The CAO will determine what an individual owns and consider only those resources that are legally available to the individual. This includes resources that the individual owns only a part of. 55 Pa. Code § 178.4
Part or shared ownership indicates that all or part of a resource may not be available to the individual. The individual may share a resource with a individual who is not a member of the applicant/recipient group, including a legally responsible relative (LRR) living in or outside the household. (See Chapter 355, Deeming Income and Resources, for the treatment of resources owned by or shared with an LRR in the household.)
A resource is legally available if:
There is proof of ownership or partial ownership.
The individual has the right and ability to use or sell the resource.
An account title by itself does not determine the availability of a resource. The following rebuttable presumptions apply in determining whether an account is available:
The individual whose name is on the account is the owner.
If the account uses the words “and,”” or,” or “and/or”, each individual listed owns the amount of his contributions.
If the amount of each individual’s contributions cannot be determined, each individual listed owns an equal share.
If the account is titled “in trust for,” the trustee is the owner. Unless there are written trust papers, it is considered a “tentative trust” and the beneficiary has no rights to the account until the death of the trustee.
Example: Mrs. Brooks applies for MA for herself and her son Matthew, age 15. Matthew's grandmother, Marian Fox, is not a member of the applicant/recipient group. She has an account titled “Marian Fox in trust for Matthew Brooks.” (Mrs. Fox is the trustee, and Matthew is the beneficiary.) There are no written trust papers for the account. The CAO does not consider this account when deciding on eligibility for Mrs. Brooks and Matthew.
“Entireties property” is personal property owned by a husband and wife. The consent of both parties is needed to sell the property to support a child when one spouse is an LRR to a child and the other is not.
A bank account that is jointly owned by a husband and wife is not entireties property unless there is proof that it is or if the account was opened before September 1, 1976.
The CAO must count resources held in trust if the trust permits the use of those resources for the individual's food, clothing, shelter, or medical care, even if the trust is not actually used for those things.
The CAO must review the proof of ownership and apply the following rebuttable presumptions to determine the availability of real and individual property:
Resources owned only by the applicant/recipient group members are available.
Shared resources are available if the other owners will sell or make the resource available to the applicant/recipient group.
NOTE: Assume that each owner of a liquid resource owns a share that is the same fraction of the whole as his or her contribution.
The individual’s share of a resource is available if he or she has a separate legal interest and can get rid of it without the consent of the other owners.
The resource is not available when consent from another owner to get rid of a resource is needed but consent is refused. The shared ownership and the refusal must be confirmed at application and at each renewal.
If a individual shows proof within 15 days that he or she does not own a resource, the CAO must decide whether the presumption is false. If the presumption is false, the CAO must not count the resource. If the presumption is true, the CAO must count the resource. 55 Pa. Code § 178.1(d) &(f)
Updated February 14, 2012, Replacing February 8, 2002