ASSISTANCE PAYMENTS (FSM)

_____________________________________________________________

Amount of a financial assistance grant paid by the Department of Health and Human Services.

Treatment: Unearned Income.

Exceptions:

• Payments are excluded income when they go beyond normal assistance grants and are vendor payments made directly to a third party for a household expense.

• One-time grant adjustments are excluded income.

• Recoupment money withheld for non-fraud reasons from an assistance payment, earnings, or other income source. Withheld money is used to repay a prior overpayment from the income source.

Treatment: Excluded Income

Money withheld as recoupment from an assistance payment for reasons of fraud: that is, a member of the household has been convicted of fraud by a court.

Money withheld from an assistance payment because of a penalty for failure to comply with state, federal, or local means-tested public assistance programs. Examples of such programs include TANF (NHEP/FAP), APTD, OAA, and ANB. *

Treatment: Unearned Income. Count the financial grant the household would have received had no recoupment been applied.

Exceptions:

• This policy does not apply to applicants denied financial assistance for failure to meet program requirements because they do not receive a grant.

• Although SSI is a means-tested program, the reduced (or net) SSI benefits, not the full amount, are to be used to determine food stamp benefit allotments if SSI benefits have been reduced due to non-compliance.