New Jersey Medicaid Personal Needs Allowance: $50 (2026)

Once New Jersey Medicaid pays for a parent's long-term care, how much of their own income do they get to keep? The answer is the personal needs allowance, and in a nursing home it is small: just $50 a month.

That figure applies in a nursing home. In an assisted living residence the allowance is higher, so how much a person keeps depends heavily on where they live and on how their cost of care is calculated.

In This Guide

• What the personal needs allowance is
• The allowance by setting
• The nursing-home allowance and the pending increase
• What the allowance has to cover

What the New Jersey Medicaid Personal Needs Allowance Is

When New Jersey Medicaid pays for someone's long-term care in a facility, the resident isn't expected to contribute nothing, but they also don't get to keep all their income. Most of their monthly income (Social Security, a pension) goes toward the cost of care as "patient liability," and they keep a small slice for personal expenses. That slice is the personal needs allowance (PNA). It exists so a resident can buy the things Medicaid and the facility don't provide: clothing, a haircut, a phone, toiletries, a birthday gift for a grandchild.

The New Jersey Medicaid Personal Needs Allowance by Setting

The single most important thing to understand is that the allowance depends on where the person lives. The two figures below are the published facility allowances.1

The logic: someone in assisted living pays room and board out of their own income but keeps a modest allowance, while someone in a nursing facility, where room, board, and care are all covered, keeps the least. Either way the arithmetic is done for you. The county welfare agency completes the cost share calculation on the Personal Responsibility form, and the long-term care facility bills and collects that cost share, with your health plan's payment to the facility reduced by the same amount.1

One setting is deliberately missing from that table. MLTSS covers members at home as well as in an assisted living facility or a nursing home, but Brevy has not been able to confirm a published New Jersey rule on how income is treated for a member receiving MLTSS in their own home or a family member's home.3 Until we can cite one, do not assume a home setting carries no cost share. Ask your MLTSS care manager or your county welfare agency what applies to your household before you plan a budget around it.

The $50 Nursing-Home Allowance and the Pending Increase

The $50 nursing-home figure has gone unchanged for many years, so as prices have risen its purchasing power has fallen. Federal law is no help here: 42 CFR 435.725(c)(1) requires only that a state protect a personal needs allowance of at least $30 a month for an aged, blind, or disabled institutionalized individual, so New Jersey's $50 already sits above the federal floor.1

A bill to raise it is moving. Assembly bill A2691 would increase the personal needs allowance to $140 for low-income people residing in certain facilities and add annual cost-of-living adjustments. The Legislature's bill page records two actions: introduction on January 13, 2026, and, on May 7, 2026, a 6-0 vote reporting the bill out of the Assembly Aging and Human Services Committee with amendments and referring it to the Assembly Appropriations Committee. There has been no floor vote, no Senate action on the identical S1576, and no enactment as of August 3, 2026, so $50 is still the operative figure. Families budgeting for a parent's nursing-home stay should plan around $50 and watch the bill.1

What the Allowance Has to Cover

The personal needs allowance is meant to cover personal items the facility doesn't provide: clothing and shoes, personal toiletries beyond the basics, a phone or its bill, haircuts and personal grooming, stamps, and small comforts. It is not meant to cover medical costs (Medicaid and Medicare handle those) or the resident's room and board (that's what the patient liability pays). Families often supplement the allowance with their own money or gifts to cover the gap, which is allowed. In limited situations a resident may keep more than the standard allowance through program-specific or court-ordered deductions; a county Medicaid worker can confirm what applies.1

Learn More

Find personalized help understanding what income a New Jersey Medicaid resident keeps 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.