10:87-4.8 Identification of resource exclusions

(a) Only the following shall be classified as resource exclusions by the CSSA: 1. The home and surrounding property that is not separated from the home by intervening property owned by others. i. Public rights of way, such as roads that run through the surrounding property and separate it from the home, will not affect the exclusion of the property. ii. The home and surrounding property shall remain excluded when temporarily unoccupied for reasons of employment, training for future employment, illness or uninhabitability caused by casualty or natural disaster, only if the household intends to return to the home. iii. Households that currently do not own a home, but own or are purchasing a lot on which they intend to build or are building a permanent home, shall receive an exclusion for the value of the lot and, if it is partially completed, for the home; 2. Household goods, including such items as furniture and appliances; 3. Motor vehicles (see N.J.A.C. 10:87-4.3(a)4); 4. Personal effects, including such items as clothing or jewelry; 5. One burial plot per household member. In addition, the value of one bona fide funeral agreement per household member is also excluded, provided that the agreement does not exceed $ 1,500 in equity value. If the agreement exceeds $ 1,500 in equity value, then any value in excess of $ 1,500 shall be counted towards the household's resource limit; 6. The cash value of life insurance policies; 7. The cash value of pension plans or funds, only if the funds remain in the pension plans. i. Keogh plans that involve no contractual relationship with individuals who are not nonhousehold members and IRAs shall not be excluded. ii. Keogh plans involving a contractual relationship with a nonhousehold member (such as Keogh plans established for the self-employed person(s) and employees) shall be excluded. However, if the Keogh plan is such that individual participants may make withdrawals without affecting the other parties in any way (for example, without any contractual obligation to the other participants), the household member's funds in the Keogh plan will be counted as a resource; 8. Property that annually produces income consistent with its fair market value, even if used only on a seasonal basis. Such property shall include rental and vacation homes; 9. Property, such as farm land, that is essential to the employment or self- employment of a household member. Property essential to the self-employment of a household member engaged in farming shall continue to be excluded for one year from the date the household member terminates his or her self-employment from farming; 10. Work-related equipment, such as the tools of a tradesman or the machinery of a farmer, that is essential to the employment or self-employment of a household member; 11. Installment contracts for the sale of land or buildings if the contract or agreement is producing income consistent with its fair market value. The exclusion shall also apply to the value of any property sold under contract, or held as security in exchange for a purchase price consistent with the fair market value of that property; 12. Any governmental payments that are designated for the restoration of a home damaged in a disaster, if the household is subject to a legal sanction if the funds are not used as intended. For example, payments made by HUD through the individual and family grant program or disaster loans or grants made by the Small Business Administration, shall be excluded; 13. Resources having a cash value that is not accessible to the household, such as, but not limited to, irrevocable trust funds (see (a)14 below for treatment of irrevocable trusts), security deposits on rental property or utilities, property in probate and real property, which the household is making a good faith effort to sell at a reasonable price and which has not been sold. i. The CSSA shall verify that the property is actually for sale and that the household has not declined a reasonable offer. Verification may be obtained through a collateral contact or documentation, such as an advertisement for public sale in a newspaper of general circulation or a listing with a real estate broker. ii. Non-liquid asset(s) against which a lien has been placed as a result of taking out a business loan and the household is prohibited by the security or lien agreement with the creditor from selling the asset(s), shall be excluded. iii. If the sale or other disposition of a resource is unlikely to produce any significant amount of funds for the support of the household, the resource shall be considered inaccessible. The CSSA is not required to verify that a resource is inaccessible unless the information provided by the household is questionable; 14. Any funds held in a trust or transferred to a trust, and the income produced by that trust, to the extent it is not available to the household, shall be considered inaccessible if all of the following criteria apply: i. The trustee administering the funds is either: (1) A court or an institution, corporation or organization, which is not under the direction or ownership of any household member; or (2) An individual (who may be a household member) appointed