SR 09-16 Dated 03/09 (FSM)

STATE OF NEW HAMPSHIRE

INTER-DEPARTMENT COMMUNICATION

SUMMARY

This SR releases policy on the treatment of the $25 weekly increase in Unemployment Compensation Benefits (UCB) when determining eligibility and benefit allotment for all categories of financial and medical assistance, Child Care, and Food Stamp assistance. The NH Department of Employment Security notified DFA on February 27, 2009 that they had elected to provide this increase to NH UCB beneficiaries as offered in Section 2002 of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA), beginning the week of February 22 - 28, 2009. This additional $25 UCB income will be treated as indicated below:

POLICY

The ARRA mandated that if states opted to provide this $25 weekly UCB increase, the increase had to be disregarded when determining eligibility and benefit allotment for Medicaid and SCHIP (Healthy Kids Silver). Due to how NH offers its cash and medical programs of assistance, the $25 increase will also be excluded for all categories of financial assistance. The weekly UCB increase will additionally be excluded for Child Care assistance. However, the Food Stamp Program at the federal level mandated that the $25 weekly UCB increase be counted in determining eligibility and benefit allotments in the Food Stamp Program.

PROCEDURES AND IMPLEMENTATION

For applicants with UCB income and recipients reporting new UCB income, Family Service Specialists (FSS) must deduct $25 a week from the individual’s UCB income and enter the remaining amount, after the $25 weekly deduction is removed, as the UCB weekly income. The FSS must then enter the $25 weekly amount under the new unearned income type "ARRA-UCB" that New HEIGHTS has created. New HEIGHTS will then count this income or exclude it, per policy released in this SR.

Example: A current recipient reports new UCB income of $175 a week. The FSS enters it as follows: $150 per week as "Unemployment-NH" unearned income and $25 per week as "ARRA UCB" unearned income.

Note: If a Food Stamp-only household newly begins to receive this income during a current certification period, households certified for 4, 5, or 6 months and subject to the special 130% reporting requirements are only required to report this new income if the increase causes the household’s gross income to exceed the 130% limit, per FSM 145.04, Special Reporting Requirements.

In March, all current recipients with "Unemployment-NH" unearned income entered in New HEIGHTS had the new income type "ARRA UCB" in the amount of $25 per week, added to the Unearned Income screen on New HEIGHTS. Entering the income into New HEIGHTS in March allowed the system to calculate Food Stamp eligibility and benefits, and build correct budgets, beginning with the April 1, 2009 issuance. The income is excluded for all other programs so has no impact on other program eligibility or benefits. This change was made in New HEIGHTS according to the schedule below:

As this change was run concurrently with the increase in Food Stamp benefits released in SR 09-15, it is anticipated that many recipients will experience either no change in their household’s eligibility status or benefit allotment or will potentially experience an increase in their Food Stamp benefits, even with this $25 UCB benefit counted toward their household’s income. See SR 09-15, dated 4/09, for details of the increase in the maximum Food Stamp allotment and for a listing of the mass change reports generated as a result of this change.

POLICY MANUAL REVISIONS

Revised Family Assistance Manual Topics

SR’s Retained

Revised Adult Assistance Manual Topics

SR’s Retained

Revised Food Stamp Manual Topics

SR’s Retained

IMPLEMENTATION

Changes identified in this SR are effective March 1, 2009.

CLIENT NOTIFICATION

No special client notification will be provided. Most recipients will not be impacted by the increase because the income is excluded from the eligibility and benefit determination process for most DFA programs. Food Stamp recipients, however, may be impacted. This change was run concurrently with the increase in Food Stamp benefits released in SR 09-15, dated 4/09. The Notice of Decision (NOD) was suppressed for all clients experiencing only an increase in Food Stamp benefits. All other cases experiencing a benefit or eligibility change will receive a NOD indicating the change and the budget that is impacted.

TRAINING

No special training is needed or planned to implement the changes in this SR.

DISPOSITION

This SR may be destroyed or deleted after its contents have been noted and the revised manual topics released by this SR have been posted to the On-line manuals.

DISTRIBUTION

This SR will be distributed according to the electronic distribution list for Division of Family Assistance policy releases. This SR, and revised On-Line Manuals, will be available for agency staff in the On-Line Manual Library, and for public access on the Internet at http://www.dhhs.nh.gov/DHHS/DFA/LIBRARY, effective April 27, 2009.

This SR will be distributed under separate cover to all internal hard copy holders of the Family Assistance, Adult Assistance and Food Stamp Manuals. The SR should be retained in those manuals until further notice.

DFA/KD:s