Current through Register Vol. 39, No. 6, September 16, 2024
(a) The
official poverty guidelines established by the Director of the Office of
Management and Budget shall be used as a criteria of eligibility for all
services provided to program participants by grant recipients. "Services" is
defined as an act of assistance and/or direct benefit to a family unit. The
poverty guidelines are revised annually.
(b) For the purpose of determining
eligibility, the following definitions shall apply:
(1) Unrelated Individual. An unrelated
individual is a family unit of one if that individual is 15 years old or over
and not an inmate of an institution. An unrelated individual may be the sole
occupant of a housing unit, or may be residing in a housing unit (or group
quarters such as a rooming house) in which one or more persons also reside who
are not related to the individual in question by birth, marriage, and/or
adoption. (Examples of unrelated individuals residing with others include a
lodger, a foster child, a ward, or an employee.)
(2) Family. A family unit of two or more
persons related by birth, marriage, and/or adoption who reside together. All
such related persons are considered as members of one family. (If a household
includes more than one unrelated individual, the poverty guidelines are applied
separately to each family and/or unrelated individual, and not to the household
as a whole. If an unrelated individual lives with a family, the poverty
guidelines are applied separately to each family unit.)
(3) Income. Refers to total cash receipts
before taxes from all sources. These include money wages and salaries before
any deductions, but do not include food or rent in lieu of wages. These
receipts include net receipts from nonfarm or farm self-employment (e.g.
receipts from own business or farm after deductions for business or farm
expenses). They include regular payments from public assistance (including
Supplemental Security Income), social security or railroad retirement,
unemployment and workers' compensation, strike benefits from union funds,
veterans' benefits, training stipends, allotments or other regular support from
an absent family member or someone not living in the household; private
pensions, government employee pensions, and regular insurance or annuity
payments; and income from dividends, interest, rents, royalties, or periodic
receipts from estates or trusts. For eligibility purposes, income does not
refer to the following money receipts: capital gains; any assets drawn down as
withdrawals from a bank, sale of property, house, or car; tax refunds, gifts,
lump-sum inheritances, one-time insurance payments, or compensation for injury.
Also excluded are non-cash benefits, such as employer-paid health insurance and
other employee fringe benefits, food or rent received in lieu of wages, the
value of food and fuel produced and consumed on farms, and the imputed value of
rent from owner occupied nonfarm or farm housing.
(c) The period for determining the annual
income must not be more than 12 months nor less than the 90-day period
preceding the request for assistance by the individual applicant.
(d) The income of all members of each family
unit must be included in determining the income eligibility.
(e) Proof of income eligibility is required
of all applicants which apply for assistance.
(1) When the applicant applies for any
service provided by the grant recipient, the applicant must sign a
self-declaration statement indicating his/her annual income and the income of
any other members of the family unit.
(2) The grant recipient must make a
reasonable number of spot checks of family units to verify income given in the
self-declaration statements. In making the spot checks, the grant recipient
should contact appropriate sources, such as employer, local Department of
Social Services, Social Security Administration, or other appropriate sources
to obtain written documentation. This documentation should be attached to
self-declaration statement.
(3) The
self-declaration statement should contain a "Certification and Waiver of
Privacy Rights" statement. The applicant should be informed that the grant
recipient will check some of the applicants to verify the information on the
self-declaration statement. By signing the "Certification and Waiver of Privacy
Rights" statement the applicant is authorizing the release of confidential
information in order to verify income.
Authority
G.S.
143B-10;
143B-276;
143B-277;
143-323(d);
Eff. December 1, 1983;
Amended Eff. July 1, 1988;
Pursuant to
G.S.
150B-21.3A, rule is necessary without
substantive public interest Eff. April 25,
2015.
