Limit

Thu, 19 Oct 2023 02:51:21 GMT

According to my calculations, the 2024 ALTCS Community Spouse Resource Deduction (CSRD) minimum will be $30,828, the maximum CSRD will be $154,140, the Maximum Monthly Maintenance Needs Allowance will be $3,853.50, and the ALTCS home equity limit will be $713,000.

Community Spouse Resource Deduction (CSRD)

Maximum Monthly Maintenance Needs Allowance (MMMNA)

Home Equity Limit

Basis of These Federal Standards

These standards change each year in January based on the September Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers ("CPI-U") for the prior year. The September 2023 CPI-U was provided in the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics press release issued on October 12, 2023.

ALTCS 2024 Income Limit

The ALTCS income limit will be $2,829 per month in 2024. The ALTCS income limit is three times the Federal Benefit Rate, which is the maximum monthly Supplemental Security Income (SSI) payment available to a single individual. The Federal Benefit Rate for 2024 is $943.

For more information about the ALTCS resource and income limits and share of cost, please visit our Public Benefits page .