What Can a Qualified Income Trust Pay For in Florida?
Florida's Department of Children and Families publishes no list of payments a Qualified Income Trust may make. Its policy describes how the trust is treated: all income, in and out of the trust, sets the patient responsibility, which the individual must pay, and deposits are protected from transfer penalties to the extent they are paid out for the individual's medical care. Every item below is cited to DCF's own published rules; where DCF says nothing about an item, this page says so instead of filling the gap. This guide is informational only and is not legal or financial advice.
Income goes into a Florida Qualified Income Trust each month, and DCF's policy names the purposes it may be paid out for. Here is what that policy says, item by item.
What DCF's rules allow
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Patient responsibility
DCF's information sheet says income in and out of the QIT is used to calculate the patient responsibility, and the individual is responsible for paying that amount.
Source: DCF Qualified Income Trust information sheet
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Medical care for the individual
Funds deposited into a QIT are not subject to transfer penalties provided they are paid out of the trust for the individual's medical care.
Source: DCF ESS Program Policy Manual 1840.0110
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Payments to others versus to the individual
DCF does not count disbursements from the trust account to third parties as income to the individual, but counts payments made directly to the individual as their income.
Source: DCF ESS Program Policy Manual 1840.0110
Trustee and bank fees
DCF's QIT policy and information sheet say nothing about trustee or bank fees.
What the trust can't be used for
The trust may consist only of the individual's income: DCF says not to include or add assets, and a trust holding someone else's assets or income is not a qualified income trust. Transfers of income into the trust are not treated as transfers without fair compensation unless the trust document does not allow monthly disbursement of all funds for the individual's benefit (ESS 1840.0111).
Timing, and money left over
Income is deposited in the month it is received; DCF's information sheet says deposits can't be made for a past or future month. Income the trust account earns and keeps isn't counted as the individual's income (ESS 1840.0110).
Related: who can be the trustee in Florida, what happens to the money at death, and the Miller Trust trustee guide for how the monthly cycle works in every state.
Trust not open yet? The account comes first
None of these payments can start until the trust account exists, and most branches have never opened one. Free one-pager: the questions to ask before you drive to a branch, emailed now. Then 4 more short emails over the next 10 days — then we stop.