The CAO will complete the prospective determination of need for applicants and recipients by applying the net income test to the income of the budget group.
Always compute the determination of need using the prospective budgeting method. See Chapter 167, Prospective Budgeting.
If the CAO determines that the budget group is ineligible based on the prospective determination, there is no assistance payment for the payment month. If a payment has been made, an overpayment has occurred only if the recipient failed to report or provide information timely or the CAO failed to act on a reported change timely.
The prospective determination is completed:
At application; and
When there is a change in the budget group circumstance that may affect eligibility.
If the budget group has income, the CAO will prospectively determine the total net countable income. See Section 168.211.
The budget group is not eligible for Cash Assistance for a calendar month if the net countable income equals or is greater than the budget group’s Family Size Allowance (FSA). However, there is no overpayment for benefits received if the income that caused ineligibility was reported and acted upon timely. See Section 168.71, Increase in Income for more information.
NOTE: Special items allowances for supportive services related to work or education are not added to the FSA in determining eligibility or payment amount.
If there is more than one budget group living in a common residence, each budget group will receive a monthly assistance payment to reflect a full FSA.
The CAO will determine the appropriate FSA in Chapter 168, Appendix B, based on the budget group size and the schedule for the budget group’s county of residence.
The CAO will compute the budget group’s total net income for a calendar month as follows:
Step 1: Determine which member(s) of the budget group have countable earned or unearned income.
Step 2: For each member with unearned income:
1. Determine if the income is countable according to Chapter 150, Income;
2. Total the countable gross unearned income using the 4.0 multiplier; and
REMINDER: Include any support payments received. The support may be voluntary or court-ordered, assigned or not assigned to the Department.
3. Subtract any unearned income deductions allowed by Chapter 160, Income Deductions, to arrive at the member’s total net unearned income.
Step 3: For each member with earned income:
1. Determine if the income is countable according to Chapter 150, Income;
2. Total the countable gross earnings using the 4.0 multiplier, including any profit from self-employment; and
3. Determine eligibility for the TANF earned income disregard and deduct any earned income deductions (Chapter 160, Income Deductions) to get the member’s total net earned income.
Step 4: Total the net earned and unearned income from all budget group members.
The result is the budget group’s total net income.
NOTE: If the budget group receives a lump sum in the calendar month, see Chapter 157, Lump Sum, for information on computing the net income.
Reissued February 7, 2013, replacing January 31, 2012