
Quoting
Janke
This is called keeping her cake and eating it too question. I will just answer the SSI part of it. Don't know about subsidized housing or food stamps.
SSI has a 36 month look-back period for transferring assets for less than the market value. Unless it can be proven that the transfer is done for exclusively a reason other than qualifying for SSI, the amount of the transferred funds/assets is divided by the federal benefit and the state supp in her state and the resulting number of months are considered a period of ineligibility and no SSI payment. Since you have already stated the reason to give away her assets is to keep her public assistance benefits, it is highly unlikely that you could prove a reason other than qualifying for public assistance. Medicaid and food stamps may have longer look-back periods.
Although I can understand the desire to pass along her assets to her child, it sounds like the taxpayers have already done her a service by letting her keep her home to live in while providing her with food and possibly cash (SSI) to live on. A reason to buy a home is both to have a place to live and to have an asset to tap into to pay for the cost of care as a person gets older so the burden of paying for her care is not shifted to the government i.e. the taxpayers.
If she transfers the money to you, you then should be prepared to cover the cost of her care for at least three years or possibly five.
SSI allows up to $2000 in personal resources, generally in the form of bank accounts; one home that is lived in; $1500 in targeted burial funds; unlimited value of burial space items; one vehicle of any value and most household goods. Pretty much everything else is a countable resource.