Child or Cash Medical Support Income
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Child or cash medical support is any payment ordered by the court and received by a participant from a legally obligated person.
Policy
Child or cash medical support is any payment ordered by the court and received by the participant court ordered to receive the payment from a legally obligated person.
Support income may be countable or not countable depending on the program in which the participant is receiving benefits. See any of the following:
Countable income is used to determine an income budget. (See Income Budgeting to see how FAA determines the income budget.) FAA needs to know about income that is both countable and not countable to determine whether a budgetary unit’s expenses are exceeding their income. (See Income Eligibility for more information about how FAA uses countable and not countable income.)
Support income is any payment ordered by the court and received by the participant, from any of the following:
●An absent parent
NOTE When court ordered support, income is received directly from a private source, it is considered Direct Pay Support Income. Private sources include and are not limited to any of the following:
Private collection agency
The absent parent or ex-spouse
●The Clerk of the Court in Arizona or another state
●Any state’s child support centralized payment processing center
●A private collection agency
●The Division of Child Support Services (DCSS)
NOTE A child, spousal or cash medical support payment that is received by a participant but not court ordered is countable as a gift unless the payment is a recurring arrearage payment.
DCSS has the legal authority to add arrearages for unpaid support over the court ordered amount. Arrearages are countable as unearned income.
Support income over the court ordered amount is only countable as support when the amount over is due to averaging or arrearages. Any monies received for current support that are over the court ordered amount (not due to averaging or arrearages) are countable as a gift.
Nonrecurring monies from an absent parent that are not court ordered child support and that do not exceed $30 per calendar quarter, per child are also considered a gift but are not countable.
NA Countable and Not Countable Support Income
Court ordered support payments are countable when any of the following apply:
●The payment is paid to a participant included in the budgetary unit.
●The payment is made directly to the participant.
●The payment is for a recurring arrearage payment.
●Legally owed payments are diverted by the provider to a third party for a household expense.
NOTE When the expense is allowable, the budgetary unit is allowed the shelter expense deduction.
●A support payment received after CA approval that is not turned in to the Division of Child Support Services (DCSS). The participant is allowed to keep child support issued by DCSS for certain children who are not eligible for CA. This includes a benefit cap child or a child receiving Supplemental Security Income (SSI). For more information on benefit cap, see Benefit Cap (BC) Children.
●The support payment is issued by DCSS to a CA participant during the three-month Grant Diversion (GD) time frame.
●The child support payment is issued by DCSS and is in excess of the CA benefit amount.
●The court has ordered payment for the participant, but an in-kind benefit is made instead. No amount of the in-kind benefit in excess of the court order is allowed as an In-kind benefit(g).
The payment is not countable when the court has ordered support payments be paid to a third party instead of the participant, the payment is considered a vendor payment and is not countable. Not countable support also includes support received by a nonparticipant of the budgetary unit.
NOTE An expense deduction is not allowable for any expense paid by a vendor payment. (See Vendor Payment Income for more information about vendor payments.)
CA Countable and Not Countable Support Income
Support payments are countable when any of the following apply:
●The court ordered payment is made to a participant in the budgetary unit.
●The payment is for a court ordered recurring arrearage payment.
●The payment is paid or returned to the participant by the Division of Child Support Services (DCSS).
●The payment is paid to the participant by a private collection agency.
●The budgetary unit receives support payments after approval and does not turn in the payments to DCSS.
NOTE The participant is allowed to keep child support issued by DCSS for a Benefit Cap child or a child receiving Supplemental Security Income (SSI).
●Child support payments issued through DCSS that exceed the CA benefit amount.
●The payment is paid to a participant for spousal maintenance.
●Medical support received as a cash payment.
Do not count support payments received towards CA when any of the following apply:
●The payment is paid to a participant in the home who is not included in the budgetary unit.
●The payment is a vendor payment ordered by the court, such as rent, or mortgage paid directly to the landlord or mortgagor by the absent parent.
●The payment is an In-kind benefit(g) provided by the absent parent.
●Child support payments issued through DCSS to a CA participant receiving a Grant Diversion payment only countable for the needy family criteria determination.
●The payment is intended for a Benefit Cap child or a child receiving SSI) in a CA budgetary unit.
Verification
The participant has the primary responsibility for providing verification. (See Participant Responsibilities – Providing Verification for additional policy.)
For NA, all of the following income is required to be verified before eligibility is determined:
●Reported on a new application, during the interview of a new application, or changes reported before the eligibility determination of a new application.
●Changes after an eligibility determination of a new application (e.g., a renewal application, mid approval contact, etc.) and any of the following apply:
The source of the income has changed. The income is questionable(g) or unclear(g).
The reported income amount has changed by $51 or more.
The previous verification in the case file is more than 59 calendar days old.
For CA, all income is required to be verified before determining eligibility.
Verification that can be used for legally obligated support includes, and is not limited to, any of the following:
●Child support order issued by the court
●Official pay records from Arizona’s Clerk of the Court showing the amount of support received
●Official pay records from another state showing the amount of support received
●Division of Child Support Services (DCSS) documents showing the amount of support required to be paid
Verification that can be used for support pay history includes, and is not limited to, any of the following:
●Copies of money order receipts made out to the custodial parent
●Receipts and pay histories from any state’s child support centralized payment processing center
●Written statement from the non-custodial parent, identified as the payer of child support, and residing outside the budgetary unit of the recipient
●Participant statement verification can be used when obtaining documented or collateral contact verification may cause harm or undue hardship(g) for the participant or when all of the following occur:
Attempts to obtain the verification from an acceptable source are unsuccessful. This includes documented and collateral contact verification.
The participant’s statement is not questionable(g).
Legal Authorities
AAC R6-12-501B3
7 CFR 273.9(b)(2)(ii-vi)
last revised 10/21/2024