110.1 General Policy

Biological Parent of Adopted Child Has Care and Control of Child PCA-22424-110 (Published February 9, 2026)

A budget group is one person or a group of persons who occupy a common residence and whose needs are considered together when determining eligibility for assistance. If they are eligible, a monthly assistance payment is issued to cover all members of the budget group in one of two categories:

55 Pa. Code § 183.2

Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF)

State Blind Pension (SBP), B category. See Supplemental Handbook, Chapter 700 .

State Supplementary Payment (SSP). See Supplemental Handbook, Chapter 720 .

Refugee Assistance Program, D 02 category. See Supplemental Handbook, Chapter 730 .

Repatriated Nationals Program, D 05 category. See Supplemental Handbook, Chapter 750 .

NOTE: The system treats a grant group as a budget group for the purpose of nonfinancial, income , and resource eligibility determination. The grant groups are not linked in the eligibility determination process when budget groups comprised of members under special program requirements are authorized in different grant groups to allow for identification of the appropriate Federal Financial Participation (FFP).

A person may be a member of only one budget group, even if multiple budget groups occupy a common residence.

The CAO identifies the members of the budget group to determine whether an applicant / recipient group is eligible for cash assistance. The number of members in a budget group is used to determine:

55 Pa. Code § 171.21(a)

Resource eligibility .

Income eligibility .

The monthly assistance payment (MAP) amount.

TANF: When there is more than one TANF budget group in a common residence, the eligibility and benefit amount of each budget group is based on:

The family size allowance (FSA) for the number of members of the budget group.

The county of residence.

See Chapter 138 .

SPECIAL PROGRAM: A budget group is split into two or more grant groups when a budget group contains members whose eligibility is based on special program requirements The budget group will receive two or more benefits in four or more semimonthly (twice a month) payments that reflect the correct FSA for each budget group. See Chapter 138 .

Revised July 10, 2024, replacing November 2, 2018