401K might screw me up with State of WA

Reverend_Chaos

Long story short, My 6 year old daughter was born premature, underwent numerous surgeries, and is categorized by the government as disabled. As such we get money from SSI to help cover her additional expenses. The state is now telling us that we cannot have more than 2k in assets and I have $8,600 in my 401k. They take my income into consideration already and I make half of what I could and still recieve this money, but apparently I am not allowed to save or plan for my future. The biggest problem here, is that the SSI office could not only disqualify us, but claim we were paid benefits when we did not qualify and then not only are we not getting that money, but they would be expecting that money back, probably going back a couple of years (when I crossed the 2k mark) , meaning $20-30k they would want paid back.

LS/DNR - Can I plunder my 401K, or transfer it in such a way as to not be considered an "asset" by the state

Jasconius

A 401k is not generally considered a "liquid" asset

Even though the money is yours, you can't go and get it in many cases unless you quit your job, or unless you established the 401k apart from your job (which is rare for people with not much of a balance)

Are you absolutely sure they factor in retirement accounts? You should probably check into that before going into freakout mode.

It's kind of like them saying that you can't get coverage because you have ten grand of equity in your house. Yes, that's an asset, but you can't pull ten grand out of the faucet.

DisruptedCapitalist

Hire a lawyer. States look for all sorts of reasons to deny SSI even when they're not legit. There are usually disability lawyers out there who can do this for a reasonable cost. It's basically a day stuck in SSI hearing offices, but usually it clears up quick if you're with someone who knows the system.

Chorazin

SSI is not a state benefit, it's purely federal, and your state can't do anything or tell you anything about SSI. 401k is, AFAIK, not a considered resource for SSI. Hell, when you were granted SSI you would have had to tell them about the 401k and they approved it!

If you're applying for state medical assistance though welfare, that's entirely seperate, and have wildly different resource limits and requirements. Make sure you know who is telling you about these resource requirements, check your letters again.

Source: I'm a welfare caseworker in PA. (different state, but federal stuff is the same across the board)

Reverend_Chaos

Thanks Everyone!! I knew my fellow PA'rs would have an answer. You guys are the best!!

I am going to check over everything again. We do also have state insurance and a bit of food assistance coming in through WA state, so I assumed it was the same people.