By Minneapolis Senior Advisor Care Team · October 7, 2026
When one spouse moves to assisted living or a nursing home, Minnesota protects some savings and income for the spouse at home. Here is how the asset allowance and income allocation work, with 2026 limits and a checklist for the county visit.
The spouse who stays home is the one people forget
When Dad moves into a nursing home or an assisted living apartment, the family's attention goes to Dad. Is the room clean? Is the staff kind? Meanwhile Mom is back in the house in Roseville or Burnsville with a single Social Security check, a property tax bill that did not shrink, and a savings account that someone just told her might all go to the facility.
That fear is the real subject of this post. Minnesota, like every state, has rules that protect the spouse who stays home, called the community spouse. The spouse who needs care is the LTC spouse (long-term care spouse) in the state's own manuals. The rules do not make anyone rich. They do keep a well spouse from being pushed into poverty so the other can qualify for Medical Assistance (MA).
We are not lawyers and this is not legal advice. Several figures below come from federal and state sources that change every year, and a Minnesota elder-law attorney should look at any real couple's numbers. What follows is the map, so you know which questions to ask.
Two things get protected: some of the savings and some of the income
Minnesota's rules for married couples split into two separate questions. The first is about assets: how much of the couple's savings the community spouse may keep. The second is about income: how much of the LTC spouse's monthly income can be sent home to the community spouse instead of to the facility.
People mix these up constantly. A couple can have a perfectly adequate asset picture and still leave the spouse at home short every month, or the reverse. Treat them as two worksheets, not one.
For both, the DHS Eligibility Policy Manual defines the LTC spouse as someone who lives in a long-term care facility or receives Elderly Waiver services and is expected to stay there, or keep getting those services, for at least 30 consecutive days. That detail matters. It means the spousal protections are not only for nursing home stays. If your father uses the Elderly Waiver to pay for services in an assisted living apartment, or at home, the community spouse rules can apply to your mother too. Our guide to waiver-funded assisted living explains what the waiver does and does not pay for.
The asset side: the community spouse allowance
When one spouse asks for MA long-term care, the county asks both spouses to report and verify all assets. The county looks at the couple's total assets on the date of the request. It then works out a Community Spouse Asset Allowance (CSAA), the amount the spouse at home may keep.
For 2026 the federal range, which Minnesota uses, runs from a minimum of $32,532 to a maximum of $162,660 (per the CMS January 2026 standards, as recorded in our fact file). Where a particular couple lands inside that range depends on their countable assets. The DHS manual page we read says the community spouse may keep up to the maximum in effect on the date of the request, and that the maximum is updated every year. We could not find the exact calculation spelled out on that page, so do not guess. Ask the county worker to show the worksheet.
Two practical points from the manual. First, assets the community spouse is allowed to keep must actually be put in the community spouse's name. The manual says that has to happen no later than the LTC spouse's next annual renewal. Second, the assets are checked again at that renewal. A joint account that nobody retitled is the kind of loose end that creates a problem a year later.
The home is a separate question. A home where the community spouse lives is generally not counted the way savings are. We have a longer discussion of what MA can and cannot reach in our post on Minnesota estate recovery. Read it before you assume the house is either totally safe or totally gone. It is neither.
The income side: sending money home
The second protection is the community spouse income allocation. In Minnesota, MA for long-term care uses a spend-down model. The LTC spouse's income, after allowed deductions, goes toward the cost of care. The community spouse allocation lets the LTC spouse deduct part of that income and send it home, which lowers what the facility is paid from the LTC spouse's check.
The DHS Health Care Programs Manual says this allocation applies to people in long-term care facilities and to Elderly Waiver clients. It is built from the community spouse's own gross income, including earned income, Social Security and pensions, compared against a minimum monthly allowance. If the spouse's shelter costs are high, an excess shelter amount can be added. Shelter means rent or mortgage, real estate taxes, homeowner's or renter's insurance and a utility allowance, and the total is capped.
For 2026 the minimum monthly maintenance allowance is $2,705 (effective July 1, 2026 through June 30, 2027) and the cap is $4,066.50 a month. Those come from the federal standards, and they are not what your mother will necessarily receive. The allocation tops up her income toward the allowance; it does not hand her the full amount.
Notice what this does for a typical Twin Cities couple. A paid-off house in St. Louis Park still has property tax and utilities. A townhome in Eagan has an association fee. Those costs go into the shelter calculation, so write them down with real bills, not estimates.
What to gather before the county appointment
Most of the avoidable trouble in these applications is paperwork. Before you meet a worker at Hennepin, Ramsey, Dakota, Anoka or Washington County human services, collect the following.
Statements for every account either spouse holds, including accounts opened years ago and forgotten. Retirement account statements. Life insurance policies with cash value. Titles for vehicles. The deed to the home. The last property tax statement and homeowner's insurance bill. Recent utility bills. Award letters for Social Security and any pensions, for both spouses.
Also gather the last five years of large transfers. The look-back period for gifts is a separate trap, and it applies to couples too. Our post on the 60-month look-back covers it. Do not move money to the kids as a quick fix before you read it.
Ask for the worksheet in writing. You are allowed to understand how the county got its number, and a clear paper trail helps if you later need to appeal.
A worked picture, with invented numbers
The numbers here are made up to show the mechanics. They are not a prediction, and no published figure says what a typical Twin Cities couple holds.
Say Frank and Maureen live in a Roseville rambler. Frank needs assisted living with Elderly Waiver services after a stroke. Maureen stays home. The county adds up what both own on the date of the request. It sets Maureen's allowance somewhere between the 2026 minimum and maximum. Anything countable above Maureen's allowance and the low limit for Frank is something the couple must spend down on care or other allowed costs, or retitle properly, before Frank qualifies.
On income, Maureen's Social Security might be well below the monthly minimum allowance. If so, the county can let Frank send part of his income home. If Maureen's property taxes and utilities are high, the excess shelter amount can push that allowance up, up to the cap.
That is the whole shape. Frank qualifies. Maureen keeps a protected amount of savings, her own income and some of Frank's. The house stays hers. What happens to it after both spouses die is the estate recovery question, which is separate.
Where to get help in the Twin Cities
Start with the Senior LinkAge Line at 1-800-333-2433, Minnesota's free senior helpline, operated for the seven-county metro by Trellis, the region's Area Agency on Aging. They can explain the basics and point you to the right county office. All five counties this site covers are served by the same agency, so the answer does not change at a county line.
For a couple with real assets, pay for one hour with a Minnesota elder-law attorney before the application. The cost is small compared with a mistake that triggers a penalty period.
If the facility is pressing you for payment, or something else about the care looks wrong, the Office of Ombudsman for Long-Term Care is a single statewide office at 1-800-657-3591. Our guide to paying when money runs out lays out the rest of the options.
One caveat on figures. Our fact file flags the single-person nursing facility dollar limits as sourced from third-party elder-law summaries, not from a live DHS page, so we do not print them here. Ask the county for the current standards and treat anything else, including this post, as a starting point.
