I recently sold my home and used the money to pay off a loan that a family member has made to me over the past 4 years to help pay my billsMy child and I are currently on Medicaid and only receive $775 in child support as our total income. I sold our house last month to repay a loan 5 days later that a family member extended to me over the past 4 years, leaving me with less than $2,000.
If the loan was never properly documented and not legally enforceable, then Medicaid may look at the payoff as a gift, which results in a period of disqualification from Medicaid.
Please don't try to hide this as it could be considered fraud. I'd seek advice from an attorney who knows the Medicaid laws for your state. You may be able to get some pro bono (free) help if you check with your state's attorney's office.
Good luck,
Carol
The MERP program rfhendricks mentioned applies only to those 55 and over who get Medicaid for NH or other long term care community based program and have a home.
From what you wrote, mom gifted your brother $$, correct? That amount will have a transfer penalty. Sometimes they can be waived and that is another reason why to work with an elder law attorney in this.
About the cash under the table sitters, that just has so many problems. Not just the whole no documentation for Medicaid issue. But if you are not getting paperwork filled out on them, like an I-9 & W-2, there can be IRS and Homeland security issues too. If they are needing cash because they can't have income as it would mess up their unemployment or disability checks or are undocumented, you as their "employer" can be fined for not doing paperwork & tax filings. Also you really don't want a future employer (or your current one) to run a check on you when you are up for a promotion and they find that you have IRS issues or have a inquiry from Homeland Security.
Really get mom's paperwork together and spend some of mom's $ and go to see an elder law attorney to see if they can make some sense of all this. Good luck.
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