1110 Households with a Decrease in Income Due to a Non-compliance with a

Public/General Assistance Program Requirement There will be no increase in food assistance benefits to households in which a penalty resulting in a decrease of PA and GA benefits has been imposed for noncompliance with a federal, state, or local means-tested public assistance program. For the purposes of this provision, “means-tested” public assistance no longer refers to Supplemental Security Income. These decreases may be a reduced benefit amount due to the removal from the grant of the non-complying individual, or a reduction due to recoupment for a client caused error, intentional or unintentional. For those circumstances in which the entire household is terminated for failing to comply with another program’s requirement, the attributed amount shall continue to remain in the food assistance budget for the length of the other program’s disqualification period, until the household either cures the sanction, or is determined ineligible for the assistance payment for a reason other than failing to comply with a program’s requirements. Food assistance benefits shall be calculated using the benefit amount that would have been issued if no penalty or recoupment had been applied against that program’s benefit amount. For this policy to apply, the following two conditions must exist. 1. The agency that is administering the other program (FA) must advise that there has been a noncompliance or client caused overpayment. 2. The individual, unit, or household must have been receiving assistance from the other program at the time of the violation and that assistance must be decreased, suspended, or terminated because of this failure to comply. The food assistance worker needs only to verify if a known decrease in a household’s benefits is due to a determination of noncompliance by the other program or recoupment due to client caused error. If the determination is not specifically identified by the other program as a noncompliance with one of their requirements, the prohibition on increased food assistance benefits will not apply. Staff should make a good faith effort to obtain the information. Recoupment Codes for Failure to Comply with FA Requirements The codes on the Comprehensive Claims System should be used to identify the reason(s) money is recouped from a FA grant. The definition of these codes can be found in the Comprehensive Claims System User’s Guide, Section 20. Determining Benefit Level The procedures for determining food assistance benefits when there is such a decrease in income/benefits are as follows: 1. The county department shall identify that portion of the decrease which is attributed to the penalty for noncompliance or a recoupment for client-caused errors. The penalty shall be that portion of the decrease in PA or GA benefits caused by the household’s noncompliance with the other program’s requirements, or a recoupment for client-caused errors. 2. The food assistance benefits shall then be calculated using the benefit amount which would have been issued by that program if no penalty/recoupment had been applied against that program’s benefit amount. Noncompliance with a JOBS Requirement This policy does not apply to households during the time the household or a household member is serving a sanction for both food assistance and FA due to noncompliance with a JOBS requirement (Section 704 C). Once the sanction for food assistance ends and the individual is added back to the food assistance budget, or the household reapplies, the amount of FA to be placed in the food assistance budget will be the amount they would have received if they had cooperated with JOBS. This amount of FA will remain in the food assistance budget for the duration of the FA JOBS sanction. Changes during the Penalty Period 1. The county department must act upon any changes that would normally affect the food assistance that are not related to the penalty imposed by the other program. Example, a household’s FA check has been decreased from $164 to $137 due to a FA program noncompliance with Child Support. The $164 will remain in the food assistance budget. The household reports employment which causes them to become ineligible for FA. The $164 FA amount will be removed from the food assistance budget. If the household reapplies for FA and the sanction is again imposed, adverse action will be necessary if the penalty ($164) amount causes a decrease in food assistance benefits. 2. If the member who committed the noncompliance moves out of the household, the penalty amount will be removed from the food assistance budget of that household. If the household member continues to be penalized for non-compliance by the other program, the amount of PA/GA attributed to the penalty shall be placed in the food assistance budget of the new household that the individual has joined. Adverse action procedures will apply.