by the court who has court-imposed limitations placed on his or her use of the funds that meet the requirements of this paragraph; ii. The funds held in an irrevocable trust are either: (1) Established from the household's own funds, if the trustee uses the funds solely to make investments on behalf of the trust or to pay the educational or medical expenses of any person named by the household creating the trust; or (2) Established from nonhousehold funds by a nonhousehold member; iii. Trust investments made on behalf of the trust do not directly involve or assist any business or corporation under the control, direction or influence of a household member; iv. The trust arrangement is not likely to cease during the certification period; and v. No household member has the power to revoke the trust arrangement or change the name of the beneficiary during the certification period; 15. Resources, such as those of students or self-employed persons, that have been counted as income (see N.J.A.C. 10:87-5.4(a)); 16. Indian lands held jointly with the Tribe, or land that can be sold only with the approval of the Bureau of Indian Affairs; 17. Resources that are excluded for NJ SNAP purposes by express provision of Federal statute. The following is a listing of resources excluded by Federal statute: i. Benefits received from the Special Supplemental Food Program for Women, Infants and Children (P.L. 92-433); ii. Reimbursements from the Uniform Relocation Assistance and Real Property Acquisition Policy Act of 1970 (P.L. 91-646); iii. Payments received from the disposition of funds to the Grand River Band of Ottawa Indians (P.L. 94-540); iv. Payments received under the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (Public Law 92-203) or the Sac and Fox Indian Claims Agreement (P.L. 94-189); v. Payments received by certain Indian tribal members regarding submarginal land held in trust by the United States (P.L. 94-114); vi. Payments received from the Energy Crisis Assistance and Crisis Intervention Programs administered by the Community Service Administration; vii. Payments or allowances made under any Federal law for the purpose of energy assistance. In order to qualify for this exclusion, the payments or allowances must be clearly identified as energy assistance by the legislative body authorizing the program or the funds. Home Energy Assistance payments, as well as Federal or State onetime payments for weatherization, or emergency repair or replacement of heating or cooling devices qualify for this exclusion; viii. Payments received by the Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakima Indian Nation and the Apache Tribe of the Mescalero Reservation from the Indian Claims Commission (P.L. 95-433); ix. Payments to the Passamaquoddy Tribe and the Penobscot Nation or any of their members received pursuant to the Maine Indian Claims Settlement Act of 1980 (P.L. 96-420); x. Payments for relocation assistance to members of the Hopi and Navajo Tribes. Such payments shall be excluded from both resources and income (P.L. 93-531); xi. Earned income tax credits received either as a lump sum or as payments under Section 3507 of the Internal Revenue Code. These shall be excluded for 12 months, provided that the household was participating in the NJ SNAP program at the time of receipt of the earned income tax credit, and provided the household participates continuously during that 12-month period. Breaks in participation of one month or less due to administrative reasons, such as delayed certification, shall not be considered as non participation in determining the 12-month period; xii. Payments received under the Civil Liberties Act of 1988 (P.L. 100-383); xiii. Resources of a household member receiving WFNJ/TANF and/or SSI benefits; xiv. Resources of a household member that are placed in a Plan for Achieving Self-Support account; xv. Payments received under the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (P.L. 100-426); xvi. All payments from the Agent Orange Compensation Exclusion Act (P.L. 101- 201), retroactive to January 1, 1989. Payments made from the Agent Orange settlement fund under section 10405 of P.L. 101-239 are also excluded. Veteran's benefits authorized under the Agent Orange Act of 1991 (P.L. 102-4) are not excluded by law; xvii. Payments made under the Crime Act of 1984 to victims of crime (P.L. 103- 322); xviii. Payments made under Section 421 of P.L. 104-204 for children of Vietnam veterans who are born with spina bifida; and xix. Payments made under the Nazi Persecution Crimes Act; 18. HUD retroactive tax and utility cost subsidy payments issued pursuant to settlement of Underwood v. Harris, No. 76-469 (D.D.C. Apr. 5, 1979) (Order Approving Stipulation of Settlement) against HUD, for the month in which the payment was received and for the following month; 19. Where an exclusion applies because of use of a resource by or for a household member, the exclusion shall also apply when the resource is being used by or for an ineligible alien or disqualified person whose resources are being counted as part of the household's resources (see N.J.A.C. 10:87-4.7); 20. Funds held in an Individual Development Account (P.L. 2001, c. 93); and 21. Education Retirement Accounts.