My father offered to be a co-signer on an auto loan. If he co-signs will this effect his Medicaid or social security benefits which he just applied for? I’d be paying the loan and not him. But will Medicaid come across this information and possibly penalize or is this information they aren’t concerned with?
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If he has 1 car already, it could cause a penalty because you can only have one vehicle to qualify.
Honestly I think that asking a senior to co-sign is financial exploitation and they should not be asked to put themselves in a position to be responsible for someone else's debt. It doesn't just go away because they are old, it can cause undo stress for them.
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If Dad is on Medicaid for his care in a home, he has no money of his own to cosign. If on Medicaid for Medical, he gets it because he is low income. Medicaid in the future...it will be a debt he may not or cannot pay off if the other person stops paying the loan.
He does understand that as a cosigner he will be held liable for the debt if the other person does not make monthly payments. I would not do it unless I could afford the loss. If the other person needs a cosigner its either because they have no credit history and need to establish credit or their credit is bad. We have done this for our daughter one time, to establish credit. We also were both working at the time.