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Good cause may not be claimed for failure to turn in support payments to CSED. If CSED determines that the applicant/recipient has good cause for non-cooperation, all action on paternity and child/medical support will be suspended until the applicant/recipient requests resumption or CSED determines good cause no longer exists, whichever is sooner. Until CSED makes a finding concerning an applicant/recipient's good cause claim, the applicant/recipient's eligibility will be determined without regards to the child/medical support cooperation requirement and no sanctions will be imposed provided that: the applicant/recipient has made timely corroboration of the good cause claim, and CSED has failed to determine whether good cause exists within the time period permitted to process TANF applications and redetermination. If the claim for good cause is denied for paternity and child support, the applicant/recipient must be given notice in writing and must then comply with the requirement or face sanctions imposed by ESA.

SANCTIONS 2.7

ALL CSED determines when an individual has failed to comply with child support requirements without good cause. If a parent receiving both TANF and MA fails to comply with child support requirements without good cause, both the TANF and MA sanctions are imposed. MA If it is determined that the head of the unit refuses to cooperate with CSED without good cause, then s/he is ineligible for MA. The dependent child's MA benefits are not affected. If, however, the noncompliant adult is eligible for MA based on age or disability (as opposed to being eligible for MA because of his/her status as caretaker of the dependent child), then MA eligibility continues, but the designation of the adult's case must change to SR. QM is not affected by the child support requirement. Once the adult cooperates, benefits are restored effective the first month following the date of cooperation. TANF If it is determined that a parent refuses to cooperate with child support enforcement without good cause, the group's TANF benefits shall be reduced by 25 percent. Sanctions for failing to cooperate with child support requirements cannot be imposed on caretakers other than parents, even if the caretaker is included in the assistance unit. Child support sanctions also cannot be imposed on cases in which the parent is “out” of the unit (such as an SSI parent) or disqualified due to alienage. Once the parent cooperates, benefits are restored effective the first month following the date of cooperation. If an adult recipient fails to comply with both TANF work and child support requirements, the larger of the two sanctions is imposed. If the adult complies with one of the requirements, the other sanction should be imposed. The benefit reduction amount counts as unearned income in the Food Stamp Program. This ensures that FS benefits do not increase when a TANF sanction is imposed.

SUPPORT COLLECTED 2.8