Article 10 Section 1 Income OwnershipAvailability Table of Contents TITLE MPG CITE General 100101 Ownership of Income 100102 Available Income 100103 Unavailable Income 100104 100101 General A General Income is used to determine if there is a SOC This section provides details for determining what income is who owns the income and the availability of income to the MFBU MEM 50501 MPG LTR 82 190 B Income Income counted in a MediCal case must be currently available and received by eligible andor ineligible members of the MFBU Income to be considered includes benefits received in cash or inkind from Labor Services provided Business activities Returns from real or personal property Contributions Other similar sources MEM 50501 MPG LTR 82 190 100102 Ownership of Income A Ownership ofIncome Income is considered to belong to the person who is named on a negotiable instrument is given cash receives the inkind income MEM 50512 MPG LTR 82 190 B Payments Made to More than One Person Ownership Identified Payments made in the name of more than one person shall be considered available in proportion to each persons ownership interest in the income source as specified in the ownership instrument MPG LTR 82 190 MEM 50512 C Payments Made to More than One Person Ownership Not Identified Where income is received in the name of more than one person and there is no instrument establishing ownership proportions the income shall be evenly divided among all named people MPG LTR 82 190 MEM 50512 D CommunityProperty Community property laws shall not be a consideration in determining the ownership or availability of the income of either spouse MPG LTR 82 190 MEM 50512 E Representative Payee Income received in the name of an applicantbeneficiary shall not be MEM 50512 considered available where the evidence clearly establishes that heshe is receiving the income as a representative payee conservator or guardian on behalf of another person and the payee has no ownership interest in the income or its source MPG LTR 82 190 F Income from an exempt trust shall be considered available as MEM 50512 Income from specified by the trust documents In the absence of specific provisions Exempt Trust in the trust document the income shall be considered available as stated in A through E above MPG LTR 82 190 100103 Available Income A Introduction Income is considered available in the month it is received or becomes MEM 50513 available for use by the person unless it is to be apportioned over time as detailed in MPG Article 10 Section 4 or considered unavailable to the beneficiary as detailed in MPG 100104 Only income that is available to meet the current needs of the personfamily is considered when determining SOC Applicantsbeneficiaries must apply for and accept any unconditionally available income as detailed in MPG Article 4 Section 12 MPG LTR 82 190 B Taxes Taxes withheld from earned and unearned income are considered available to the applicantbeneficiary whether or not the applicantbeneficiary actually has control of receipt of the gross amount MEM 50513 Example Federal taxes are withheld from military retirement payments The withheld taxes are considered available income MPG LTR 82 190 C Garnished Income and VoluntaryDeductions Garnished income for example to pay back taxes and voluntary deductions for example credit union deductions for loans are considered available income MPG LTR 82 190 MEM 50513 D Income of SSISSP Recipient In order to determine the availability of any income from the SSISSP recipient the worker must complete Section 2 of MC 176W MPG LTR 82 190 MEM 50513 100104 Unavailable Income A Introduction Income that is not available to meet current needs of a personfamily is not counted when determining that personsfamilys SOC MEM 50515 Unavailable income includes but is not limited to the items identified below MPG LTR 82 190 B Workers Compensatio n The portion of Workers Compensation and other public or private insurance settlements that is either designated for medical legal or other expenses or not controlled by the applicantbeneficiary or anyone acting on hisher behalf MEM 50515 MPG LTR 183 692 C Contributions The portion of contributions to the applicantbeneficiary that is both from a person living in the household who has no legal responsibility to support the applicantbeneficiary such as an unrelated adult or adult child used to meet the actual costs of the contributors share of housing utilities food and other household costs MEM 50515 If actual costs are unavailable the amounts specified in MPG Article 11 Section 1 Appendix A will be used in other words the contributors share will be the difference between the inkind values for the family size with the contributor included and excluded MPG LTR 183 692 D Board and Care The portion of the monthly income of a medically needy person residing in a licensed board and care facility which is both paid to the facility for residential care and support in excess of the maintenance need level as determined in MPG Article 11 MEM 50515 See MPG Article 10 Section 5 for detailed instructions regarding treatment of income of people in board and care MPG LTR 183 692 E An advance or reimbursement from an employer to cover expenses MEM 50515 Advance or that is necessary for job performance Any portion of the Reimburseme reimbursement that exceeds the applicantsbeneficiarys actual outofnt pocket cost is available income MPG LTR 183 692 F ChildSpousal Support Court ordered child support andor spousal support paid out by an MEM 50515 ABDMN person is considered unavailable income The amount to be considered unavailable is the amount actually paid or the amount specified in the court order whichever is less This is also applied to LTC recipients This is part of the Gibbons v Rank court order MPG LTR 183 692 G Overpayment s Amounts deducted from a beneficiarys benefits payment by a public EMC2 92070 or private agency for purposes of collecting a previous overpayment of the benefit are unavailable income Such amounts must be excluded from countable income when determining the MediCal beneficiarys SOC Benefit payments include entitlement payments payments due to a beneficiarys impairment or disability and payments due to a beneficiarys retirement pension or annuity rights MPG LTR 183 692 H When a person is in LTC and is in hisher own MFBU as detailed in MEM 50515 LTC Spouse MPG Article 8 Section 1 hisher spouses income is considered unavailable to the LTC person MPG LTR 183 692