How does the department decide how much of my sponsor's income to count against my benefits?
(1) We must count some of your sponsor's income as unearned income to your assistance unit (AU) if:
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(1) We must count some of your sponsor's income as unearned income to your assistance unit (AU) if:
(a) Your sponsor signed the INS affidavit of support form I-864 or I-864A; and
(b) You are not exempt from the deeming process under WAC 388-450-0156 .
(2) We take the following steps to decide the monthly amount of your sponsor's income we deem as your income and count against your benefits:
(a) We start with your sponsor's earned and unearned income that is not excluded under WAC 388-450-0015 ;
(b) If your sponsor's spouse signed the affidavit of support, we add all of the spouse's earned and unearned income that is not excluded under WAC 388-450-0015 ;
(c) We subtract twenty percent of the above amount that is earned income under WAC 388-450-0030 ;
(d) For cash assistance, we subtract the need standard under WAC 388-478-0015 . We count the following people who live in your sponsor's home as a part of your sponsor's AU to decide the need standard:
(ii) Your sponsor's spouse; and
(iii) Everyone else in their home that they could claim as a dependent for federal income tax purposes.
(e) For food assistance, we subtract the maximum gross monthly income under WAC 388-478-0060 . We count the following people that live in your sponsor's home as a part of your sponsor's AU to decide the maximum gross monthly income:
(i) Your sponsor;
(ii) Your sponsor's spouse; and
(iii) Everyone else in their home that they could claim as a dependent for federal income tax purposes.
(f) If you can show that your sponsor has sponsored other people as well, we divide the result by the total number of people who they sponsored including any member of your household that is exempt from deeming according to WAC 388-450-0156 .
(3) After we have decided how much income to deem to you, we count the greater amount of the following against your benefits:
(a) The amount of income calculated from deeming; or
(b) The amount of money your sponsor actually gives you for your needs.