Delaware Medicaid Income Limits 2026: Eligibility & Assets

Delaware Medicaid income limits draw a hard line at $2,982 a month for long-term care, and unlike many states, Delaware doesn't let you spend down past it. If you're over, your only route in is a Miller Trust.

This guide walks through the 2026 income and asset rules for Delaware Medicaid long-term care, the program the state runs for aged, blind, and disabled residents. It explains the income cap and how the Qualified Income Trust works around it, the $2,000 asset limit, what a nursing-home resident keeps, what an at-home spouse is protected from, and how to apply through Delaware ASSIST.

How the Delaware Medicaid income limits actually work

For nursing-facility care and for the home-and-community-based services (HCBS) waiver, Delaware sets the 2026 income limit at $2,982/month for a single applicant. That figure is 300% of the 2026 Supplemental Security Income (SSI) Federal Benefit Rate ($994), the standard Medicaid calls the Special Income Level.

Here is what makes Delaware different from a spend-down state. The $2,982 figure is a true cap. In a medically needy state like Illinois or New York, being over the income standard doesn't disqualify you, you simply spend the excess on medical bills and qualify for the rest of the month. Delaware offers no such path for long-term care. If your gross monthly income is $2,983, you are over the line, and there is no amount of medical spending that fixes it.

What fixes it is a trust.

The Miller Trust: the only route past the Delaware Medicaid income limits

If your income exceeds the Delaware Medicaid income limits, the Delaware Division of Medicaid and Medical Assistance (DMMA) requires you to establish a Qualified Income Trust (QIT), the same instrument widely known as a Miller Trust. The trust is what makes income-cap Medicaid workable for people who would otherwise be shut out.

How it works in practice:

1. You open an irrevocable trust account and name the State of Delaware as the remainder beneficiary.
2. Each month, you deposit the income that exceeds the cap into the trust. Income parked in a properly drafted QIT doesn't count toward the $2,982 limit.
3. The trustee pays out the trust money under strict rules, toward your Personal Needs Allowance, a spousal allowance if there's a community spouse, and your share of the nursing-home cost.
4. Whatever remains in the trust when you die goes to the state, up to the amount Medicaid paid on your behalf.

A QIT only solves an income problem. It does nothing for an asset problem, and it doesn't shelter the income, it routes it. The money still ultimately goes toward your care. The trust is a legal channel that lets an over-income applicant satisfy the cap, not a way to keep more money. Because the trust must be drafted correctly to count, and because the deposits have to happen every single month without fail, this is a step to set up with an elder-law attorney before applying, not after.

The $2,000 asset limit

Separate from income, a single Delaware long-term-care applicant may hold no more than $2,000 in countable assets. A married couple with both spouses applying is limited to $3,000.

"Countable" is the word that carries the rule. Delaware, like every state, exempts a long list of resources from the count:

• The primary home, subject to an equity cap (more below)
• One vehicle
• Household goods and personal effects
• Prepaid, irrevocable burial arrangements

So the $2,000 limit applies to things like bank accounts, a second car, stocks, and cash value in some life insurance, not the roof over your head or your car. Many applicants who look over the limit on paper are actually closer once exempt assets are set aside, though the gap between countable assets and $2,000 still has to be closed legitimately before approval.

Long-term care: what a nursing-home resident keeps

When Delaware Medicaid pays for nursing-facility care, the resident contributes nearly all of their monthly income toward the cost of care. What they keep is the Personal Needs Allowance (PNA), money reserved for small personal expenses like clothing, a haircut, or a phone. Delaware sets its PNA at $75/month, above the long-standing federal floor of $30.

After the PNA and any spousal or dependent allowance and health-insurance premiums are deducted, the remainder of the resident's income is the patient-pay amount that goes to the facility each month. For the national picture on how the PNA is set and calculated, see our explainer on the Medicaid personal needs allowance.

The five-year look-back

Delaware reviews asset transfers made in the 60 months before a long-term-care application. Giving away money or property for less than fair market value inside that window, signing a house over to a child for a dollar, gifting a grandchild a down payment, can trigger a penalty period during which Medicaid won't pay for long-term-care services, even though you otherwise qualify.

There are legitimate exceptions (transfers between spouses, transfers to a disabled child, certain caregiver-child home transfers) and legitimate planning approaches, but anything done inside the five-year window deserves an elder-law attorney's review first. For the broader toolkit, see our guide to Medicaid planning strategies.

Protecting the spouse who stays home

When one spouse needs long-term care and the other stays in the community, federal spousal-impoverishment rules keep the at-home spouse from being left destitute. Delaware applies the federal maximums for 2026:

So a married couple is in a very different position from a single applicant. The community spouse can hold up to $162,660 in assets and keep over $4,000 a month in income while the other spouse receives Medicaid-funded care. Note that the income cap and the QIT requirement still apply to the applicant spouse, the spousal allowances govern how much of the couple's resources and income the at-home spouse may retain, not whether the applicant clears the cap.

After death: estate recovery

Like every state, Delaware runs a Medicaid estate-recovery program. After a recipient who was 55 or older and received long-term-care services dies, the state may seek repayment from the estate, unless the recipient is survived by a spouse or a minor, blind, or disabled child. Federal exceptions and an undue-hardship waiver apply. The remainder in a Qualified Income Trust also passes to the state at death, up to what Medicaid paid. For how estate recovery works and where families have room to plan, see our Medicaid estate recovery explainer.

How to apply in Delaware

Delaware Medicaid is administered by the Delaware Division of Medicaid and Medical Assistance (DMMA), within the Department of Health and Social Services (DHSS). You have a few ways to apply:

1. Online through Delaware ASSIST at assist.dhss.delaware.gov, the state's combined portal for Medicaid, SNAP, and other benefits.
2. Through DMMA directly, or through the Delaware Aging and Disability Resource Center for help with long-term-care applications.

Long-term-care applicants also go through a level-of-care screening to confirm they need nursing-facility-level services. If you're over the income cap, set up the Qualified Income Trust before or alongside the application, because Delaware can't approve income-cap Medicaid until the trust is in place and funded. Apply even if you think you're over a limit, between the asset exemptions and the QIT route, many people who assume they're disqualified are not.

Learn More

• Medicaid Planning Strategies
• How Medicaid Estate Recovery Works
• The Medicaid Personal Needs Allowance, Explained

Find personalized help working through Delaware Medicaid eligibility and the Miller Trust process for your family at brevy.com.

The information on Brevy.com is for educational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional legal, financial, or medical advice. Rules vary by state and program and change frequently. Always verify with the relevant agency or a qualified professional. Brevy is not a law firm, financial advisor, or healthcare provider.