4000 Assistance Planning
4110 Cash Mandatory Filing Unit - All nonmandatory filing unit members in the family group may be included or excluded at the applicant/recipient's request. Failure to include a mandatory filing unit member or to provide information necessary for determining that individual's eligibility may result in ineligibility for the entire mandatory filing unit. In particular, if it cannot be determined who is required to be a member of the mandatory filing unit as a result of an individual's failure to cooperate in providing necessary information or in complying with an eligibility requirement that is within the individual's control, those persons who would otherwise be required to be in the mandatory filing unit had the individual cooperated shall be ineligible for assistance.
4111 TANF Included Members - The mandatory filing unit shall include the following family group members:
The child for whom assistance is requested, and in the instance of a pregnancy, the unborn child;
Blood related and adoptive minor siblings (including unborn siblings) of the child or unborn;
The parent (biological or adoptive), and spouse of the parent, of all children included in the mandatory filing unit. The parent shall not be included if parental rights have been severed or terminated by court action;
Cohabiting boyfriend/girlfriend living with the person legally responsible for the child; and
The children of any person mandated in the filing unit per (1), (2), (3) or (4) above.
A result of these provisions is that when any person is mandated in the filing unit, any child or spouse of that person is also mandated, including the cohabiting boyfriend/girlfriend. When a child is mandated in the filing unit, that child's parents and siblings (biological or adoptive) are also mandated. For mandatory filing unit purposes, an unborn child is considered a child.
A family group may consist of more than one mandatory filing unit. In such instances, all mandatory filing units in need of cash assistance must be included in a single assistance plan.
See 2221 for information on joint custody situations.
4111.1 Person in Home Considered Father - When a person in the home with a child is considered the father based on statements from the applicant(s) or other documentation as appropriate, he shall be treated as the father for assistance planning purposes. However, he needs to be referred to CSS for paternity testing in accordance with the provisions in 2167 . Failure to cooperate with CSS will be treated in accordance with the provisions in 2165 .