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Section 6: EAP Income Computations The household income is the total income received by all household members aged eighteen (18) and above during the application period. The total household income is used to determine financial eligibility for benefits. Households are eligible with an income up to 60% of State Median Income. Income computation is used to compute points on the benefit matrix. It is the household’s responsibility to provide accurate and complete documentation of income. It is the LSP’s responsibility to assess the adequacy and completeness of that documentation and provide the applicant with a list of additional documentation needed to determine eligibility for benefits. Intake staff will encounter various forms of income documentation and should use their best judgment, with opinions from supervisors, in accepting or rejecting specific forms of verification. The LSP must make notes in the EAP database when accepting documentation that may be considered less than ideal. In order to calculate income, LSPs will consider the most recent three (3) consecutive months or thirteen (13) consecutive weeks of income. The LSP should use the documentation provided by the applicant whenever possible. If an application is incomplete, and time passes between the date the application was received and the date the application is complete that makes the income documentation out-of-date, the LSP must use the date the application was received in order to avoid having to collect new income information again. The statewide database will treat this three-month income as a representative sample, and will multiply the three-month income by four in order to calculate the annual income for eligibility determination. Any income amount of one dollar ($1.00) or less (e.g., an interest accrual on a bank account of ten cents [$0.10]) may be excluded from income calculations. 6.1 What Is Counted as Income? Income from Employment There are several types of employment including: • Wages (including salaries, tips, bonuses, and commissions) • Irregular employment and odd jobs • Self-employment income • Profit from a business • Military Allotments (except for combat zone pay) Income from employment may be gross wages, salaries, commissions, bonuses, profit- sharing, cashed-out vacation or sick pay, tips, military allotments, pensions, self- employment and other retirement payments such as private retirement plans. This kind of income can be verified using, in order of preference from most preferred to least preferred: