Poverty Law and the Minnesota

Poverty Law and the Minnesota Family Investment Program

There is no doubt that Cassandra and her family, including her elderly mother and her disabled brother, are in need of financial assistance due to the discrepancy in their combined earning potential and their expenses. There are many complicating scenarios in their situation, however, that could limit the amount of aid they, and specifically Cassandra, are eligible for. The circumstances that warrant her ability to collect benefits under the Minnesota Family Investment Program include her diagnosis with post Traumatic Stress Disorder, which is a recognized disability and limits her ability to work. Furthermore, she is the primary caregiver for her elderly mother, her disabled brother, and her son, who recently (within the past year) suffered a traumatic brain injury from an auto accident.

Because of these circumstances, Cassandra has been receiving Minnesota Family Investment Program benefits, as well as food stamps and medical assistance benefits for the past three years. Despite this, she has been unable to pay her condo association's monthly fees, and the condo board is beginning to threaten legal action against her. Cassandra's financial circumstances are changing, however, and she has recently been informed that the benefits she is receiving through all three programs will be terminated by the end of the year because of these changes. Specifically, she fully owns a condo valued at fifty-thousand dollars, has been listed on a thousand-dollar stock portfolio that actually belongs to her mother, and might soon be listed as the representative payee for both her mother's Social Security benefits and her brother's Supplemental Security Income.

To complicate matters still further, Cassandra is also expecting a settlement, possibly in excess of one million dollars, from the driver that caused her son's accident. She would also like to attend college, though she would only be able to attend a few classes each week, but is worried that any financial aid she might receive (which she would definitely need in order to cover the cost of tuition and books, even if her living expenses were more controllable) would further hurt her chances to receive the assistance she needs to make ends meet. Each of these issues is intimately interconnected in the details of Cassandra's everyday life and her financial situation, but when it comes to finding practical and legal solutions they can more easily and effectively be considered somewhat separately.

The Inconsequentials

Though all of the issues that Cassandra and her family are of course highly important to their future lives and financial development, not all of them need to be considered in order to address the present situation. The possible settlement from the driver involved in Jonathan's accident is chief among the details of this case that can be set aside in determining an immediate course of action in helping Cassandra to retain her Minnesota Family Investment Program benefits. Differences in the details of the settlement, including the amount of cash received, the speed of the collection process (which can often take years, and in larger amounts even longer), and the precise determination of the court as far as how and to whom the money is awarded are all beyond Cassandra's control.

As such, it is impossible to plan for the effects of this settlement on her financial situation. Cassandra also does not need to worry about an immediate eviction from her condominium. The fact that she owns the unit means that very different proceedings would have to take place before she could be removed from the premises; the condo board could certainly take her to court in an attempt to win an award concerning the past due fees, and eventually this could lead to a forced sale of her assets (including her condo) in order to pay her debts, but it is unlikely that the condo board would go to such lengths if Cassandra shows a willingness to work with them as her financial situation improves.

Minnesota Family Investment Program Eligibility

With her brother's recent approval for Supplemental Security Income and his decision to make Cassandra the representative payee, this situation is certainly changing in the near future. Her mother's desire to make her the representative payee of her Social Security benefits will also change Cassandra's financial situation, at least on paper, and it is also possible that any financial aid Cassandra might receive to begin attending college again would, as she fears, lead to a reduction of her benefits or even entire elimination of her eligibility for the Minnesota Family Investment Program and the other benefits she is currently receiving. These future occurrences are not only more immediate than either the possibility of a settlement from Jonathan's accident and Cassandra's possible need to leave her condominium, but they can also be more easily analyzed and planned for in terms of eligibility.

The eligibility requirements for continuing to receive Minnesota Family Investment Program benefits essentially fall into two categories, income and property. As far as the income requirements go, Cassandra and her family have no reason to worry about the loss of benefits. Cassandra herself does not receive any regular income, and educational assistance payments (such as anything she might receive to help her attend school, even cash loans that are expressly for educational purposes), so even if she were to receive financial aid to help her attend school, her eligibility for these benefits would not be affected. There are some complicating factors; her brother, for instance, could not be considered a member of the assistance unit once he begins receiving Supplemental Security Income, but Cassandra's designation as a representative payee should not effect her eligibility in this regard, and as her income is still essentially zero she has little reason to worry here.

The fact that the condo is worth fifty-thousand dollars, however, is a major issue. The property limitations on eligibility for the Minnesota Family Investment Program benefits, with certain exclusions, is five-thousand dollars. There are, however, several options that Cassandra could explore to remedy this situation. First, if the property were transferred to her brother's name in one way or another, it would no longer make Cassandra ineligible precisely because her brother would be excluded from the assistance unit, and his property would not be counted. Even if a sale were made, and her brother made payments to Cassandra for the property, these payments -- as the proceeds of property sold by the person receiving assistance -- would not be counted in Cassandra's income.

The condominium could also be sold to someone else entirely, of course, and the money used to pay certain expenses in the short-term, but this might put the family in a worse financial position in the long-term. As far as the other property that Cassandra owns, none of it would render her ineligible. Her car is only slightly over half of the value that is allowable for exclusion under the current guidelines for the Minnesota Family Investment Program, and the value of the sewing equipment that she owns would not be counted as long as it is used at least once a year to provide income to the assistance unit. Even if this wasn't the case, the value of the equipment at five hundred dollars would not have an effect on her eligibility for the program. As long as Cassandra is able to remove the condo from her list of property one way or another, her benefits should be maintained.

Social Services

In addition to addressing their financial situation, there are also several social assistance programs that Cassandra and her family should avail themselves of. Cassandra is already receiving therapy for her Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, and this should definitely continue. If she is not already attending a counseling program that is funded or subsidized by the public, she would certainly qualify for such a program and could significantly reduce her monthly costs by making such a switch. Her local college, in fact, almost certainly provides mental health services, so her attendance at school could not only provide her with a leg up in the world in the long-term, but also provide immediate assistance.