NORTH DAKOTA DEPARTMENT OF HUMAN SERVICES
BISMARCK, NORTH DAKOTA
October 26, 2004

IM 4957

TO:		County Social Service Directors
Economic Assistance Policy Regional Representatives
Economic Assistance Policy Quality Control Reviewers

FROM:	Blaine Nordwall, Director, Economic Assistance Policy
		David Zenter, Director, Medicaid

SUBJECT:	TANF and Child Support Received Dates

PROGRAMS:	CHILD CARE, FOOD STAMPS, MEDICAID, TANF

RETENTION: 	Until Manualized

This IM was prepared to clarify and include new policy with regard to the Electronic Payment Card (EPC)/Child Support Enforcement and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families.
  
Clients are responsible to report changes affecting their benefits.  

U.S. Bank
U.S. Bank has stated that all statements are typically mailed by the 5th business day of the month.   This will include notices for receipt of TANF funds and Child Support funds.

Child Care
Prospective Budgeting– NA

Retrospective Budgeting
	TANF – Not applicable as TANF fund are disregarded.  Current policy.

Child Support – If the worker uses FACSES, the ‘Check Date’ on the “View Eligibility Worker Ledger Details” screen is the first of the three count days to determine the receipt date. This screen is accessed via the “View Eligibility Worker” screen.  If the client has documentation to support a receipt date, use the client’s information.

NOTE:  If the worker needs to learn how to access the FACSES system, access the web page http://ewtechteam.com and click on EW Specific Tips.

Food Stamps
The following change is being made for Food Stamps effective for all cases including new applications and re-certifications worked on or after November 1, 2004:

Unearned Income 430-05-50-20-10

The timeframe under item number 12 – Child Support Income changed as follows:

If child support is received via check, direct deposit or electronic payment card (EPC), the worker must allow three working days for posting to the financial account in determining when the income was received.  Day one of the three day count is the check date on the check or the check date on the View Eligibility Worker Ledger Details screen in FACSES.  

For initial TANF grants, the information remains as changed in IM 4952, which was superseded by ML 2941.  

Income Only in Month Received 430-05-50-15-20

For households initially approved for both food stamps benefits and TANF at the same time, the initial TANF grant must be considered when prospectively determining the initial month of food stamp eligibility and benefits if it can be reasonably anticipated during the initial month.

The initial TANF grant must be anticipated for the initial month of food stamp eligibility if authorization of initial month's TANF benefit is made prior to the last five working days of the month.
	Example:
	A household applies for both TANF and food stamps on    September 20, 2004 and is authorized for initial month's TANF benefit in the amount of $300 on September 30. The initial TANF grant of $300 cannot be anticipated for September because TANF authorization was not 	completed prior to the last five working days of September.  Therefore, the September TANF grant is not used to determine initial September food stamps. 
	If TANF authorization is completed before September 24, instead of	September 30 the $300 initial TANF grant is used as anticipated income for September.
The October TANF benefit must be anticipated when working October food stamp benefits.   

Medicaid

Medicaid Policy disregards TANF benefits as income, so issuance of the TANF benefit via the Electronic Payment Card will not impact Medicaid Policy.

When a Child Support payment is made via Direct Deposit or Electronic Payment Card, Medicaid will consider the client as having received their payment as of the third (3rd) working day from the ‘Check Date’ field on the FACSES ledger, unless the client verifies that the payment is received otherwise. (The ‘Check Date’ will be considered the first day when determining the three (3) working days.)  

TANF
Prospective budgeting  - Child support received or anticipated to be received by the applicant in the application month, until the case is authorized, must be considered as child support received (400-17-60-15).  If the individual is unable to identify when child support was or will be received, FACSES may be used as a tool to establish a received data.  When using FACSES, a received date is determined by counting two days from the check date.  Example – FACSES has a check date of October 4th.  The anticipated date of receipt of the child support income would be October 6th.
Two-month retrospective budgeting – Child support income shall be considered as being received on the date the income is normally received (400-17-70). It is considered when actually available and when the recipient has a legal interest in a liquidated sum and has the legal ability to make such sum available for support or maintenance (400-17-60-10).  Examples of received are (1) a bank statement from U.S. Bank with a date of when funds were deposited into the account, (2) two days after the date on a child support check, or (3) two days after the date in the ‘Check Date’ field on the “View Eligibility Worker Ledger Details” screen in FACSES.