Foster Care Payments
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This section includes information about foster care payments for children and young adults.
Policy
Federal, state, or local funding provides for foster care payments. Licensed and unlicensed custodial caretakers receive foster care payments for a foster child up to the child’s 18th birthday.
For NA, when the caretaker chooses to include a foster care child or adult in the NA budgetary unit, the foster care payments are countable income.
NOTE When a foster care participant is 18 years old, the participant may voluntarily remain in foster care by enrolling in the Voluntary Foster Care for Young Adults Program. Allowances received from the Young Adult Program are countable income.
For CA, when the foster care payment covers a foster child’s basic needs(g), the foster care child is a CA nonparticipant, and the foster care payments do not count.
For more information about foster care, see all of the following:
●Determining Budgetary Units for more information about NA and CA nonparticipants.
●Adult Only CA Case for more information about the CA eligibility only for adults.
●Foster Caregiver for more information about caregivers licensed by the state to care for children.
●Relative Placement for more information about relative unlicensed caregivers.
The foster care adults between 17 and 21 years old may receive an Independent Living Subsidy. The foster care payment is intended to assist the youth through the transition into adulthood and is countable income.
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 income is exceeding their expenses. (See Income Eligibility for more information about how FAA uses countable and not countable income.)
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.
Examples of verification that can be used for foster care payments include, and are not limited to, any of the following:
●Assistance payments records
●Agency or payer providing the income
●Court records or court orders
●Department of Child Safety (DCS) documents or printouts
●Current check reflecting gross income
●Federal or state tax forms
●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
7 CFR 273.1(b)(3)
last revised 10/02/2023