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MEDICAL SERVICES POLICY MANUAL, SECTION E

E 500 Resources - AABD

E-500 Resources – Aid to the Aged, Blind, and Disabled (AABD)

MS Manual 09/01/26

Resources are generally defined as those assets, including both real and personal property, which an individual, or couple, possesses. Resources include all liquid assets as well as those assets which are not presently in liquid form. Liquid assets are those assets that can be easily converted to cash such as checking or savings accounts, certificates of deposit or life insurance policies with a cash surrender value. In order for assets to be considered as resources, property or an interest in property must have cash value that is available to the individual upon disposition.

Countable resources will be determined on the first day of the month. When resource eligibility exists at the beginning of a month, it continues for the full month. A resource change that occurs during a month in which resource eligibility exists will not be considered for determination of countable resources until the first of the month following the change.

When an individual is ineligible at the beginning of a month due to excess resources, ineligibility due to resources exists for the full month. NOTE: When an individual is unaware of ownership of an asset, the asset is not counted as a resource. A discovered liquid asset will be counted as income in the month of discovery and as a resource in the months following. Non-liquid assets will be counted as a resource in the month of discovery and thereafter. Assets which have been received during the month and considered as income may not also be counted with resources during the same month (unless the income received is given away during the month it is received. Refer to MS H-323). For example, if an individual had a checking account balance of one thousand nine hundred fifty dollars ($1,950) as of June 1, the receipt of an SSA check of three hundred dollars ($300) during June would not cause the individual’s resource limit of two thousand dollars ($2,000) to be exceeded during June even if the entire check was deposited in the checking account. The individual’s resource eligibility would not be affected by the receipt of income during the month. It would only be affected if the income was retained to the extent that it caused the limit of two thousand dollars ($2,000) to be exceeded as of the beginning of July. SSI lump sum benefits (never counted as income) will be excluded from resource consideration for nine (9) full months after the month of receipt (Refer to MS E-410 #3 and E-523 #6). SSA lump sum payments also have the nine (9) month resource exclusion but will count as income in the month of receipt.