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Volume III | Chapter 7

MISSISSIPPIPPI [ELIGIBILITY DETERMINATION PROCESS: CHANGES]

Revised 07-01-19

TANF households approved for initial benefits or renewals effective for January 2018 and thereafter will be subject to the Change Reporting requirements noted above.

TANF recipients must be advised at application and case reviews of change reporting requirements and penalties, reminding them that any disqualification or penalty for failure to comply with TANF program requirements other than work and child support will mean a corresponding 25% reduction in SNAP benefits.

Reporting Requirement When a Child Leaves the Home

The parent/caretaker must report within 5 days when it becomes clear that a TANF child will be out of the home for more than 30 days. Action must be taken to remove the child if he/she will be out of the home for a full calendar month. The case must be documented to show why the child should or should not be removed from the grant. This timely reporting requirement does not change the temporary separation reasons in Chapter 3, Living with Grantee Relative.

The case must also be documented to show “when it became clear” to the family that the child(ren) would be absent from the home for more than 30 days in order to determine whether the report was made timely.

EXAMPLE: The child goes for a visit on June 15, expecting to return home on July 3. On July 1, the recipient learns that the child will not be returning until July 25. The child will be gone 40 days, June 15 to July 25, so the change report should be made by July 6, five days after it “became clear” that the absence would last 30 days or more. The next possible case action would be for August, so the case would be documented and no further action taken.

If the recipient learned of the expected absence on July 1 but did not report this until July 15, the recipient will be disqualified for August, one-month minimum. In the same example, if the recipient failed to report the absence until September 15, the report is two months late and the disqualification would be for two months, October and November.

A claim for overpayment should be made for any month in which the child is absent from the home for the full month when the recipient did not report timely. Consider when the action to remove the child should have occurred had the recipient reported timely.

EXAMPLE: On June 6, a TANF child leaves the home, expecting to return on June 20. On June 14, the recipient learns that the child will not be coming home as expected but on August 2, in time for school to start. Timely action requires this change to be reported by June 19, but the recipient