475 NAC 3-002.01C
The following resources are excluded in determining eligibility:
1. The home and surrounding property which is not separated from the home by intervening property owned by others. The worker notes that:
a. Public rights of way, such as roads which run through the surrounding property and separate it from the home, do not affect the exclusion of the property;
b. The home and surrounding property must remain excluded when temporarily unoccupied for reasons of employment, training for future employment, illness, or not habitable due to a casualty or natural disaster, if the household intends to return;
c. Households that currently do not own a home, but own or are purchasing a lot on which they intend to build or are building a permanent home, receive an exclusion for the value of the lot and, if it is partially completed, for the home;
2. Household goods, such as furniture including antiques;
3. Personal effects, including all clothing, jewelry, pets, and personal collections such as coins, stamps, or guns;
4. A burial space per household member, ineligible alien, or disqualified member;
5. Prepaid burial items which include the crypt, mausoleum, urn, casket, marker, vault, charges for opening and closing the grave or other repository for the remains of the deceased person;
6. Bona fide funeral agreements that are accessible to the household up to a total of $1,500 equity per household member;
7. The cash value of life insurance policies;
8. Irrevocable burial agreements (prearranged funeral plans) pursuant to Neb. Rev. Stat., Sections 12-1106 and 68-129;
9. All tax-preferred education accounts (e.g., 529 qualified tuition program, Coverdell education savings), retirement accounts (e.g., IRAs) and other retirement programs or accounts determined to be exempt from tax under the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 (see 475-000-314);
10. Licensed vehicles;
For the treatment of vehicles as an excluded resource, see 475 NAC 3-002.01G2 and 475 NAC 3-002.01H1
11. Leased vehicles during the agreement or contract period. If a household purchases the vehicle at the end of the contract, the value of the vehicle at the time of purchase would be considered;
12. Property which annually produces income consistent with its fair market value, even if it is only used on a seasonal basis. This includes rental homes and vacation homes;
13. Property deemed essential to the employment or self-employment of a household member, an ineligible alien or a disqualified person whose resources are being counted as part of the household’s resources. This could include farmland and work-related equipment, such as the tools of a tradesman or the machinery of a farmer;
14. Real and personal property used for the maintenance of a vehicle used to transport a handicapped person or a disqualified household member whose resources are considered available to the household or used for income producing purposes. Only that portion of real property necessary for maintenance of the vehicle is excludable;
15. Money which is projected and counted as income in the food stamp budget. Money is never counted as both income and a resource in the same month;
16. Installment contracts for the sale of land or buildings if the contract or agreement is producing income consistent with the fair market value;
17. The value of property sold under an installment contract or held as security in exchange for a purchase price consistent with the fair market value of that property;
18. Any government payments such as, but not limited to, Small Business Administration (SBA) loans when used for the restoration of a home damaged in a disaster. The household is subject to a legal sanction if the funds are not used as intended;
19. Money which has been prorated as income for students and self-employed persons;
Note: The funds retain their exemption for the period of time over which they have been intended to cover;
20. All financial assistance given to students in the form of grants, loans and scholarships during the period the funds are intended to cover;
21. A business bank account provided the account is clearly separated from the household’s personal bank account to the extent that money in the account was considered as income;
22. Land that can be sold only with the approval of the Bureau of Indian Affairs or Indian lands held jointly with the tribe;
23. Benefits under P.L. 104-204 for children of Vietnam veterans who were born with spina bifida. A child is the biological child conceived after the veteran first served in the Republic of Vietnam during the Vietnam era, regardless of age or marital status of the Vietnam veteran;
24. Payments from designated Energy Assistance Programs;
25. A non-liquid asset which has a lien placed against it as a result of taking out a business loan if the household is prohibited from selling the asset by the security or lien agreement;
26. Resources excluded for food stamp purposes by provisions of federal statutes. These include:
a. Benefits received under the special supplemental food program for women, infants, and children (WIC) program under the Child Nutrition Act of 1966;
b. Reimbursements from the Uniform Relocation Assistance and Real Property Acquisition Policy Act of 1970;
c. Payments received under the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act, the Sac and Fox and Indian claims agreement, and payments received by certain Indian tribal members, under P.L. 94-189, Section 6;
d. Payments received from the disposition of funds to the Grand River Band of Ottawa Indians (P.L. 94-540);
e. Payments by the Indian Claims Commission to the Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakima Indian Nation or the Apache Tribe of the Mescalero Reservation (P.L. 95-433), Section 2;
f. Payments to the Passamaquoddy Tribe, the Penobscot Nation, the Houton Band of Maliseet pursuant to the Maine Indian Claims Settlement Act of 1980 (P.L. 96-420, Section 9(c));
g. Relocation assistance payments to members of the Hopi and Navajo tribes under P.L. 93-531, Section 22;
h. Payments distributed or held in trust by the Chippewas of the Mississippi Tribe (P.L. 99-377, Section 4b) and to the Red Lake Band of Chippewa Indians under P.L. 98-123, Section 3;
i. Financial assistance provided by a program funded in whole or part under Title IV of the Higher Education Act in accordance with P.L. 99-498;
j. Mandatory deductions from military pay for educational purposes while the recipient is enlisted;
k. Payments to U. S. citizens of Japanese ancestry and resident Japanese aliens or their survivors and payments to eligible Aleuts (P.L. 100-383, Wartime Relocation of Civilians);
l. Payments made under the Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Amendments of 1988;
m. Indian per capita payments of $2,000 or less for each household member per payment under Per Capita Distribution Act (P.L. 103-66, Section 13736);
Information regarding excluded Indian capita payments, is located at 475-000-303.
