Estate and Medicaid Planning Newsletter
During these strange new times, we have altered our practice to better suit our clients needs. While we always had an online scheduling system on line scheduling system, for a consultation.
Medicaid Eligibility Rule Update

Every year, the threshold limits for Medicaid changes with the cost of inflation. It actually follows the Social Security percentage increases, usually. In January 2022, the new Medicaid financial thresholds are as follows: 

Home Equity
The value of the home, minus any existing mortgage, must be lower than $636,000.  The applicant must have the intent to return home, which is not quite the same as the likelihood of actually returning. It is highly unlikely that a nursing home patient will eventually return home, but if there intention is to return, then Medicaid does not question the intention.  The equity cap is waived if the applicants spouse resides in the home, there are children under the age of 21 in the home, or the applicant’s child is blind or disabled, regardless of age, is residing in the home. 

Medicaid has the right to place a lien on the home in order to recover their costs. This can be avoided with speaking to an Elder Law attorney.  It is unfortunate that some families decide to perform their own Medicaid planning, and deed the home to the adult children, thus creating a gift and making the Medicaid applicant ineligible for Medicaid. 

Gross Income
The gross income, ALL income from all sources, can not exceed $2523 per month.  If the income is greater, then an Elder Law attorney simply creates a special type of trust as designated by Congress in the Medicaid Rules, that enable the individual to be eligible for Medciaid. 

Community Spouse Allowance
The community spouse, the spouse not applying for Medicaid, is allowed to keep up to $137,000. This includes countable assets, such as bank accounts, stocks, bonds, etc. 
Social Security Surviving Spouse Benefits

What happens to their Social Security. The decedent’s payments need to be stopped, but survivor’s benefits may be available to the spouse or, in certain cases, children. 

Social Security benefits stop at death. 

Death Benefit
Regardless of age or eligibility for survivor’s benefits, surviving spouses are entitled to a one-time lump-sum payment of $255 if they were living with the decedent or collecting benefits on the decedent’s record. If there is no surviving spouse, the payment can be made to a child who qualifies for benefits on the decedent’s record. 

Survivor’s Benefits
In addition to the lump-sum death benefit, certain family members may be eligible to receive monthly survivor’s benefits,  including:
  • A widow or widower age 60 or older (age 50 or older if they have a disability).
  • A surviving divorced spouse, under certain circumstances.
  • A widow or widower at any age who is caring for the deceased’s child who is under age 16 or has a disability and is receiving child’s benefits.
  • An unmarried child of the deceased who is younger than age 18 (or up to age 19 if they are a full-time student in an elementary or secondary school) or age 18 or older with a disability that began before age 22.
  • Parents, age 62 or older, who were dependent on the deceased for at least half of their support.

If the spouse has reached full retirement age when the decedent died, then the spouse begins receiving the decedent’s actual benefits. This is true even if the decedent and spouse were divorced, so long as they had been married for at least 10 years. 

While a spouse can claim survivor's benefits as early as age 60, the benefits will be permanently reduced. If the surviving spouse claims benefits between age 60 and full retirement age, he or she receives a reduced percentage of the decedent’s benefits. At age 60, the spouse will receive 71.5 percent of the actual benefits. If the spouse waits to collect, this percentage increases  each year until the spouse reaches full retirement age, at which point he or she can receive 100 percent of the actual benefits. A surviving spouse who is age 50 to 59 also receives 71.5 percent of the actual benefits. Spouses caring for a child and the decedent’s dependents receive 75 percent of the decedent’s actual benefit. Dependent parents receive 75 percent each or 82.5 percent if there is only one parent.
If a surviving spouse, including a divorced spouse, remarries before turning age 60, then the spouse is no longer eligible for benefits unless the new marriage ends. Spouses who remarry after age 60 are still eligible for survivor’s benefits. 
We had a wonderful time this year skiing.
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