Page 817
West Virginia Income Maintenance Manual Chapter 5
West Virginia Income Maintenance Manual Page 91 Chapter 5 Assets
Penalty Example 1: Mr. and Mrs. Birch received WV WORKS for themselves, Mrs. Birch’s 3 children from a previous marriage and Mr. Birch’s nephew. Mr. Birch transferred an asset for less than CMV, and a 10-month penalty was imposed from February through November. Mr. Birch leaves the home in April and Mrs. Birch reapplies for WV WORKS. Mrs. Birch continues to be ineligible. However, because Mr. and Mrs. Birch no longer live together, they each carry one-half of the remaining penalty period with them. Mrs. Birch remains ineligible through July. There are eight months remaining in the penalty period. Both have already been ineligible as a unit for February and March. Mrs. Birch becomes ineligible beginning in April for four additional months. If Mr. Birch reapplies, he will also be determined ineligible through July. If the children begin living with other adults, no part of the transfer penalty follows them, unless they live in the home with Mr. and/or Mrs. Birch. Penalty Example 2: Same situation as in the above example except that seven months are remaining in the penalty period when Mr. Birch leaves. The AGs containing Mr. Birch and Mrs. Birch are both ineligible for three months. In addition, $1,373.50 (100% FPL = $2,747 ÷ 2) is counted as income for each of the adults in the fourth month. 5.7.2.G Treatment of Jointly Owned Assets Jointly owned assets include assets held by an individual in common with at least one other person by joint tenancy, tenancy in common, joint ownership or any similar arrangement. Such an asset is considered to be transferred by the individual when any action is taken, either by the individual or any other person who reduces or eliminates the individual's ownership or control of the asset. Under this policy, merely placing another person's name on an account or asset as a joint owner might not constitute a transfer of assets, depending upon the specific circumstances involved. In such a situation, the client may still possess ownership rights to the account or asset and, thus, have the right to withdraw all of the funds at any time. The account, then, still belongs to the client. NOTE: When the number of months remaining in the penalty period does not divide evenly by the number of adults who were included in the AG, a portion of the appropriate 100% FPL is counted as income after the penalty months have been served.