Rules & Regulations of the State of Tennessee
Title 1240 - Human Services
Subtitle 1240-01 - Family Assistance Division
Chapter 1240-01-48 - Child Support Requirements
Section 1240-01-48-.07 - BUDGETING PROCEDURES

(a) Support from an absent parent is considered as currently available income in the initial determination of eligibility. Support payments, less the child support "bonus", are used to test eligibility. If the family is eligible, a grant is approved excluding the support.

(b) Support received during the period the application is pending may be retained by the family and counted as income in determining the amount of the initial payment due the family. The client must forward support payments to the state beginning with the first payment received after being notified of the Families First approval. Any support received and retained after approval is subject to IV-D recovery.

(a) If the recipient or IV-D reports (or the worker discovers) that support is being received directly and retained:

(b) When support collections plus other income equal or exceed the Consolidated Need Standard (CNS) for the family, IV-D will notify IV-A to redetermine eligibility for Families First. Such redetermination must be completed within 30 days of the notification of the collection. IV-A must then notify IV-D of the result. Budget calculations will be based on the CNS minus the voluntary/court ordered amount of the support collected after deduction of the child support bonus, plus other net countable income. The total amount of any retained voluntary support minus the child support bonus is counted in this redetermination. The ordered amount or the actual amount of support collected, whichever is less, is counted in this redetermination when the retained support is court ordered. If there is a deficit, assistance should continue. If the Department terminates the grant, only the excess of the court ordered amount of the collection over the grant amount will be paid to the family from the collection causing ineligibility.

(c) When a current month's collection exceeds the amount required to pay the bonus and to reimburse the federal and state shares for the Families First grant for that month, the excess up to the court ordered amount must be distributed to the family by IV-D. Such excess payments are counted as income in the Families First budget for the month they are received by the family.