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Vermont Department for Children and Families Reach Up Eligibility Rules Economic Services Division 2200 79

ii. The disaster must have been so severe as to cause the President to designate a Federal Disaster Zone; and 39. German reparations to concentration camp survivors, slave laborers, partisans, and other victims of the Holocaust, including settlement payments to victims of Nazi persecution or their legal heirs resulting from the confiscation of assets during World War II.

2254 Resources (08/01/2024, 23-28)

a. Resources are defined as any assets, other than income, that a Reach Up household has available to meet the household’s needs.

b. Such assets generally take the form of real or personal property the household owns individually or jointly.

c. The Department shall evaluate the total equity value of all resources, except items specifically excluded, to establish their combined value for comparison with the resource limitation outlined below. d. When a member of the Reach Up household and one or more persons, who are not members of the same household, own resources jointly, the Department shall consider at least a pro rata share of the resources available to the household unless they can demonstrate that such resources are inaccessible. 1. When the Reach Up household can demonstrate that it has access to only a portion of the resource, the value of that portion shall count toward the household’s resource limitation.

2. The resource shall be considered totally inaccessible to the Reach Up household if the resource cannot practically be subdivided and the household’s access to the value of the resource is dependent upon the agreement of the joint owner.

e. While receiving Reach Up benefits (including periods with zero benefits), the Department shall treat any liquid asset received by a Reach Up household, not otherwise excluded, as lump sum income (rule 2248.1).

f. The Department shall disregard from the combined resources limitation any portion of a liquid asset that the Reach Up household has set aside for currently incurred unpaid expenses included in their basic needs and housing allowance (rule 2244).

g. The Department shall disregard from the combined resource limitation an amount equal to the Reach Up household’s monthly income, if it is established that this income will be used to meet current monthly expenses.

h. When feasible, future and potential sources of resources shall be identified and developed (rule 2258).

1. Reach Up benefits, in the amount needed based on currently available resources, shall continue until such potential resources become available, at which time appropriate budgetary adjustment shall be completed. 2254.1 Combined Resources Limitation (08/01/2024, 23-28)