Persons who were converted from the Massachusetts welfare rolls receive special attention if they possess a jointly held bank account, regardless of whether the bank account was acquired before or after conversion.

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.

After August 1, 1982, the claimant must be given the opportunity to rebut ownership of a joint account. If the rebuttal is successful, there will be no need to apply the State conversion rules.

NOTE: If the joint account is split under the above instructions, all other resource determinations in the claim must be made using state rules.

SI 01140.205 Joint Checking and Savings Accounts

SI 01220.000 Special Resource Provision