Page 161

Protective Payee The protective payee accepts the responsibility for receiving and using, or overseeing the use of the TANF benefit. Protective payees are required when mismanagement of funds has been proven to be consistent and continued or the caretaker relative is incapable of adequately managing their business due to physical or mental incapacity or the adult is disqualified and sanctioned due to a substance abuse disorder. Refer to the AUTHORIZATION AND PAYMENT PROCESS for further discussion and to instructions for form MDHS-EA-314, Agreement between Department of Human Services and Protective Payee.

MISSISSIPPI [NON-FINANCIAL CRITERIA: INTRODUCTION]

Revised 12-01-17

Putative Father The term is used to describe the alleged father of a child for whom paternity has not been legally established. Acknowledgment of Paternity Paternity for a child born out of wedlock may be established for the TANF Program in one of the following ways: 1. Legal court proceedings which establish the paternity of the child and result in an order of affiliation. 2. Signing of the ASAP form - A Simple Acknowledgment of Paternity - which is a voluntary document that carries full legal weight once signed by the father and sixty days have passed. The putative father has sixty days from the day he signs the form to rescind the paternity acknowledgment. NOTE: If paternity for the child was established using the ASAP, process the AP REL Code in MAVERICS would be PV. 3. Marriage of the mother and the putative father provided the father acknowledges paternity privately and publicly and recognizes the child as his own by supporting him and providing him with care and supervision. NOTE: The above method for establishing paternity meets the requirements as defined by the TANF program and should be used for determining the legal child/father relationship for a father who is to be included in the assistance unit. For an absent parent, marriage of the mother and the putative father after the birth of the child alone does not meet the IV-D Child Support requirement for establishing legal paternity. In order for the father to be recognized as a legal parent, a Legitimation-A form must be processed after the marriage. Proper coding of the AP Volume III | Chapter 3 3008