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Assistance Units (AU)

Revised March 27, 2008

Purpose:

Financial Responsibility Code Head of Household Household Member Not Applying for Assistance Medical Case Relationship Code SSI Recipient Only Adult Receiving SSI Only Child Receiving SSI Three Parent Household

Financial Responsibility Code An AU is formed based on household members that are entered into ACES during Screening.  See EA-Z Manual  -Assistance Units A. - Cash Assistance -  WAC 388-408-0005 B. - Basic Food Assistance Unit -   WAC 388-408-0035 C. - Medical Assistance Unit - WAC 388-408-0055 In addition to the relationship code, each person in the AU is also assigned a financial responsibility code. This code indicates the legal responsibility of the head of household for that individual. Financial responsibility codes are assigned by either the user or by ACES. In most situations for cash and Basic Food cases, on new applications, assign all members the financial responsibility code PN - Pending. Then, based on information entered during interview, ACES sets the financial responsibility code correctly and includes or excludes members from the AU. In most situations do not use financial responsibility code NM - Non-Member - unless the person is not applying for assistance and is not related to anyone else in the household.

Head of Household The first person entered in screening is always the head of household, and each person after that has a relationship code assigned based on their relationship to that head of household.

Household Member Not Applying for Assistance In most situations, do not enter the names of adults into ACES if they are not applying for assistance. If an adult is living in the home but not applying for assistance, and does not have to be included in the AU, document information about that person on the (REMARKS) screen behind the (STAT).

Medical Case For a medical case, code most members in the AU as PN.  Some exceptions to this are : A Sneede / Kizer member, or  See EA-Z Manual - Assistance Units - C. - Medical Assistance Unit -  WAC 388-408-0055  units. A spouse and / or child when the person needs to be identified for purposes of deeming / income allocation, or  To identify a child who is not intended to be a recipient but is included in the household count.

Relationship Code Relationship codes carry over from those entered during Screening but can be changed in Interview for all members except the head of household.

SSI Recipient On a new application, code the TANF applicants and the SSI recipient as PN.  The SSI recipient is denied with Reason Code 225 - Receiving SSI - and ACES changes the financial responsibility code to S  See EA-Z Manual  - Assistance Units - A. - Cash Assistance WAC 388-408-0020 Only Adult Receiving SSI When the adult in the AU is receiving SSI and not included in the TANF AU and the financial responsibility coding on the (STAT) is correct, the TANF payment standard should be correct based on information entered on the (SHEL) of the adult.  There is no need to enter (SHEL) information for the children. Only Child Receiving SSI When the only eligible child in an AF AU is receiving SSI it is important that the child be coded as PN, at the time the application is originally processed. Code the child as PN, and then indicate disability on their (DEM2) and enter [S] on the (UNER). ACES will change the child's financial responsibility code to SC and approve the adult. If the child is coded with any other financial responsibility code the AU may be denied, as ACES does not recognize that the AU includes a child.

Three Parent Household One case situation that is becoming more common is households that include two parents, their common children, an (ex) spouse and his or her separate children. The AU looks like this: Woman 1 Has one child from a former relationship Man Has two children with Woman 1 Woman 2 Has two children with Man (man's ex-wife) In this situation, the half sibling relationship links all of the children so the AU must include all of the children and all three adults. Look at eligibility first based on everyone together, so the household must meet eligibility for TANF. To open this in ACES the relationship code and financial responsibility coding on the (STAT) is critical. Pick one of the adults to be the head of the household, and then make sure that all other information is entered correctly in relation to that person as the head of the household. With the man as the head of the household, the (STAT) looks like this: Name Relationship Finl Resp Code Man SE PN Woman 1  OP* PN Woman 2  OP* PN Woman's Separate Child CH PN Man & Woman 1 - First Child CH PN Man & Woman 1 - Second Child CH PN Man & Woman 2 - First Child CH PN Man & Woman 2 - Second Child CH PN *If the man were married to one of the women the REL code would be SP.

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Modification Date: March 27, 2008

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