Will Debt Forgiveness As Early Inheritance Gift Affect Public Aid Benefits
My question involves public health law in the State of: Illinois
I am pregnant and am on Medicaid with my husband and son. We are considering applying for food stamps. However, the application includes wanting to know of any gifts/loans we've received from relatives/friends.
When we purchased our home several years ago, my father-in-law was our lender, so we owe him the full amount for the house. For a couple years, he plans to gift us a certain amount per year in the form of debt forgiveness. We will see no cash from this, only the forgiveness of some of our debt to him in his personal records. He says we will see no cash benefit from this until he passes.
Is this debt forgiveness considered "income" with regard to Medicaid? Food stamps? Does it need to be reported on our application or to our caseworker as a change in income for Medicaid?
Thank you so much for your help.
Re: Will Debt Forgiveness As Early Inheritance Gift Affect Public Aid Benefits
I have no information about the present ownership of the house or how this financial "gift" is handled. If you want to know how your transactions would affect your benefits, you have to tell us about the transactions.
As a general rule of thumb, when there's a possibility of being accused of an offense such as welfare fraud, it makes sense to err on the side of caution. If you don't want to explain the situation here, see if you can get some help from legal aid.
Re: Will Debt Forgiveness As Early Inheritance Gift Affect Public Aid Benefits
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Mr. Knowitall
I have no information about the present ownership of the house or how this financial "gift" is handled. If you want to know how your transactions would affect your benefits, you have to tell us about the transactions.
Thanks for your reply. I can share a bit more. The property is titled to us and to my in-laws. There is no note of mortgage. He has worked up papers for his own personal records so he can keep track of what we pay him and what we still owe. There are no official transactions as far as this "gift" goes. He will simply reduce the amount that we owe him in his personal records. Does this information help?