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ESSENTIAL PERSON 1.6

MA AR: An essential person is an individual who lives in the home with a dependent child (other than an unborn child) and is recognized as essential to the child's well-being by the applicant/recipient. There are two ways someone may be an essential person: • applicant/recipient declares that a related individual is essential to the child’s well-being, or • competent medical testimony maintains that a non-related individual is essential to the child’s well-being. An essential person has the option of being included in the assistance unit. AX: See AR. SR: N/A QM: N/A TANF N/A GC N/A FS SSI recipients receive a higher SSI payment level when an essential person lives in the home. To be considered an essential person for purposes of SSI, the essential person must live in the home of the recipient and his/her needs must have been considered in determining the grant of the eligible individual. The essential person must not be eligible for SSI in his/her own right. In the case of a household consisting of one SSI recipient and an essential person, the maximum SSI payment is increased from the single person entitlement to the entitlement for a couple. For FS purposes, this would be considered a two person household. If an eligible couple has an essential person, the SSI entitlement is increased to include the difference between the single-person entitlement and that for a couple. This is considered a normal three person household for FS program purposes, and all income received is considered. The FS program purchase and prepare requirements and household composition provisions must be considered when determining household size (see Section 1.3: Mandatory Group Members in this Chapter).

ADDING A NEWBORN 1.7

This section has been moved to Part VIII, Chapter 5, Section 5.6: Adding a Newborn.

ADDING A CARETAKER IF PARENT IS NOT IN THE HOME 1.8

MA AR: Add caretakers to the group if: • the biological or adoptive parent is not in the home, • the caretakers elect to be in the group, and • the caretakers meet all non financial eligibility requirements. AX: See AR. SR: N/A QM: N/A TANF See AR, except caretakers must be related in order to be included in the TANF grant or for children in their care to be eligible for TANF.