Getting Help With Medicare Prescription Drug Plan Costs When Someone Pays Your Household Expenses

Social Security and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services are working together to get you extra help with your prescription drug costs. To determine if you could be eligible for this extra help, Social Security will need to know your income and the value of your savings, investments and real estate (other than your home). If you have limited income and resources, you may be able to get help paying for your monthly premiums, annual deductibles and prescription co-payments under the new Medicare prescription drug program that began January 1, 2006.

Filing an Application for Help with Medicare Prescription Drug Plan Costs (Form SSA-1020) will help Social Security determine if you are eligible. One of the questions on the application asks about your household expenses and any help you may receive from other people to pay for those expenses. In some cases, Social Security may ask for documentation to support the information you provide. If we do not need to verify the amount, we will accept the amount you put on the application.

Question 11 asks if anyone provides or helps you (or your spouse, if married and living together) pay for any of the following household expenses—

• Food;

• Mortgage or rent;

• Heating fuel or gas;

• Electricity;

• Water; and

• Property taxes.

If anyone regularly provides you (or your spouse, if married and living together) help with these expenses, answer "Yes" and enter the average monthly amount in the space provided on the application. If you occasionally receive help, such as your child paying your telephone bill for one month, do not include that amount. The kind of help that counts would be if somebody regularly pays for your food or shelter such as your niece buying all your groceries or paying your rent regularly.

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Are there certain types of assistance that do not count?

Yes. There are exceptions. The following are examples of assistance that we do not count :

• Food Stamps;

• Help with household repairs;

• Help from a housing agency;

• Help from an energy assistance program;

• Disaster assistance;

• Meals on Wheels; and

• Help with medical bills.