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COMAR 10.09.24.03

340 State of Maryland Medical Assistance Manual Revised July 2012 If an ineligible spouse lives in the same household and is the parent of a dependent ineligible child or children living in the home, in order to determine the amount of the ineligible countable income in the following order:

First (using the ABD exclusions and disregards in COMAR 10.09.24.07), determine how much unearned and earned income the ineligible spouse has. The ABD disregards are applied in the following order:

o Apply the $20.00 disregards ABD general disregard to any unearned income; if none, apply it to the earned income. o Next, apply the earned income disregard ($65+.5 or remainder) to the remaining earned income.

Then deduct an allocation for each of the ineligible children living in the household. Exceptions: Do not allocate for ineligible children who are receiving income maintenance payments. These payments are made under:

o The Family Investment Program (TCA); o Title XVI of the Social Security Act (SSI, including State Supplement); o The Refugee Act of 1980 (those payments based on need); o The Disaster Relief Act of 1974; o State or local government assistance programs based on need; and o U.S. Veteran Administration Programs (those payments based on the need).

The allocation for each child is the difference between the applicable SSI payment rate for a couple and that for an individual minus the amount of his/her income. These allocations are first deducted from the ineligible spouse‟s unearned income. If the ineligible spouse does not have enough unearned income to cover the allocations, the balance is deducted from the ineligible spouse‟s earned income. The amount of the allocation automatically increases whenever the SSI payment standard increases. The amount of the allocation to be used to determine the amount of the benefit for a current month is based on the payment rate that applied in the second prior month.

NOTE: The allocation of income applies only to the ineligible children and income of the ineligible spouse. Do not allocate to children the income of the Medicare beneficiary.

Determining the Medicare Beneficiary‟s Eligibility for the Buy-in Coverage.