Treatment of VA Benefits Allocated to Spouse Receiving IBON

Treatment of VA Benefits Allocated to Spouse Receiving IBON. A. When the spouse of an applicant or recipient receives Income Based on Need (IBON), the source of the IBON may count a portion of the VA benefit as income to the spouse receiving the IBON. This amount counted by the IBON source will be deducted from the countable VA benefit verified by VA for Medicaid eligibility. 1. Example: An applicant receives a VA pension and his spouse receives SSI. SSI verifies $50 of the VA pension is the spouse’s income in the SSI computation; therefore, $50 is deducted from the client’s verified VA pension in determining countable income for Medicaid.