7124 Child Support and Alimony Income (Food Stamps and Child Care Only) - Child support and alimony income, including arrearages, will be calculated by using a three month average (no conversion) to determine a monthly amount unless there has been a change in circumstances which is expected to continue, or the court ordered payments are less frequent than monthly and are intended to cover a certain period of time (i.e., intermittent income). Voluntary child support (not court ordered) will be considered as child support for budgeting purposes and the provisions of this section will apply. Alimony shall be treated the same as child support, and averaged or prospected using the following guidelines Please note that the averaging income budgeting method is different and distinct from prospective budgeting. When averaging, all income (in this case alimony and child support) received in the calendar months being used for the budget is used when determining the average, with the exception of child support/alimony lump sum payments. See 6410(37). Making a determination of whether a payment is representative, or what month the payment is for, does NOT apply. For example, child support received in January, February and March is being averaged. Payments received were: Jan 15th - $350, February 1st - $350, March 10th - $350 and March 31st - $300. The March 31st payment is for April, however since it was received (i.e. dispersed, see NOTE that follows) in March, it must be included in the average. If the April, May, June were being averaged, no support would be countable for April.
Averaging Child Support/Alimony - Child support/alimony income (including arrearages) received in the last three full calendar months prior to the month the budget is being created is used for the average. Child support/alimony income received weekly or biweekly is not converted. The actual monthly amount of support current support received per absent parent is averaged. For example, an application is filed in August and is being processed in August. Determine the amount of child support to budget by averaging the child support received in the months of May, June and July.
NOTE: Child support/alimony income received during the application month is determined as described above. In other words, the average amount of current support is used for the application month, not the amount of actual support received or expected to be received in the application month.
NOTE: When averaging child support income, the date of receipt is considered to be the disbursement date on the Kansas Pay Center and KAECSES - CSE. When a consumer is getting child support through KAECSES - CSE, KAECSES - CSE shall be used to verify child support and not the Kansas Pay Center.
Child Support/alimony is not averaged in the following situations:
Projected Child Support/Alimony - If receipt of child support/alimony is just beginning, or when the household reports a change in child support/alimony that is expected to continue, then the support income will be projected based on verified information and not averaged. When projecting child support/alimony income, follow the rules of 7110. If the child support/alimony is received weekly or biweekly, then monthly current child support is converted up to the amount of the court order. Arrearages should be projected separately if included in the court order.
Examples of changes expected to continue:
The court order begins and the AP begins paying through the court.
There is an existing court order and the court ordered obligation increase or decreases.
Wage withholding of the AP starts.
Wage withholding ends as AP no longer working for employer.
Child support that becomes assigned to the State (TAF approval) or is no longer assigned to the State (TAF closure).
This projected amount can continue to be budgeted until the next IR, review or reported change in child support/alimony income. If no changes are reported at the time of the next IR or review, the child support/alimony will then be averaged (provided there are three full months of child support to average).
Intermittent Support - In rare situations, support payments are ordered to be less frequent than monthly. (For example, payments ordered every six months or yearly for a self-employed person.) In these instances the rules of 7121 apply, and the child support/alimony shall be averaged over the period of time the payment is intended to cover.
NOTE: If the client sometimes receives child support/alimony and sometimes does not, this is considered fluctuating, irregular income and is not treated as an ongoing change. The three month average should continue.
Also see 6220 (4) and 6410 (10) regarding countable child support.
Child support income/alimony must be calculated (averaged or prospected as appropriate) at initial application, when processing an interim report, at review, and when processing a change in support income that is expected to continue.