6000 Income

6318 Garnished or Diverted Wages -

Available income shall not be reduced by wage earner plans, garnishments, income withholding orders and similar types of income reductions. Such forms of income withholdings are generally used to meet the individual's previous or ongoing obligations and are considered available for the purpose of determining cash.

Wages earned by a household member that are garnished or diverted by an employer, and are paid to a third party for a household's expenses, such as rent or child support, shall be considered income. However, if the employer pays a household's rent directly to the landlord in addition to paying the household its regular wages, the rent payment shall be excluded as a vendor payment. In addition, if the employer provides housing to an employee, the value of the housing shall not be counted as income.

6319 Family Subsistence Supplemental Allowance (FSSA) - FSSA payments made by the military to certain members of the Armed Forces is considered earned income for all programs. This program was implemented May 1, 2001 and provides certain members of the Armed Forces with a special allowance to partially address the issue of enlisted members relying on food assistance to make ends meet. Qualifying members and their families are eligible for a cash allowance up to $500 per month. The law authorizing the program, Public Law 106-398, does not prohibit members from receiving FSSA benefits and food assistance at the same time. The amount of the FSSA will be shown on the member's Leave and Earnings statement .

6320 Contract Labor - Income earned from an employer which forces the worker to absorb significant expenses in order to remain employed is treated as self-employment income. These positions generally require the employee to enter into a contractual relationship with the employer.

Examples of this type of employment would include a truck driver forced to purchase or lease his own truck, a rural mail carrier who must provide her own vehicle or pay all travel expenses, or a DCF Out-of-Home relative child care provider. This would not apply to In-Home Child Care situations as with these arrangements, the DCF parent is considered the employer of the child care provider (relative or non-relative) coming into the child's home. The presence of additional expenses must be verified and documented. Such expenses must be directly related to the person's employment and required to maintain employment. Expenses cannot be reimbursed. Earnings dependent only upon typical deductions from income (such as state and federal taxes, OASDI, Medicare, and other mandatory or optional deductions) do not meet this criteria. In addition, persons required to incur only nominal expenses, such as mechanics required to purchase their own tools or regular postal employees required to purchase uniforms do not meet this criteria. These situations are to be evaluated on a case-by-case basis. The presence of a contract requiring the employee to provide equipment or cover costs necessary for employment is the primary indicator of income classified as contract labor.

6321 Basic Allowance for Housing (BAH) – The Basic Allowance for Housing (BAH) is a monthly payment made by the military to certain members of the Armed Forces, replacing the Variable Housing Allowance (VHA) and Basic Allowance for Quarters (BAQ). BAH (BAQ or VHA) is countable earned income.