Updated September 6, 2026. Quick answer: In Vermont, a Medicaid nursing-facility resident’s Personal Needs Allowance (the DCF payment-maximum table labels it differently; see below) is $79.93/Month; the amount of their own income they keep for personal use each month, with the rest going to the facility as the patient-pay amount toward the cost of care. That is well above the $30/month federal floor set in 1988 and never raised since. Vermont Agency of Human Services / Dept. for Children and Families, Economic Services Division, Bulletin No. 25-04, Manual Reference P-2740A “SSI/AABD Payment Maximums” states the figure directly.
Why Vermont’s figure isn’t the federal floor
Federal Medicaid law requires only a $30-a-month personal needs allowance as a floor; a state is free to set its own, higher figure by statute, regulation, or agency policy. Vermont has done exactly that, setting $79.93/Month, in effect since January 1, 2024 and unchanged for 2026 (Bulletin 25-04, effective January 1, 2025, shows the same figure, and the Department of Vermont Health Access 2026 Standards Change for Healthcare, updated July 13, 2026, lists $79.93 for an individual effective January 1, 2026; the P-2740A procedure has since been reissued as Bulletin 25-26).
What the allowance covers, and what it doesn’t
The personal needs allowance pays for the things a facility’s daily rate doesn’t cover: clothing, haircuts, snacks, a phone or television, small personal purchases. It is deducted before the rest of a resident’s income is applied to the facility bill as the patient-pay (or post-eligibility treatment of income, PETI) amount. It is not extra money on top of what Medicaid already pays the facility; it is the one slice of a resident’s own income that Medicaid rules guarantee the resident, not the facility, keeps.
A note on the name
The DCF payment-maximum table (P-2740A) labels this amount as the “Long-term Care” payment maximum, the combined $30.00 SSI share and $49.93 AABD share. Vermont’s Agency of Human Services calls the long-term-care amount the Personal Needs Allowance in Global Commitment Register notice GCR 23-151.
One exception or caveat worth knowing
Vermont’s Agency of Human Services calls this the Personal Needs Allowance in Global Commitment Register notice GCR 23-151 (final, February 28, 2024), which raised the Long-Term Care (Medicaid Payment) level from $72.66 to $79.93 for an individual effective January 1, 2024.
| Citation | Vermont Agency of Human Services / Dept. for Children and Families, Economic Services Division, Bulletin No. 25-04, Manual Reference P-2740A “SSI/AABD Payment Maximums” |
| What it says | “Long-term Care Individual $30.00 $49.93 $79.93” |
Figures verified against Vermont DCF Bulletin 25-04, DCF procedure P2740A, the Department of Vermont Health Access 2026 Standards Change for Healthcare, and 42 U.S.C. 1396a on September 30, 2026.
Every citation on this page was read directly from the state’s own Medicaid agency, administrative code, or official eligibility manual this session. General information, not legal or financial advice; a figure this specific can change with a budget cycle or a rule amendment, and a facility or state caseworker has the final say on any individual case.