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602.5 TANF MANUAL 7/17 Page 4

602.5 HANDLING OF SUPPORT PAYMENTS COLLECTED BY THE STATE

State and federal regulations require that all support paid for or on behalf of a child or caretaker receiving TANF must be directed to the State as a refund toward public assistance paid on behalf of such children or caretaker.*

Federal regulations require the Support Enforcement agency to notify the agency administering the TANF program, of the amount of support collected which represents payment on the required support obligation for each month. The notification requirements are accomplished through the report, TANF Cases Current Collected Support which is displayed monthly and accessed by local agencies through Reports Search in VaCMS. This report shows support collected by the State in the prior month on the required support obligation. The report will be available online by the 6th of the following month in which the support is collected. The local agency administering the TANF program is required to review the report for the net support amount to determine if this amount is sufficient to make the family ineligible for an assistance payment.**

Under the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA) of 1996 states were given the option to continue the $50 disregard payments to TANF recipients when appropriate. Based on the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005, Virginia opted to increase the disregard payment to $100.*** No disregard payment, shall be made, however, for a month in which there is no support collected.**** When support is collected from two or more absent parents, only the first $100 of the total support collected will be paid to the assistance unit and disregarded. The disregard will be issued to TANF recipients when the TANF case has a status of 'Approved'.

A TANF case with a 'Suspended' status for any reason, will be sent the current total collected support (including the $100 disregard) for the actual month of suspension by DCSE.

A. Notification to Local Agencies

The report, TANF Cases Current Collected Support displays current support payments paid to DCSE on the required support obligation from non-custodial parents for the month identified on the report. Information in the report includes, but is not limited to; Gross Support Amount from DCSE, DCSE Disregard Amount Sent to Client, DCSE Net Support Amount (total current monthly support amount from DCSE, minus the disregard), TANF Benefit Amount and TANF Child Support Supplement.

This report must be accessed and reviewed monthly. The amount of support shown on the report should be used as outlined below:

* CFR 302.32(a) and Section 63.2·1909, Code of Virginia ** 45 CFR 233.20 *** Public Law 109-171 **** 45 CFR 233.20

TANF Transmittal 62