A budget group is one person or a group of persons who occupy a common residence and whose needs are considered together when determining eligibility for assistance. If they are eligible, a monthly assistance payment is issued to cover all members of the budget group in one of two categories:
Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF)
General Assistance (GA), category symbol D
NOTE: The system treats a grant group as a budget group for the purpose of nonfinancial, income, and resource eligibility determination. The grant groups are not linked in the eligibility determination process when budget groups comprised of members under special program requirements are authorized in different grant groups to allow for identification of the appropriate Federal Financial Participation (FFP), such as D and D2.
A person may be a member of only one budget group, even if multiple budget groups occupy a common residence.
The CAO identifies the members of the budget group to determine whether an applicant/recipient group is eligible for TANF or GA assistance. The number of members in a budget group is used to determine:
Resource eligibility;
Income eligibility; and
The monthly assistance payment (MAP) amount.
TANF: When there is more than one TANF budget group in a common residence, the eligibility and benefit amount of each budget group is based on:
The family size allowance (FSA) for the number of members of the budget group.
The county of residence.
See Chapter 138.
GA: The size of the budget group and the county of residence determine the FSA. The CAO must divide the FSA among the budget groups when there is more than one GA budget group or a combination of TANF and GA budget groups in the common residence. See Chapter 138 to determine the appropriate FSA.
Exception: If the GA budget group is required to pay or receives room, board, or both from a TANF budget group, the CAO must base the FSA on the number of persons in the GA budget group.
SPECIAL PROGRAM: A budget group is split into two or more grant groups when a budget group contains members whose eligibility is based on special program requirements The budget group will receive two or more benefits in four or more semimonthly (twice a month) payments that reflect a reduced or full FSA. See Chapter 138.
Citations:
Reissued June 27, 2005, replacing November 2, 2004; Reviewed January 31, 2012