(This Policy Directive Replaces PD #99-47 and PB #05-109-OPE)
Cash Assistance (CA) applicants/participants are required to provide information on putative parents and cooperate with the Office of Child Support Enforcement (OCSE) in locating absent parents and obtaining orders of support.When an applicant/participant fails to report to or comply with these requirements without good cause, the following penalties will result:
• The non-compliant applicant/participant will remain on the CA case but the total standard of needs allowance for which the entire household would otherwise be eligible will be reduced by 25%. All of the non-compliant individual's non- exempt income will be counted when calculating the household's benefit amount.
• The non-compliant applicant/participant becomes ineligible for Medicaid unless she is pregnant or he/she has a child less than two months old.
• The 25% reduction in CA is not counted as a reduction in income in the Food Stamp (FS) calculation for participants. For applicants, the FS benefit would be calculated by counting the reduced CA amount as income. As a result, FS benefits will not increase due to the reduction in CA. The 25% reduction applies before any pro rata sanction reductions. It also applies in cases where the non-compliant individual is not a part of the CA case (e.g., payee cases).
|
