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Supplemental Needs Trusts
Overview - Supplemental Needs Trusts
Supplemental Needs Trusts (SNTs) are legal tools used to help disabled people keep more of their income or assets without losing their public benefits. See fact sheet in SPANISH. SNTs were originally invented to allow parents of children with developmental disabilities to provide for them...
Step-by-step guide to enrolling in a pooled income trust for Medicaid spend-down
This article is a condensed road-map for using a pooled income trust to eliminate the Medicaid spend-down. NEW June 2022 - Big Changes in NYC - See STEP TWO and STEP Three below - NEW DISABILITY forms required! DOWNLOAD OUR our longer FACT SHEET on this topic (updated May 2023 to reflect...
Advocate's Outline on Supplemental Needs Trusts and Rules for Impact of Lump Sums on Various Benefits
This in-depth training manual or outline (updated June 2023) covers how Supplemental Needs Trusts work (both individual and pooled), when an asset or lump sum may be deposited into an SNT. For Community Medicaid only, income may also be placed into an SNT. Explains how lump sums and SNTs affect...
List of Pooled SNTs in New York State
This is an unofficial list of non-profit organizations in New York State that offer pooled Supplemental Needs Trusts (or similar services) to people with disabilities. We do not claim that this is an exhaustive list; there may be other pooled trusts in the state of which we are unaware. In...
How to use a pooled SNT to eliminate the Medicaid spend-down.
This Fact Sheet explains how to use a Pooled Supplemental Needs Trust to eliminate the Medicaid spend-down (updated for 2023) - See SPANISH TRANSLATION. N. Y. Social Services Law § 366, subd. 5 (f) - Law enacted Dec. 18, 2017 - NEW LAW enacted that requires the State Dept. of Health to...
Legal Authorities Relating to Supplemental Needs Trusts - Federal, State, and New York City
There is a confusing patchwork of Federal and State laws and regulatory guidance governing the use of Supplemental Needs Trusts in the Medicaid context. This article is intended to collect some of these authorities in one place. One of the prerequisites for using a Supplemental Needs Trust is...
Medicaid Disability Determinations - NYS Forms & Procedures (with updated forms Dec. 2021)
The Medicaid program has long had a procedure for determining disability for individuals who have not yet been determined disabled by the Social Security Administration.[1] This procedure is needed in order to approve pooled trusts for people age 65+ and also for other reasons described here. The...
Medicaid Alerts & Other Protocols published by the NYC HRA Medicaid Program
HRA Medicaid Alerts are periodic announcements of policy, staff and office changes published by the HRA Medicaid Progarm (formerly called the "Medical Insurance and Community Services Administration (MICSA)". The Medicaid Program is the part of New York City’s Human Resource Administration...


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