Kevin Loveland
Director, Bureau of Assistance Programs
Connecticut Department of Social Services
860-424-5031
As you may know, the President recently signed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (the Economic Stimulus Package) into law. The ARRA provides for an immediate increase of up to $25 per week in unemployment benefits, as well as a one-time $250 supplemental payment to recipients of Social Security, SSI, VA and Railroad Retirement benefits. The following describes how these payments will impact eligibility for our programs:
$25 Per Week Increase in UCB
The Department of Labor began issuing the increased unemployment benefits on Monday, March 2, 2009.
It is important to note that under the provisions of the federal law these additional unemployment benefits are not counted as income for Medicaid or HUSKY B. The additional benefits are, however, counted for our other programs such as State Supplement, TFA, SNAP and SAGA.
Workers should code the "base" unemployment benefits as unearned income type "UC" as usual. If there is a companion SNAP AU, the additional unemployment benefits should be coded as unearned income type "OF". Additional unemployment benefits on companion SAGA AUs should be coded as unearned income type "OG". Additional unemployment benefits on companion TFA AUs should be coded as unearned income type "OA".
Please code the additional unemployment benefits as unearned income type "OA" for State Supplement clients. Clients should not, however, under any circumstances lose Medicaid eligibility by including the additional unemployment benefits. If this occurs, please contact the Adult Support Team at (860) 424-5250 through your supervisor for instructions.
Workers have begun to receive a large number of additional UCB alerts due to these increased benefits. For HUSKY or Medicaid only cases, these alerts may be immediately dispositioned without requiring further action. For other programs, including SNAP (since this information is considered verified upon receipt) you must reflect the increased benefits as described above.
$250 One-Time Stimulus Payments
The Social Security Administration has informed us that they will soon begin to issue one-time additional of payments of $250 to recipients of Social Security, SSI, VA, and Railroad Retirement benefits. They have indicated that they expect to complete their issuance process by the end May, but have not provided any more specific information regarding when the payments will be issued.
Under the federal economic stimulus law these payments must be disregarded when determining eligibility for any federal or federally-assisted programs. We have determined that this means that we will not count these benefits for the Medicaid, HUSKY, State Supplement, TFA or SNAP programs. However, they must be counted as lump sum payments under SAGA policy. Given that they are one-time payments received in the current month and most SAGA clients will not qualify for these benefits we expect minimal if any impact on eligibility from these payments.
Contact the Adult Support Unit through your supervisor at (860) 424-5250 if you have any questions about these changes.
Kevin Loveland
Director, Bureau of Assistance Programs
Connecticut Department of Social Services
860-424-5031
(E-mail provided by Attorney Donna Levine of New Haven, Connecticut, now of North Haven, CT)
From: Shok, Marc C.
Sent: Monday, January 03, 2005 2:39 PM
To: DSS-DL-EMS; Ragaglia, Kristine D.; Hart, Lorraine M.; Allen, Juanita L.; Gray, Mary Ann; EMSALL@po.state.ct.us
Subject: CHC Program & Pooled Trusts
This e-mail is to inform those of you who process applications for the Connecticut Home Care (CHC) program about "pooled" trusts. You will likely see more CHC applicants with these trusts as they can be used to reduce their incomes to below the program limit of 300% of the SSI payment standard. Here's how it works:
The Medicaid waiver portion of the CHC program has a gross income limit equal to 300% of the SSI payment standard. This limit will be $1,737 in 2005. Individuals with incomes above this limit cannot qualify for the Medicaid waiver portion of the CHC program. Often these individuals receive assistance under the state-funded component of the CHC program (M03 cases) which has no income limit.
This is disadvantageous for both clients and the state. Clients do not receive Medicaid benefits under the state-funded component of the CHC program to cover ancillary expenses such as prescription drugs. The state does not receive any federal reimbursement for expenditures made under the state-fundedcomponent of the CHC program.
Federal law and UPM regulations at 4030.80(D)(6) allow individuals to establish certain types of trusts without affecting their eligibility for
Medicaid benefits. You have likely seen one type of these trusts, a special needs trust (SNT), used to shelter assets of disabled individuals without affecting their Medicaid eligibility.
What you may not be aware of is that these types of trusts can also be used to shelter individuals' incomes. A client may assign his or her income to the trust with the trust document providing only for the release of a monthly amount below the 300% of SSI limit to the client. We only count what comes out of the trust as the client's income for Medicaid eligibility purposes.
Although SNT's are only available to disabled individuals under age 65, "pooled" trusts are available to disabled individuals of any age. This is
why you will likely see more CHC applicants with these trusts as the program is limited to individuals aged 65 or older. These trusts are more fully described in UPM 4030.80(D)(6)(b).
Any pooled trust documents should be forwarded to Attorney Daniel Butler, Office of Legal Counsel, Regulations and Administrative Hearings, in Central Office for a review of legal sufficiency. Additionally, you will need to have Colonial Cooperative Care perform a disability determination for the client. Please notate "Pooled trust disability determination" on the W-302 routing slip. Given the frail nature of CHC clients, disability determinations should not be problematic.
Some final notes - Disabled individuals under age 65 can also use SNT's to shelter income to qualify for the Katie Beckett, DMR, Acquired Brain Injury and Personal Care Attendant waivers, which also have a 300% of SSI gross income limit. SNT's are more fully described in 4030.80(D)(6)(a). SNT documents should be forwarded to Attorney Butler for review. However both SNT's and pooled trusts CANNOT be used to circumvent the State Supplement gross income limit of 300% of SSI.
As always, thanks for your attention. Please feel free to contract the Adult Support Unit at (860) 424-5250 if you have any questions
From: MARC.SHOK@CTTAO
Department of Social Services
Subject: Anthem BC/BS Demutualization
Date: 9-5-01
Recently Anthem Blue Cross/Blue Shield announced that they were changing their organizational structure from a mutual company to a stock company. As a mutual company, owners of certain Anthem Blue Cross/Blue Shield policies (typically non-group policies) were entitled to certain "membership rights". In the conversion from a mutual company to a stock company, (a process known as demutualization), these member rights will be exchanged for shares of Anthem stock or cash. According to Anthem, demutualization will not affect the medical benefits of the policies.
Clients who own qualifying Anthem policies are scheduled to receive these demutualization payments in late November or early December. These payments should be treated as counted assets in determining eligibility. Please remember that MAABD eligibility is not affected in the month that recipients acquire assets that cause them to exceed the asset limit. (MAABD recipients who don't reduce their excess assets by the end of the first month become ineligible as of the following month.) However MAABD clients reestablish their eligibility without interruption if they subsequently reduce their assets by the end of the month following the month they acquire the excess asset. (Please see UPM 4005.l5.)
Please contact the Adult Support Unit at (860) 424-5250 if you have any questions.
Thank you.