Page 476

6105

MISSISSIPPI

BUDGETARY PROCESS:SPECIAL BUDGETING PROCEDURES Revised 09-01-10

b. Payments by the stepparent of alimony or child support to individuals not living in the home. Count only amounts actually paid even though a court order may be for larger or smaller amounts. (Note that the stepparent need not claim such individuals as dependents for federal tax purposes.) NOTE: When a payee marries after approval of TANF and the marriage disregard does not apply, only the income that the stepparent receives after the marriage date will be considered as the amount from which income is deemed for the month of marriage. For instance, on April 15 a payee marries an individual whose regular weekly income is $150. He/she has received $150 on April 6 and $150 on April 13. The amount of income to be considered as available to the TANF family after April 15 is $300, that is, $150 on April 20 and $150 on April 27. Compute the amount of income to be deemed from this $300 for April, the month of marriage, less the stepparent disregards. Consider the resources, other than vehicles, accumulated by the stepparent since the marriage as available to the parent of the assistance child(ren) in the determination of eligibility for TANF. The amount available to the parent (plus the parent's own resources, if any) is the amount to be entered in the system. See Chapter 5, RESOURCES, regarding Broad-Based Categorical Eligibility. If the trial budget described in Item 3 results in a surplus, deem this surplus income to the assistance unit, which consists of the stepparent's technically eligible spouse, who is the parent of the assistance children, and the assistance children. Include this amount and any income of the parent and children in the gross income test. If the assistance unit is determined eligible on this financial test, include the deemed amount from the stepparent as well as any income of the parent and children, after deducting the appropriate disregards, in the budget. MAVERICS will handle this situation when instructions outlined in Volume X are followed. In some cases a stepparent's own children may have enough total income of their own, such as social security benefits from a deceased parent, which exceeds their prorata share (need standard divided by the number of individuals in the budget, multiplied by the number of stepparent's own children) of the budgetary requirements of the trial budget group. When this situation occurs, include only the portion of their income required to meet these needs. Do not include any of their surplus income in the amount to be deemed to the stepparent's spouse. See Volume X, for instruction