Massachusetts resource rules allowed jointly held bank accounts to be divided among
the owners before the amount of countable resource was determined. The SSI law allows
this resource determination for converted individuals to stand provided certain criteria
are met (see SI 01220.000). Income determination, however, is not protected. Income from a joint resource must
be allocated to the applicant in its entirety, as all the income is available to the
applicant. For example, a converted person who owns a $2,000 joint account with one
other person would have $1,000 of countable resource, while the $100 interest payment
(5% of $2,000) would count fully as income to the applicant.