(a) As used in this section, “cash assistance” means payments made to a beneficiary of the state supplement program, temporary family assistance program or the state-administered general assistance program. No person shall be deemed ineligible to receive an award under the state supplement program, medical assistance program, temporary family assistance program, state-administered general assistance program or supplemental nutrition assistance program for himself or herself or for any person for whose support he or she is liable by reason of having an interest in real property, maintained as his or her home, provided the equity in such property does not exceed the limits established by the commissioner. The commissioner may place a lien against any property to secure the claim of the state for all amounts which it has paid or may thereafter pay to such person or in such person’s behalf (1) for cash assistance or medical assistance, provided no such lien shall be placed on real property unless for amounts required to be recovered under federal law, or (2) to or on behalf of any person for whose support he or she is liable, except for property maintained as a home in aid to families of dependent children cases, in which case such lien shall secure the state only for that portion of the assistance grant awarded for amortization of a mortgage or other encumbrance beginning with the fifth month after the original grant for principal payment on any such encumbrance is made, and each succeeding month of such grant thereafter. The claim of the state shall be secured by filing a certificate in the land records of the town or towns in which any such real estate is situated, describing such real estate. Any such lien may, at any time during which the amount secured by such lien remains unpaid, be foreclosed in an action brought in a court of competent jurisdiction by the commissioner on behalf of the state. Any real estate to which title has been taken by foreclosure under this section, or which has been conveyed to the state in lieu of foreclosure, may be sold, transferred or conveyed for the state by the commissioner with the approval of the Attorney General, and the commissioner may, in the name of the state, execute deeds for such purpose. Such lien shall be released by the commissioner upon payment of the amount secured by such lien, or an amount equal to the value of the beneficiary’s interest in such property if the value of such interest is less than the amount secured by such lien, at the commissioner’s discretion, and with the advice and consent of the Attorney General, upon a compromise of the amount due to the state. At the discretion of the commissioner, the beneficiary, or, in the case of a husband and wife living together, the survivor of them, as long as he or she lives, or a dependent child or children, may be permitted to occupy such real property.

(b) On and after July 1, 2021, the state shall not recover cash assistance or medical assistance from a lien filed on any real property, unless the state is required to recover such assistance under federal law. Any certificate or lien filed under this section by or on behalf of the state on such real property prior to July 1, 2021, shall be deemed released by the state if the recovery of such assistance is not required under federal law.