Deprivation 510-03-35-10

(New 7/1/2014 ML #3404)

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Deprivation must be established in order for an individual to be found eligible under the Parent, Caretaker Relative and their Spouses categories or the ‘Absence’ and ‘Unemployment, or Underemployment of a Parent (UP)’ deprived children’s categories.

 

A child, under age 19 (including the month the child attains age 19) is considered deprived of a natural or adoptive parent’s support or care due to continued absence of a parent or inability of a parent to meet the child’s needs.

 

A child will be considered deprived under the following reasons:

 

  1. Absence of a Parent
    1. Death of a parent;
    1. Divorce or legal annulment;
    2. Separation, legal or mutual, as long as there was no collusion between the parents to render the family eligible, or

      Note: A child will still be considered deprived when the absent parent was included in the household for budgeting purposes, due to spouses filing their taxes jointly.

    1. Imprisonment of one or both parents

      Note: A child will still be considered deprived when the imprisoned parent was included in the household for budgeting purposes due to spouses filing their taxes jointly.

To establish continued absence, the parent must be sentenced to a minimum of a thirty-day jail term. Any portion of a sentence actually suspended and not served does not count toward the thirty-day minimum. A parent who is permitted to live at home while serving a court-imposed sentence by performing unpaid public work or unpaid community service during the work day is not considered absent from the home;

  1. Unmarried parenthood (when not residing together);
  2. Abandonment;
  1. Disability, Incapacity or Age of a parent
    1. Disability of a parent (as defined in Service Chapter 510-05, Section 510-05-35-100, Blindness and Disability);
    2. Incapacity of a parent;
    3. A parent is age sixty-five or older;
  1. Unemployment, or underemployment, of a parent, if either parent is:
    1. Employed less than one hundred hours per month (based on pay stub hours, including holiday and sick pay hours; or if self-employed, in the absence of other credible information, by dividing the gross monthly income by minimum wage); or
    2. Employed more than one hundred hours in the current month, but employed less than one hundred hours in the previous month and is expected to be employed less than one hundred hours in the following month.

When the only means of income to a household is self-employment and both parents are actively involved in the business, consider both parents working more than 100 hours.

A parent’s contact with his or her child(ren) does not have to stop in order for continued absence to exist. A continuing relationship between an absent parent and child(ren), by itself, cannot be a basis for finding that continued absence does not exist. The continued absence of either parent from the home is established when a parent maintains and resides in a separate verified residence apart from the ACA Medicaid Household for reasons other than employment, education, training, medical care, or uniformed service. The parent is considered absent from the home and the absent parent’s functioning as a provider of maintenance, physical care, or guidance to the child(ren) is considered interrupted. (‘Uniformed service’ is defined to mean duty in the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, Coast Guard, Environmental Sciences Services Administration, Public Health Service, and reserve duty.).

 

A parent temporarily living apart from the child(ren) due to employment, education, training, medical care, uniformed service, or any other temporary reason is not considered "Absent from the home" as long as the parent continues to function as a parent, even if the level of support or care is somewhat deficient. An exception is made when there is evidence that continued absence would have existed irrespective of the above reasons.

 

Divorce courts often award custody of children to both parents, however, legal custody orders have no bearing on whether or not a child is considered "deprived." It is the parent’s absence from the home and the child’s physical presence rather than legal custody that is relevant.

 

Deprivation of unemployment, underemployment, incapacity, or disability may be established on an unborn child only when the prospective parents are married and in the same ACA Medicaid household.