Changes to Minimum Community Spouse Resource Allowance
Jun 25th, 2008 by kburns
Effective July 1, 2008, the Minimum Community Spouse Resource Allowance will go from $1,712 to $1,750! That is great news for those who need ALTCS, but also have a spouse who does not. Fear of losing a spouse’s income is one of the biggest reasons that people decide not to apply for the ALTCS program. For those of you who are unsure of how this resource allowance affects both the ill spouse and well spouse, let’s look at an example:
Husband (ill spouse): Income $1,500/month
Wife (well spouse): Income $500/month
$1,750 (resource allowance) – $500 (well spouse’s income) = $1,250
$1,250 represents the amount of the ill spouse’s income that the well spouse would get to keep. So, instead of having to only live on her $500/month, she will actually have a total of $1,750/month. This number can be adjusted even more, based on the living expenses and other possible hardships, but that is up to the ALTCS Eligibility Interviewer. The remaining $250 that the ill spouse has would be subject to share of cost if the person is living in a nursing home.