SR 10-05 Dated 02/10

STATE OF NEW HAMPSHIRE

INTER-DEPARTMENT COMMUNICATION

SUMMARY

This SR releases a change in the child support sanction for New Hampshire Employment Program (NHEP) financial assistance recipients. NHEP financial assistance recipients who fail or refuse to comply with child support program requirements will now receive a flat 25% sanction. DFA Form 754A, Your Right to Claim Good Cause for Non-cooperation with Child Support Requirements, was updated accordingly.

This SR also releases an unrelated revision to DFA Form 773, Certification of Continued Absence. The form was edited to add fields to collect the Financial Assistance to Needy Families (FANF) applicant or recipient’s printed name and the case number, if available.

BACKGROUND

A TANF audit revealed that in certain situations involving NHEP financial assistance recipients, DFA was out of compliance with 42 U.S.C. 608(a)(2)(A), which requires states to impose at least a 25% sanction when a NHEP financial assistance recipient fails or refuses to cooperate with child support program requirements. Under the former policy, some NHEP financial assistance recipients who were sanctioned at a Level 1 sanction for only 1 pay-period within the month, failed to meet this federally mandated minimum 25% sanction. To avoid a federal financial penalty, the child support noncompliance sanctioning policy for NHEP financial assistance recipients only was changed from a progressive sanctioning process to a flat 25% deduction.

POLICY

NHEP financial assistance recipients will now receive a flat 25% sanction for failure or refusal to cooperate with child support program requirements. NHEP financial assistance recipients who simultaneously incur both a child support and NHEP work program sanction will have both sanctions applied to their benefits, but the child support sanction will be applied first, to ensure federal mandates are met.

NEW HEIGHTS SYSTEMS PROCEDURES AND IMPLEMENTATION

Effective February 1, 2010 for all new NHEP cash assistance recipients who fail or refuse to comply with child support program requirements, New HEIGHTS will apply a 25% financial penalty when the response to the child support cooperation question is 'No' on the "Custodial Parent Cooperation" screen. This penalty will be applied until the assistance group complies with child support program requirements.

A mass change will be triggered the evening of February 1 to capture:

·   All open NHEP cases containing an on-going child support sanction at any level. These cases will be marked "complied," and the sanction will be end-dated for 1/31/2010. The sanction end reason for these child support sanctions will display on the "Sanction" screen as "Policy Change."

·   All open NHEP cases with child support sanctions that are waiting to be applied due to a currently on-going work program sanction. These sanctions will be marked "AE deleted," and deleted from the database.

·   Both the above groups will then be triggered for a mass change to implement the new flat 25% child support sanction policy effective 2/1/2010. Cases that are also not complying with NHEP work program requirements will have both sanctions applied.

Any NHEP case that closes or experiences a change in benefit amount due to this mass change, will receive the following reason message:

The federal government told us to change how we apply certain penalties. Effective 2/1/10, not complying with child support requirements now results in a flat 25% penalty. This penalty will last until you comply. This change effects you beginning with your 2/15/2010 NHEP cash payment. Starting then, your NHEP cash benefit will be reduced by 25% (1/4th) until you comply.

Are you also not complying with NHEP work program requirements? If so, your cash payment was reduced by both penalties. This means the flat 25% child support sanction and the progressive work program sanction was applied to your benefit.

New HEIGHTS will continue to apply any progressive child support sanctions established in months prior to implementation of the new policy. This is to avoid any change in NHEP cash benefits if eligibility is ever run for these months.

DESCRIPTION OF REVISIONS MADE TO DFA FORM 754A

DFA Form 754A, Your Right to Claim Good Cause for Non-cooperation with Child Support Requirements, has been revised and updated to incorporate the change in the application of child support sanctions. The form was additionally revised to:

·   more clearly emphasize that although the Interim Disabled Parent (IDP), Families With Older Children (FWOC) and Unemployed Parent (UP) programs are not sanctioned for failure to comply with child support requirements, recipients of these programs are still mandated to comply with child support requirements via developing potential sources of income policy. Failure to cooperate in developing potential sources of income results in denial or termination of financial assistance for the entire assistance group and termination of medical assistance for all adults in the assistance group. As such, this information was more clearly articulated in this revision of the pamphlet; and

·   the language and presentation of the material was simplified to bring the reading level of the pamphlet closer to the eighth grade reading level, the Department’s ideal reading level for client materials.

