2163 Referral to Child Support Services - EES is responsible for referring all absent parent cases (including a deceased parent) to CSS . All TANF, Child Care and food assistance cases are to be referred.

It is the function of EES staff to determine continued absence and the function of the CSS staff to obtain support in behalf of the spouse and/or child(ren).

The following information provides guidelines for ongoing cases related to absence from the home:

One or two indications that the absent parent has given the address of the assistance household as his or her address should be treated only as clues for further agency action. The responsibility rests with the agency and cannot be transferred to the parent in the home. Minimally, there must be an interview with (or documented attempts to interview) the absent parent.

If another address (not just for receipt of mail), is established for the absent parent, then he or she cannot be considered as being in the home without substantial data to establish that he or she is actually living there. Lacking such information, if both deny the absent parent's presence in the home, there must be several evidences substantiating presence in the home on an ongoing and current basis before agency action is taken. Such indicators might include address of the assistance household used at the post office, rent receipts in the name of the absent parent for the address of the household, utility bills for two or more months in the name of the absent parent and paid by him or her, other address of the household used at the time of the absent parent's employment over a period of time. Such documentation must be made before taking further action. Since many low income mothers are unable to obtain credit on their own, the documentation of the mother using a charge account in the name of the absent father is not sound data.

For TANF, and TANF Child Care, the referral is an automatic process in KEES following completion of the noncustodial parent page and authorization of the program. Subsequent changes (such as the addition or removal of persons from the assistance plan, suspensions, closures, and inter-county transfers) are also communicated automatically in KEES.

Referrals and subsequent changes are not made when there is no absent parent or when parental rights have been severed. See the KEES User Manual for further information on system processing.

For Income Eligible Child Care, the referral shall be made only for those absent parents whose children receive child care.

For food assistance, a referral should be sent at application, IR, and review if needed or when a household composition change is made known to DCF.

2164 Assignment of Support and Effective Date of Assignment (Not Applicable to Child Care and Food Assistance) -  Anyone who applies for or receives TANF benefits automatically assigns all accrued, present, and future support rights they have in their own behalf, or on behalf of any other person receiving assistance, to the Secretary of DCF. They also automatically grant the Secretary a limited power of attorney so that payments can be processed quickly and efficiently. If the client is excluded from the TANF assistance plan, the assignment does not pertain to the client’s alimony. The assignment and power of attorney take effect automatically, so no document other than the application for TANF is needed.

All rights to support in all open TANF cases are assigned to the Secretary of DCF. The amount that DCF is allowed to retain for reimbursement of assistance, however, is slightly different depending on when the case opened. For TANF cases opened before October 1, 2009, and that remain open, DCF has the right to retain collections applied to support that accrued before the TANF case opened. For TANF cases opened or reopened (with a break in assistance) on or after October 1, 2009, DCF cannot retain collections applied to support that accrued before TANF approval/eligibility.

The effective date of the automatic assignment shall be the date of approval, but if the first eligible month is a future month, the assignment shall be effective the first day of the first eligible month.

Clients are to be advised of the assignment provisions,  including the effective date of the assignment, and instructed to contact the CSS Customer Service Center toll free (1-888-757-2445; TTY for the hearing impaired 1-888-688-1666) concerning any support payments received from a source other than the Kansas Payment Center on or after the TANF approval/effective date. Clients are to be advised that if CSS instructs them to turn a support payment over to DCF, failure to do so will be considered non-cooperation and may be grounds for sanctions.

The assignment applies to court ordered and voluntary cash support as well as medical support for TANF purposes. Also see 6220 (4)(c). In most instances, an assignment ceases to be in effect the last day of the calendar month for which assistance is received. For instances in which cash assistance stops, but medical continues (e.g., TransMed or poverty level Medicaid), the assignment of medical support continues to be in effect as long as medical assistance is provided. If cash assistance is reinstated, the cash support assignment is: (1) continuous if there is no break in assistance or the case is suspended and reinstated with only a one month break in assistance; and (2) effective with the date of approval for other instances.

For TANF purposes, spousal support can include voluntary support, military allotments, support orders and alimony (not including property settlements). Court ordered spousal support, when there is no order for child support, is not assignable. Spousal support in these situations will be counted as income when budgeting.

Support paid in kind is exempt under the provisions of 6410 and is not considered in assistance budgeting. Following the effective date of assignment, support DCF retains for reimbursement, including past due support, is not counted as income in computing the benefit amount. Support subject to DCF claim which is kept by the client during a period when a sanction for failure to cooperate is in effect shall be counted as income. [See 6220 (4)(b)]. Collections of past due support not subject to DCF claim will be paid to the family and subsequently counted as income. See 6220 (4) and 6410 for other provisions regarding treatment of child support.