Updated September 6, 2026. Quick answer: In South Carolina, a Medicaid nursing-facility resident’s Personal Needs Allowance is $60.00/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. South Carolina Dept. of Health and Human Services: “Final Action to Increase Personal Needs Allowance for Individuals Residing in a Skilled Nursing Facility or Intermediate Care Facility for Individuals with Intellectual Disabilities” states the figure directly.
Why South Carolina’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. South Carolina has done exactly that, setting $60.00/Month, effective October 1, 2025 (increased from $30).
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.
| Citation | South Carolina Dept. of Health and Human Services: “Final Action to Increase Personal Needs Allowance for Individuals Residing in a Skilled Nursing Facility or Intermediate Care Facility for Individuals with Intellectual Disabilities” |
| What it says | “Effective on or after Oct. 1, 2025, SCDHHS will amend the South Carolina Title XIX State Plan to increase the PNA deduction amount from $30 to $60 for individuals residing in skilled nursing facilities or an ICF/IID.” |
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.