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Page 5 of 11 § 10:71-4.5 Resource eligibility standards subject to rounding down, the director found that the applicant had had resources in her bank account and in her Personal Needs Account exceeding the $ 2000 limit during all but one of the months considered. Also, there was no statutory or regulatory leeway to grant such benefits to applicants whose resources exceeded the stated limit. E.R. v. DMAHS, OAL DKT. NO. HMA 17658-2016, 2017 N.J. AGEN LEXIS 1111, Final Agency Determination (May 10, 2017). Medicaid applicant who signed a contract agreeing to pay all expenses of residing in a nursing home for a guaranteed two year period was not entitled to have the asset transfer-related penalty period run while she was in private pay status. Her claim of financial eligibility was a sham designed to have a Medicaid bed waiting for her when her assets ran out. Further, the facility would not accept payments from Medicaid until the applicant had been a resident of the facility for two years. Because the application for Medicaid benefits was premature, the county social services board acted properly in denying it. B.K. v. Monmouth Cnty. Div. of Social Servs. et al, OAL DKT. NO. HMA 18569-16, 2017 N.J. AGEN LEXIS 224, Initial Decision (April 24, 2017). Failure and/or refusal of the husband of an incapacitated wife who was receiving long-term nursing home services to provide disclosure of his resources as needed for a redetermination of the wife's eligibility did not provide grounds for an order either extending the time for compliance or granting a "spousal waiver." Counsel to the nursing home, which had initiated the redetermination process in January 2016 on behalf of the wife, did not take any steps to include the recalcitrant husband in a motion for an order to show cause compelling the wife's son, who was her guardian, to cooperate in the redetermination process. Nor was a "spousal waiver" appropriate on these facts. K.Z. v. Bergen Cnty. Bd. of Social Servs., OAL DKT. NO. HMA 16945-16, 2017 N.J. AGEN LEXIS 219, Initial Decision (April 5, 2017). Agency did not err in denying a Medicaid application because applicant neither supplied the requested information about resources nor requested that the agency assist her in obtaining missing documentation. E.F. v. Essex Cnty. Bd. of Social Servs., OAL DKT. NO. HMA 09216-16, 2017 N.J. AGEN LEXIS 72, Initial Decision (February 3, 2017). Medicaid applicant who had transferred all of her assets into an irrevocable trust of which she was the beneficiary was ineligible for Medicaid because the assets held in the trust were properly considered to be available to the applicant because the trustee thereof, who was the applicant's son, was authorized to pay trust assets to or for the benefit of applicant, within the result that all of the assets held therein were properly treated as "available" to the applicant. Her resources thus well exceeded the ceiling for Medicaid. D.B. v.Atlantic Cnty. Bd. of Social Servs., OAL DKT. NO. HMA 14084-16, 2017 N.J. AGEN LEXIS 53, Initial Decision (January 27, 2017). Adult daughter of mother who was disabled as a result of Alzheimer's disease was entitled to the benefit of the "caregiver child" exemption because she established that she cared for her mother on a continuous basis despite the fact that the daughter was employed full-time. The evidence established that the daughter's employer liberally accommodated the daughter's need to care for her mother and allowed her to telecommute for a substantial number of hours during each workweek, therefore making it possible for the daughter to remain in the residence when her mother's condition required it. That being so, the agency should not have denied benefits to the mother. E.C. v. Passaic Cnty. Bd. of Social Servs., OAL DKT. NO. HMA 15633-16, 2017 N.J. AGEN LEXIS 30, Initial Decision (January 12, 2017). Though the ALJ recognized that employee of a county social services board had mishandled the Medicaid application made by a husband on behalf of his institutionalized wife, the ALJ lacked the power to provide an "equitable" remedy because the wife was not Medicaid-eligible until the spend-down was completed. However, the ALJ encouraged the Commissioner to exercise any discretion possessed by the Commissioner's office in order to address the seemingly unfair result. A.S. v. DMAHS and Monmouth Cnty. Div. of Social Servs., OAL DKT. NO. HMA 13504-16, 2016 N.J. AGEN LEXIS 1015, Initial Decision (November 4, 2016). Though the agency failed to promptly process an application for Medicaid Only nursing home benefits and failed to advise the applicant of the reason for delay, the failure of the agency to advise the applicant of what needed to occur for eligibility to be determined was not grounds for an eligibility date that was earlier than that granted by the