Since the use of the form remains the same, the instructions were not updated at this time.

Because the current and all previous versions of this form may contain incorrect information, the standing stock of this form in the District Offices must be recycled and/or destroyed. State Office will provide an initial supply of the new version of the pamphlet to all offices prior to February 1, 2010. Once this initial supply has been exhausted, the DHHS Warehouse may be contacted in the usual manner for additional supplies. A Certificate of Destruction has been included at the end of this SR.

UNRELATED REVISIONS TO DFA FORM 773

DFA Form 773, Certification of Continued Absence, was updated to include fields to collect the FANF applicant or recipient’s printed name and the case number, if available. It was recently noted during the pilot scanning project in the Laconia District Office that the client’s signature on this form was often illegible, making it difficult, once the form was scanned, to determine which case the form was associated with for filing purposes. The printed name and case number fields were added to the form to ensure that office workers will be able to correctly and efficiently file the scanned documents. Since the use of this form remains unchanged, the instructions were not updated at this time.

The current supply of this form must be exhausted before the new version is printed. In the interim, if it will be helpful for the office, workers can print the FANF applicant or recipient’s name and case number, if available, directly on the document.

POLICY MANUAL REVISIONS

Revised Family Assistance Manual Topics

Section 311.15  Refusal to Cooperate

IMPLEMENTATION

The policy released in this SR is effective February 1, 2010.

Because the current and all previous versions of DFA Form 754A, Your Right to Claim Good Cause for Non-cooperation with Child Support Requirements, may contain incorrect information, all forms in the District Office must be recycled and/or destroyed. A Certificate of Destruction has been included in this SR. State Office provided an initial supply of this pamphlet to all offices for the effective date of February 1, 2010. Once this initial supply has been exhausted, the DHHS Warehouse may be contacted in the usual manner for additional supplies.

The new version of DFA Form 773, Certification of Continued Absence, will be printed when the current supply has been exhausted.

CLIENT NOTIFICATION

Any NHEP financial assistance recipient experiencing a change in their benefit amount due to this policy change, will receive the following reason message on the Notice of Decision generated:

The federal government told us to change how we apply certain penalties. Effective 2/1/10, not complying with child support requirements now results in a flat 25% penalty. This penalty will last until you comply. This change effects you beginning with your 2/15/2010 NHEP cash payment. Starting then, your NHEP cash benefit will be reduced by 25% (1/4th) until you comply.

Are you also not complying with NHEP work program requirements? If so, your cash payment was reduced by both penalties. This means the flat 25% child support sanction and the progressive work program sanction was applied to your benefit.

DFA Form 754A, Your Right to Claim Good Cause for Non-cooperation with Child Support, is also available if any individual has questions about the policy change. No other special client notification is planned.

TRAINING

No special training is planned or needed.

FORMS MANUAL POSTING INSTRUCTIONS

DISPOSITION

This SR may be destroyed or deleted after its contents have been noted and the revised manual topics released by this SR have been posted to the On-line manuals.

DISTRIBUTION

This SR will be distributed according to the electronic distribution list for Division of Family Assistance policy releases. This SR, and revised On-Line Manuals, will be available for agency staff in the On-Line Manual Library, and for public access on the Internet at http://www.dhhs.nh.gov/DHHS/DFA/LIBRARY, effective March 1, 2010. Additionally, this SR, and printed pages with posting instructions, will be distributed under separate cover to all internal hard copy holders of the Family Assistance and Forms Manuals.

DFA/JT:s

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CERTIFICATE OF DESTRUCTION

I certify that all copies of DFA Form 754A released prior to this current SR have been destroyed.

District Office Manager of Operations:______________________________________________

District Office _________________________________________________________________

Return this certificate to the DFA Policy Unit, 129 Pleasant St, Concord, NH 03301, after the instructions in the SR have been carried out.