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SNAP CERTIFICATION MANUAL – SECTION 5000 5700 Unearned Income 5704 Child Support/Alimony Payments

• DO NOT COUNT payments received by former AFDC and/or TEA recipients when the payments are held by OCSE and applied to AFDC and/or TEA arrearages. SNAP 5401  NOTE: Any of these payments not to be applied by OCSE to an AFDC/TEA arrearage will be sent to the custodial parent. Unless these funds have already been counted as income in the SNAP budget, they must be counted as income in the month of receipt. SNAP 5704.3 • DO NOT COUNT non-recurring lump sum child support payments received through an interception of a state or federal income tax refund or a lump sum Worker’s Compensation payment. SNAP 5401 • DO NOT COUNT non-recurring lump sum child support payments issued by OCSE to make up for a payment missed in error by OCSE and already counted in the SNAP budget. SNAP 5704.3 • DO NOT COUNT the value of voluntary in-kind payments intended as child support. For example, if the absent parent furnishes food, milk, pampers, clothes, etc. in the absence of a cash payment to the custodial parent, you would NOT count the value of the items as income. SNAP 5406 General guidelines for counting child support income: • DO COUNT monies diverted from the court-ordered support or alimony payments to a third party for a household expense SO LONG AS there is no court order or other legally binding document requiring direct payment to a third party. If such an agreement exists, the monies will be excluded as income. Any part of a household expense covered by excluded income is not allowable in the SNAP budget. SNAP 5704 & SNAP 6700 • DO COUNT the gross amount of the child support payment. Collection fees charged by OCSE are neither deductible nor excludible. SNAP 5704.3 • DO COUNT IN THE MONTH OF RECEIPT money held by OCSE in an “advance account” and used to pay the court-ordered amount when the absent parent is unable to work. SNAP 5704.3 5704.5 Verifying Child Support Paid Through OCSE SNAP Manual 06/01/05 Child support received through the Office of Child Support Enforcement (OCSE) will be verified through the DCO-OCSE Inquiry Interface. The following link: http://dhs.arkansas.gov/dhscs/ opens Office of Child Support Enforcement’s web-based inquiry interface. Authorized DCO staff may utilize this interface to inquire OCSE child support collections and distributions where