55 Pa. Code § 177.23 - Ownership
(a)
Legally
available resources. Only resources which are legally available, or
are deemed available in the case of sponsors of aliens, to the client are
applied toward the resource limitation. See §
177.2 (relating to definitions).
(1) When consent to dispose of resources is
needed, but is withheld by a person who is not a member of the budget group or
by an LRR who does not reside in the home, the resource is not available. The
shared ownership and the person's refusal to dispose of the resource shall be
verified. The unavailability of resources shall be verified at application and
no less often than each reapplication.
(2) Special requirements for the disposal of
real or personal property owned by an LRR are contained in §§
177.11(g),
177.21(b) and (c)
and
177.22(c)-(e)
(relating to identification and verification of resources; personal property;
and real property).
(3) Entireties
property is property owned jointly by a husband and wife. One spouse cannot,
without the other's consent, liquidate the property to support children for
whom both persons are not legally responsible.
(b)
Establishing ownership.
Real and personal property can have more than one owner. Establishing the type
of ownership is essential in determining the availability and the value of the
budget group's resources.
(1) The following
rebuttable presumptions apply in determining the availability of real and
personal property resources:
(i) If a budget
group member is the sole owner, assume that the resource is
available.
(ii) If ownership is
shared by persons who are budget group members, it is assumed that the resource
is available.
(iii) If ownership is
shared by a budget group member and a person who is not an applicant or
recipient, the type of shared ownership shall be established to determine
availability and the following rebuttable presumptions apply:
(A) If the budget group member has a separate
legal interest which can be disposed of without the consent of the other
owners, assume the budget group member's share of the resource is
available.
(B) If the budget group
member has a legal interest which can be disposed of only with the consent of
the other owners, and consent is not withheld, assume that the budget group
member's share of the resource is available.
(2) A bank account owned jointly by husband
and wife is not entireties property unless a contrary intent is clearly shown,
or the account predates September 1, 1976. A bank account may be held in many
forms, including "A and B," "A or B," "A and B, or both" and "A in trust for
B." The legal rights of the parties are not wholly determined by the title of
the account. The account title or caption merely determines the rights of the
account vis-a-vis the bank and not their rights vis-a-vis each other. The
following rebuttable presumptions are applied in determining the availability
of bank accounts:
(i) The persons whose names
appear on the account title are the owners.
(ii) Persons who own an account jointly-for
example, and, or, and/or-own the account in proportion to their
contributions.
(iii) If
contributions cannot be determined, each owner of a joint account owns an equal
share.
(iv) If an account is titled
"in trust for," the account is a tentative trust, unless written trust
documents exist. A tentative trust is owned by the trustee, and the beneficiary
has no legal rights before the death of the trustee.
Notes
The provisions of this § 177.23 issued under sections 201(2) and 403(b) of the Public Welfare Code (62 P. S. §§ 201(2) and 403(b)); amended under section 403(b) of the Public Welfare Code (62 P. S. § 403(b)).
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