Medical Assistance for People Who Are Age 65 or Older and People Who Are Blind or Have a Disability

2.3.3.3.2.3 Excluded Income

Some types of income are excluded when calculating a person’s income for Medical Assistance for People Who Are Age 65 or Older and People Who Are Blind or Have a Disability (MA-ABD) and Medicare Savings Programs (MSP). See the MSP chapter for more information. Descriptions of each type of income are located in Appendix B Income.

Excluded income includes:

Agent Orange Settlement Fund payments
AmeriCorps State and National living allowances
AmeriCorps National Civilian Community Corps (NCCC) living allowances
Blood Product Settlement payments
Child Care and Development Block Grant Act payments
Clinical trial participation payments excluded by Supplemental Security Income (SSI). The first $2,000 a person receives during a calendar year is excluded.
Cobell Settlement payments for American Indians for a period of 12 months beginning with the month of receipt. This exclusion applies to all household members.
Community First Services and Supports (CFSS) payments, for the beneficiary.
- Starting October 1, 2024, CFSS replaces the Consumer Support Grant (CSG) and Personal Care Assistance (PCA) payments.
- For all such payments, CFSS, CSG, and PCA, the payments are excluded income for the beneficiary, but countable income for the person paid to provide services.
Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS) payments. Payments to volunteers, including the following payments authorized under the Domestic Volunteer Services Act:
- AmeriCorps
- Urban Crime Prevention Program
- Special volunteer programs under Title I
- Demonstration Programs under Title II
- Senior Corps:
  - Retired Senior Volunteer Program (RSVP)
  - Foster Grandparent Program
  - Senior Companion Program
Credit life and credit disability insurance payments
Crime victim payments
Disaster assistance, federal payments
Disaster assistance, state payments
Employment and training reimbursements and allowances
Family Support Grant (FSG) payments
Filipino Veterans Equity Compensation Fund payment
Food and nutrition program payments. This includes assistance provided by:
- Programs established under the Child Nutrition Act, including the Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) Nutrition Program and federally funded school breakfast and milk programs.
- National School Lunch program
- Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP)
- Minnesota Food Assistance Program
- Minnesota Grown Supplemental Food Program
Gifts to Children with Life Threatening Conditions from 501(c)(3) tax-exempt corporation. This are not considered income of a parent and apply only to children who are under age 18.
- Any in-kind gift not converted to cash is excluded.
- Cash gifts up to $2,000 in any calendar year are excluded. The amount of total cash payments that exceed $2,000 each year are counted as an asset.
  - Multiple cash gifts in the same calendar year are added together and up to $2,000 of the total is excluded, even if none of the cash gifts exceeds $2,000 individually.
Hostile fire pay
Housing and Urban Development (HUD) subsidies
Individual Development Accounts (IDA)
In-kind income
Interest on funds that commingle countable and excluded assets
James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act of 2010
Japanese American and Aleutian Restitution payments
Jensen Settlement Agreement payments
Long-Term Services and Supports workforce incentive payments under the Minnesota Care Force Incentive program.
Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) payments
Lump sum income
- Some lump sum income that is used to pay for certain expenses is not counted, including:
  - Costs associated with getting the lump sum, such as attorney’s fees
  - Any portion of the lump sum earmarked for and used to pay medical expenses not covered by insurance or any Minnesota Health Care Program (MHCP), such as a prosthetic device
  - Any portion of the lump sum recovered by the DHS Benefit Recovery Section (BRS)
  - Any portion of the lump sum earmarked for and used to pay funeral and burial costs paid upon the death of a spouse or child
- SSI lump sum payments
  - Retroactive SSI lump sum payments are excluded as income in the month received.
  - If a person’s SSI is reissued because a representative payee misuses benefits, the reissuance is excluded as income.
- Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) and Veterans Affairs (VA) payment due to representative payee misuse. If a person’s SSDI or Veterans Benefits for the Elderly is reissued because an individual representative payee misuses benefits, the reissuance is excluded if the original payment of the income was used to determine the eligibility.
- Medicare Part B Premium Reimbursements. This lump sum is excluded as income in the month received if the Medicare Part B premiums being reimbursed to the client were not used as an MA spenddown expense.
Nazi Persecution payments, including payments inherited from the original recipient, and any interest accrued from these funds.
Participation incentive payments
Public assistance payments from the following programs:
- Minnesota Family Investment Program (MFIP)
- Diversionary Work Program (DWP)
- General Assistance (GA)
- Housing Support (HS)
- Minnesota Supplemental Aid (MSA)
- Refugee Cash Assistance (RCA)
- Title IV-E and non-Title IV-E Kinship Assistance
- Title IV-E and non-Title IV-E Adoption Assistance
- Foster Care Assistance
- Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe Elder Supplement Assistance Program
- SSI and all income used to determine SSI (including deemer income)
  - VA Aid and Attendance benefits and VA unusual medical expense payments are not excluded, even if the person is receiving SSI.
Radiation Exposure Compensation Trust Fund (RECTF) payments
Refunds of rental security and utility deposits
Reimbursements for out-of-pocket expenses incurred while performing volunteer services, jury duty or employment
Reimbursements for medical expenses
Reimbursements for replacement of property
Relocation assistance payments, federal
Ricky Ray Hemophilia Relief Fund payments
Student financial aid. The following types of student financial aid income are excluded:
- Student financial aid received under Title IV of the Higher Education Act, with the exception of Federal Work Study earnings which may count for Medical Assistance for Employed Persons with Disabilities (MA-EPD)
- Student financial aid received from the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA), with the exception of Federal Work Study earnings which may count for MA-EPD
- Non-Title IV and non-BIA grants, scholarships, fellowships and other non-loan financial aid, if used or set aside to pay educational expenses. Refer to MA-ABD Countable Income for funds that are not used for or set aside for educational expenses.
- Distributions from a Coverdell Educational Savings Accounts (ESA) if the funds are used for educational expenses. Refer to MA-ABD Countable Income for funds that are not used for educational expenses.
- VA benefits designated as educational assistance
- Plan to Achieve Self Support (PASS) student financial aid
- Training expenses paid by the Trade Adjustment Reform Act of 2002
Tax credits, rebates and refunds
Third party vendor payments, which include, but are not limited to:
- MSA or GRH payments made directly to a facility
- Emergency payments to a utility company made by an emergency assistance program such as Emergency General Assistance (EGA)
Tribal payments. The following types of tribal payments are excluded:
- Tribal trust or restricted lands, individual interest: Exclude the first $2,000 received from this income source.
- Tribal per capita payments from a tribal trust: Exclude all funds from this income source.
- Tribal land settlements and judgments: Excluded all funds from this income source.
Veterans’ Children with Certain Birth Defects payments
Vietnamese Commando Compensation Act payments
Vocational Rehabilitation Payments

Legal Citations

Minnesota Statutes, section 256B.056, subdivision 1a