6000 - Income
There are two types of income, earned and unearned. Income shall include money received from such sources as wages, self-employment, property rentals, pensions, benefits, and contributions.
For applications, there shall be ineligibility for cash assistance when there is no budgetary deficit resulting from excess income.
For on-going cases, there shall be ineligibility for cash assistance when there is no budgetary deficit resulting from excess income, unless there are earnings included. When earnings are included, eligibility for the Work Incentive payment is to be explored.
Example #1: Eligibility exists in the first month of application, but no benefit was received due to proration. The following month the income which includes earnings, exceeds the TANF budgetary standard. Because there was eligibility in the previous month, even though no benefit was issued, there is eligibility for the Work Incentive payment in the second month.
Example #2: Client reports receipt of new employment. The first month of projected income indicates client is eligible, however the grant amount is under $10 and will not be issued. The following month, the gross earnings exceed the TANF budgetary standards, and eligibility for the Work Incentive payment exists.
The following general rules are applicable:
The
income of all persons whose needs are included in the cash assistance
plan, food assistance household (including excluded and disqualified
individuals) or child care nuclear family must be considered. In addition,
the income of all mandatory filing unit members who are excluded from
the assistance plan in accordance with 4113,
4212.2, and 4212.3
must be considered unless otherwise exempted. If, in the month of
application, a mandatory filing unit person has left the home, his
or her income shall not be considered as being available to the family
in that month. Also see 6400.
If a parent enters an institutional living arrangement
(whether or not the facility is Medicaid approved) for other than
a planned brief stay (not to exceed the month of entrance and the
following two months), his or her income shall be considered in determining
the eligibility of a minor child only for the month the arrangement
begins. Thereafter, only the minor child's income as well as any income
contributed by that parent can be considered in determining the eligibility
of that child. For TANF, Child Care, and Food Assistance, if the parent
receives HCBS in the home and continues to live with the child, that
parent's income must still be considered.
A
conversion of property from one form to another shall not be considered
as income except for the proceeds from a contract for the sale of
property.
Income shall not be considered both as income and as property in the same month.