A recipient received $10,000 from an insurance settlement. The claims representative
(CR) later develops how they spent the $10,000.
The recipient paid back creditors with $7,000, and purchased $3,000 in jewelry that
they ordinarily wear.
Because Mthey wear the jewelry, the CR must determine if SSA can exclude the jewelry
from resources as personal effects or a countable resource, in the form of other personal
property.
The recipient's statements establish that the jewelry has no family significance and
that they purchased the jewelry for its value, as a means to spend down the $10,000.
The CR correctly determines that the jewelry is not an excludable personal effect
because an item purchased for its value cannot be a personal effect. The CR also correctly
determines to consider the jewelry as “other personal property” and evaluates it using
normal resource counting rules.