Community Spouse Needs Allowance
- The individual has a community spouse AND
- A court or fair hearing does not determine the amount an institutionalized individual must allocate to their community spouse OR
- A court or fair hearing determines the amount an institutionalized individual must allocate to their community spouse
Non Court Order/ Fair Hearing Determination of Community Spouse Needs
- The individual agrees to give the community spouse the allowance AND
- Determine the Community Spouse Needs Allowance as follows:
- Determine the community spouse's shelter costs for the month. Community spouse shelter costs can include the following:
- Rent
- Mortgage principal and interest
- Taxes and insurance for principal place of residence. This includes renters insurance
- Maintenance fees
- The standard utility allowance established under the Food Stamp program
- Subtract the shelter limit from the community spouses shelter costs (as determined above)
- Determine the Community Spouse's Income Allocation
- If there are Excess Shelter Costs (from 2 above):
- Add the Excess Shelter Costs to the Minimum Income Allocation. (This amount is called the Community Spouse's Income Allocation)
- If there are no Excess Shelter Costs (from 2 above)
- The Community Spouse Income Allocation is assigned the value of the Maximum Income Allocation amount.
- Determine the community spouse's gross income (monthly).
- Subtract the community spouse's gross income from the Community Spouse Income Allocation giving the Community Spouse Needs Allowance
- If the community spouse's gross income is equal to or greater than the Community Spouse Needs Allowance, no Community Spouse Needs Allowance is deducted from the institutionalized spouse's income OR
- If the community spouse's gross income is less than the Community Spouse Needs Allowance (the Community Spouse Needs Allowance amount is deducted from the institutionalized spouse's remaining gross income.
Court Order/ Fair Hearing Determination of Community Spouse Needs
- A court order /fair hearing requires the individual to pay support to the spouse at home AND
- The court order amount is greater than the Community Spouse Needs Allowance.
- The Community Spouse Needs Allowance is assigned the value determined by the court order. Deduct the Community Spouse Needs Allowance from the individual's remaining gross income.