How much can an elderly parent give as gifts without worrying about "look back" laws?

well, igloo, up until fil passed away no taxes, no filing, since he was disabled, but, really, don't think it could be considered to be "working" anyway, since nobody's doing any of that, hence my concern re MERP.
But you're right; we're not the POA so, yes, also right, up to her, why talked to her; she's high up at a financial institution where she talked to their lawyer re - as I'm thinking she didn't really understand herself based on lawyer who did all that - the LE, thinking that all the children actually owned the property and could do with as will, especially since mil no longer lives there, not that was an actual stipulation, anyway, rather than it being than mil actually still owns it; she takes no responsibility, like as far as paying the taxes on it; she doesn't care since she doesn't live there and POA doesn't either, so if the children didn't go ahead and pay the taxes for their parts, everybody would just lose it all, which, again, mil probably wouldn't care and POA either, except for their part, which is a whole other issue, except that we've been given to understand - not from the POA - that all the money fil left her to take care of her is gone and if not "working" hence no MERP exemption then seems POA needs to be concerned, if no financial flexibility, unless she's planning on taking care of it herself? guess need to be finding out the rules here but nobody seems to want to, unless maybe as the ones who are having more to do with her and she with them, which doesn't seem to be us; her new hub came by our place over the weekend while she was out with them, including the poa; are finding out more as they do or are attempting to get more done; last time we talked mil didn't want to have anything to do with any of it; she didn't even want the le to be on the property; attorney just did it because had been done on the house part; said he wouldn't have any problem taking it off the rest if she'd just come in, but she doesn't want to bother with it, but maybe that's because of the money situation we didn't know about then and maybe poa knows as well

Assume the Medicaid will treat any check to a family member to be a gift subject to a look back period. There is no set amount by federal guidelines to my knowledge. It is probably best to avoid checks or large unusual withdraws. Christmas would be a red flag. Your local agency probably treats this as a carefully guarded secret. It can also vary by locality and caseworker.

I dont know if this will help. My mother always gave me and my husband a check for birthdays and Christmas (even though my husband is Jewish:)). She 91 in AL and I have POA. Since I pay her bills, i am concerned about look back when she eventually applies for Medicaid. I already will have to justify years of checks to a woman who cleaned for her. I now bring her a blank check for her to fill out and enclose in a greeting card. I then thank her, tear up the check at home and later tell her what i bought for that amount.

Rosyday, what a great idea about tearing up the check after the fact. I will need to remember that in case my Dad remembers that he and my late Mom use to give me a check for my birthday and for Christmas. I have all of Dad's financials.

With elders living over 100 now a days, one never knows what will be the time line 5 years from now. So I need to be ready just in case with a lot of xerox copies of bills. For awhile I was needing to reimburse myself for caregiving bills that were pulled from my own checking account so those costs were a biggee.

I used to do that, too, with my parents' checks to me for holidays

Can one gift $10K a year without a look back for Mass Health? My mother lives in her home but it is in a life estate.

Actually, let me rephrase that . . . Her home is under a 'living will'. Thank you.