The MAA, MAF and SAC Child Support Disregard Revised to support the implementation of the DSP Coding

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The MAA, MAF and SAC Child Support
DisregardRevised to support the implementation
of the DSP Coding
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Training Content

• Child support disregard policy for MAA, MAF and
  SAC
• New DSP disregard coding requirement for MAA/MAF
  only cases (cases without TANF)
• New DSP disregard coding requirement applies to
  SAC (C5) children, too (C5 cases are carried by
  branch 5503)

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New Child Support Disregard Pass-through Policy

• Effective October 1, DHS implemented a new child
  support income exclusion (disregard) and
  pass-through.

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MAA, MAF and SAC Disregard

• House Bill 2469 requires that the department
  implement child support pass-through and
  disregard for TANF recipients effective 10/1/08.
• MAA, MAF and SAC policy changed to stay in
  alignment with the new TANF policy.

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Overview of New Child Support and Pass-through
Policy

• DCS will not keep all cash child support.
• Each month, DCS will forward (pass-through) up
  to 50 per child of the current cash child
  support. Limit of 200 per month, per financial
  group.
• In short, TANF clients get to keep a portion of
  their child support.
• The child support they keep will not affect their
  TANF benefits (is disregarded).

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The New Child Support Disregard for Medical Only
Clients

• Clients who receive MAA, MAF or
• SAC medical only, do not receive the TANF child
  support pass-through.
• However, MAA, MAF and SAC clients will get the
  child support disregard.
• OHP policy is not changing. OHP clients
• will not get the child support disregard.

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Child support disregard for MAA, MAF and SAC

• MAA, MAF and SAC clients get the child support
  disregard.
• Up to 50 per dependent child or minor parent per
  financial group per month, not to exceed 200 per
  financial group per month is not counted as
  income (disregarded).
• In short, a portion of the child support is not
  counted toward the clients total countable income.

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SMUX screens used to view Child Support Disregard

• SMU1 to identify total child support income
• SMR1 to determine cash medical child support
• SMR1 to exclude cash medical child support
• Also, just FYI
• SPTH to determine disregarded cash child support
• SPTD to apply new cash child support disregard

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Child support amount received from non-custodial
parent.
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This is the Cash medical amount excluded from
total child support received.
Amount of child support counted as unearned
income for medical after cash medical is excluded.
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When to apply the new disregard

• Disregarded child support is subtracted from
• the total child support income at the countable
• income test.

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Example of disregard for MAA and MAF

• Mora has 2 children, each child is receiving
• 100 per month child support from their absent
• father. In this situation we will disregard 50
• per child, of the child support received.
• Total child support is 200, disregard 50 per
  child 100 disregard
• What do we count? 100 child support.
• What do we code on CM? 100 in child support and
  the 100 disregard

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Countable income test

• Moras child support prior to the disregard was
  200. Exclude the disregard of 100.
• Look at your combined standard chart for MAA for
  3 people.
• The disregarded child support comes off the
  top. Mora passes the countable test with
  unearned income of 100.
• Mora also passes the adjusted income test using
  100 unearned income.

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2 Next we look at the adjusted test, still using
100 for the unearned income
1 At the countable income test we look at 100
income for Moria and she passes.
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Cash Medical Support Reminder

• The cash medical support policy hasnt changed.
  Clients must still assign their cash medical
  support to DCS when applying for EXT, MAA, MAF,
  OPC, OP6, OPU and SAC.
• Continue to exclude cash medical support.
• Cash medical is subtracted from child support
  prior to the disregard.
• Some families may have both the cash medical
  exclusion and the child support disregard.

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Cash medical

• What if Moras children had Cash medical support
• taken out of their child support?
• 200 Child support 25 Cash Medical 175
• Subtract 100 for disregard 75 child support
• 75 is what we will count as unearned income.
• Remember Cash medical is not counted for
• medical programs, including OHP.

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DSP disregard coding

• Effective October 29, new coding will be added to
  CM to track the disregarded child support
• The need/resource DSP must be entered for any
  MAA, MAF or SAC (C5) child that has the disregard
  applied

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Example of disregard

• Frank has 5 children, each receives 75 child
• support from their absent mother. Total support
  is
• 375. We will disregard 50 per child or up to
• 200 per financial group. If we deduct 50 per
• child it gives us 250. Because the 250 is over
• the 200 per financial group, the most we can
• disregard is 200.
• 375 support 200 disregard 175
• N/R DSP c 40 on each of the 5 children to
  track the disregard
• N/R SUP c 175 countable child support

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What if the child support is less than 50?

• Lisa receives 75 per month child support for her
  3 children.
• The child support amount for each child is 25.
• Disregard given is up to 50 per child which is
  more than the 25 received by each child.
• 0 child support is counted as income.
• Each child has the disregard coded on the CM case
  as DSP c 25

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Disregard and MAF

• The DHS 420 has been revised to reflect the new
  child support disregard.
• The DHS 420 will do some of the calculations, but
  it cannot calculate the cash support disregard or
  the cash medical support exclusion.

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DHS 420
This section has been added to the 420. Type in
the amount and it will do the deductions for you.
At the same time it will auto fill some of the
other required fields.
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SAC (Substitute and Adoptive Care)

• Childrens Medical Project Team at 5503 is
  responsible for SAC (C5) cases.
• SAC cases will also allow the disregard.
• Code the DSP and SUP (if there is countable
  income after applying the disregard)

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What if theres an ERDC case?

• ERDC does not have a disregard.
• Some ERDC clients may need a companion MAA/MAF CM
  case.
• The SUP amount for ERDC may be different than the
  SUP for MAA or MAF.
• If the SUP amount for MAA/MAF is different than
  the SUP for ERDC, create a separate MAA or MAF CM
  case.

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Medical Resources

• Medicaid Policy Analyst
• Joyce Clarkson [phone]
• Michelle Mack [phone]
• Carol Berg [phone]
• Groupwise SSP-Policy, Medical
• Medicaid Trainers
• Heidi Wormwood [phone]
• Annette Aylett [phone]
• Terry Kester [phone]
• Betty Silva [phone]