n. Per capita payments made under P.L. 98-124, and distributions to the Assiniboine Tribe of the Fort Belknap Indian Community, Montana, and the Assiniboine Tribe of the Fort Pack Indian Reservation, Montana;
o. Payments made from the Agent Orange Settlement Fund or any fund established by the Settlement of the Agent Orange liability under the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (P.L. 101-426, Section 6 (h)(2));
p. Disaster assistance payments made to farmers under P.L. 100-387;
q. Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) the month of receipt and the following month;
r. EITC for 12 months if the household is participating at the time of receipt and participates continuously during the 12-month period;
s. The resources of any household member who receives an ADC, SSI, SDP, or AABD payment;
t. Funds in a Program To Achieve Self-Sufficiency (PASS) account;
u. Payments to individuals due to their status as victims of Nazi persecution;
v. Subsidy received by household through the prescription drug discount card program under the Medicare Prescription Drug Improvement and Modernization Act; and
w. Funds in HUD Family Self-Sufficiency Program (FSSP) escrow account;
Participants in FSSP may withdraw
funds from the escrow account before completing the program with permission
from the public housing authority, but only for purposes related to the
goal of the FSSP contract. This may include such activities as completion
of higher education (i.e. college, graduate school), or job training,
or to meet start-up expenses involved in creating a small business.
Since the funds in the escrow accounts, as well as any funds withdrawn
from them prior to completion of the program for the purposes listed above,
are not available to buy food, the funds in HUD FSSP escrow accounts are
treated as inaccessible - thus excluded - from resources. Further, the
funds are excluded from income when determining eligibility and benefits
for food stamps. The funds are a resource after they are paid to the individual.
27. The value of farmland, equipment, supplies, and licensed vehicles for a period of one year after a household member ceases to be self-employed in farming;
28. Resources whose cash value is not accessible to the household. These include, but are not limited to:
a. Security deposits on rental properties or utilities;
b. Property in probate;
c. Real property which the household is making a good faith effort to sell at a reasonable price and which has not been sold (the worker may verify that the property is for sale and that the household has not declined a reasonable offer); and
d. Irrevocable trust funds. For purposes of this section, an irrevocable trust is one in which no household member has the power to revoke the trust arrangement. The worker considers irrevocable trust funds inaccessible to the household provided all the following conditions are met:
(1) No household member has the power to change the name of the beneficiary during the certification period and the trust arrangement is not likely to cease during the certification period.
(2) The trustee is either:
(a) A court, institution, corporation, or organization not under the direction of any household member; or
(b) An individual appointed by the court with court-imposed limitations placed on the use of the funds.
(3) Trust investments do not directly involve any business or corporation under the direction or influence of a household member.
(4) The irrevocable trust funds are either:
(a) Established from the household’s own funds to make investments on behalf of the trust or to pay educational or medical expenses of a household member; or
(b) Established from non-household funds by a non-household member; and
29. Resources whose sale is unlikely to produce any significant amount of funds to the household and whose sale would result in a return of $1500 or less. This exclusion does not apply to financial instruments such as stocks, bonds, and negotiable financial instruments; and
30. Non-liquid resources and liquid resources of $25,000 or less for households eligible for the Expanded Resource Program.
Information on other excluded resources is located at 475-000-312, "Resources Excluded by Federal Statute".
{Manual Bulletin 475-00-56}