Updated August 27, 2026. Quick answer: West Virginia runs the calculation as five numbered steps. “Compare the amount from Step 1 to $32,532, the Community Spouse Asset limit. If the Step 1 amount is equal to or less than $32,532, all assets are attributed to the community spouse.” If not, the manual halves the total and compares again. One caution this page raises because the source raises it: Step 3 compares against the 2026 figure but then attributes the 2025 one, and both numbers appear in the same sentence.
What West Virginia actually sets out
| What the state provides | What it says |
|---|---|
| West Virginia’s name for it | the community spouse’s share, WV Income Maintenance Manual § 24.8.1.B |
| Step 1 | “Determine the FMV of the couple’s combined countable assets, as of the beginning of the first continuous period of institutionalization.” |
| Step 2 | “Compare the amount from Step 1 to $32,532, the Community Spouse Asset limit. If the Step 1 amount is equal to or less than $32,532, all assets are attributed to the community spouse.” |
| Step 3, as printed | “Divide the Step 1 amount by 2 and compare to $32,532. If one-half of the Step 1 amount is equal to or less than $32,532, the community spouse is attributed $31,584 and the remainder belongs to the institutionalized spouse.” |
| Step 4 | “When one-half of the Step 1 amount is greater than $32,532, one-half of the total assets (Step 1 amount) is attributed to the community spouse, not to exceed $162,660, the maximum community spouse asset limit.” |
| Step 5 | “The amount not attributed to the community spouse is attributed to the institutionalized spouse.” |
| If you assess but do not apply | “If an application for nursing facility services is not made when the assessment is completed, the community spouse retains the amount attributed to him at the assessment, regardless of the couple’s combined assets at the time of application.” |
| If value is not documented | “When it is not provided, the assessment is not completed.” |
How it works in practice
- A poor couple keeps everything, and that is Step 2 doing the work. “Compare the amount from Step 1 to $32,532, the Community Spouse Asset limit. If the Step 1 amount is equal to or less than $32,532, all assets are attributed to the community spouse.” No halving happens at all below the floor. The arithmetic most people expect only begins once the couple is above it.
- ⚠ The discrepancy in Step 3 is in the manual, not in this page, and a reader should know about it before relying on a number. The step reads: “Divide the Step 1 amount by 2 and compare to $32,532. If one-half of the Step 1 amount is equal to or less than $32,532, the community spouse is attributed $31,584 and the remainder belongs to the institutionalized spouse.” It compares against $32,532 — the 2026 minimum — and then attributes $31,584, which was the 2025 minimum. The manual’s own change log records a 1/1/26 revision described as “Updated Community Spouse Resource Minimum and Maximum standard.” so the comparison figures were updated and this attributed figure appears not to have been. This page will not tell you which number the agency applies; it tells you the document says both, and that this is a question to put to the worker in writing.
- Above the floor the ordinary half rule returns, with a ceiling. “When one-half of the Step 1 amount is greater than $32,532, one-half of the total assets (Step 1 amount) is attributed to the community spouse, not to exceed $162,660, the maximum community spouse asset limit.” And then “The amount not attributed to the community spouse is attributed to the institutionalized spouse.” That remainder is what the applicant is judged on.
- An assessment taken without an application freezes the number in the couple’s favour. “If an application for nursing facility services is not made when the assessment is completed, the community spouse retains the amount attributed to him at the assessment, regardless of the couple’s combined assets at the time of application.” A couple who assess early and whose resources then grow do not lose the attributed share.
- Documentation is a precondition, not a formality. “When it is not provided, the assessment is not completed.” Without proof of ownership and fair market value the assessment simply does not happen, and nothing downstream of it can.
- The $32,532 and $162,660 figures in Steps 2 and 4 are the 2026 federal pair, and four other state documents read across this series state them independently. It is the attributed figure inside Step 3, and only that figure, which this page declines to vouch for.
What the allowance is for, and why protecting the spouse at home is a federal requirement rather than a state kindness, is explained on the community spouse resource allowance page. The date the couple’s resources are counted is its own subject, on the snapshot date page, and the monthly income allowance that runs alongside it is on the MMMNA page. This page is the record for West Virginia.
What this page does not settle
- This page reads one chapter of a long manual. Chapter 24 is West Virginia’s long-term care chapter and § 24.8.1.B is its calculation, but income treatment, transfer penalties and the appeal route live in sections this page did not quote.
- This page reads one source: West Virginia Income Maintenance Manual, Chapter 24, Long Term Care, Section 24.8.1.B, Calculation of the Community Spouse’s Share. It is the state’s own publication on this rule, but no state puts its whole treatment of a couple’s resources in a single document, and a detail that decides your case may sit in one this page did not read.
- The resource rule is one hurdle. The income rules for the spouse at home are separate and are decided on their own numbers, the level-of-care test is separate again, and the transfer-of-assets look-back is separate from all of them. Clearing this rule does not clear any of the others.
- Every quotation here was read against the source on August 27, 2026. The federal minimum and maximum figures are reset each January, and a state can revise its own rule without the page around it changing. Open the source before you rely on a number.
Eligibility is decided by the state agency on the whole file, not by one rule on one page. Nothing here is legal advice, and no one should move, retitle or spend a couple’s savings on the strength of a web page.
Sources
The source above was retrieved and read against the state text on August 27, 2026. Every quotation on this page was checked against those bytes.
Related: West Virginia’s Long-Term Care Partnership Program status; a separate, policy-based way some families protect assets alongside this spend-down allowance.