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DE TANF - Assistance Unit

A TANF Assistance Unit is defined as the total number of persons who are eligible for a Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) grant.

The rules for determining who should be included in a TANF Assistance Unit also apply to Assistance Units for TANF Related Medicaid.

The TANF Assistance Unit must always include:

1. The dependent child; and

NOTE: See TANF - Family Cap for details of how to count children who are subject to the TANF Family Cap restrictions.

2. The dependent child's blood-related or adoptive siblings who are under 18 and who are also dependent children; and

3. The dependent child's natural or adoptive parent(s). If both parents live in the home, both parents must be included in the unit regardless of the parents' marital status. In a case where paternity has not been legally established, the putative father must acknowledge paternity as a condition of eligibility.

NOTE: In 2 and 3 above, the child or parent must also reside in the home and be otherwise eligible. Examples of persons who are not otherwise eligible include, but are not limited to, Supplemental Security Income (SSI) recipients and Employment and Training program sanctioned individuals.

Optional Composition of Assistance Units

1. A non-parent needy caretaker relative may be included in the unit if the caretaker so chooses.

The needy legal spouse of a caretaker relative may be included in the unit only if the caretaker is the natural or adoptive parent of the child(ren), and the caretaker is incapacitated or is the principal wage earner and qualifies as an unemployed parent.

2. In TANF married or unmarried couple cases where each adult has children from previous relationships who are eligible for TANF, they have the option of being in one Assistance Unit or two separate Assistance Units. If the Assistance Unit containing the whole family fails the financial eligibility test, separate Assistance Units may be established for the child(ren) of the previous relationships.

For example: A couple each have a child from previous relationships. Initially, the Division of Social Services (DSS) places all the family members into one TANF Assistance Unit. Income from the male partner’s job makes the family ineligible for TANF. DSS has the option of placing the female partner and her child from a previous relationship into a TANF Assistance Unit. (If there is also a child in common, that child would not be in the Assistance Unit of the female partner and her child from the previous relationship.) In this scenario, if the couple were married, a step-parent situation would exist -- so that part of the male step-parent's income would be counted. If the couple were not married, eligibility would be based solely on the information from the female partner and her child.

3. A pregnant woman, with no other children, may receive TANF beginning on the first day of the month that her child is expected to be born, if the woman meets all other technical and financial eligibility requirements, and her expected due date has been verified by a physician. The child is added to the unit, and a supplemental grant is effective the date of its birth if the birth is reported within five (5) days. If the birth is not reported within five (5) days, the child is added to the unit and the grant is effective as of the date of the report. The child's father, if he is otherwise eligible, is also added using these guidelines.

A pregnant woman who plans to place her child for adoption is eligible for TANF beginning the 1st day of the month her child is due, assuming she meets all other eligibility requirements. If she still plans to terminate her parental rights after the child is born, the child cannot be added to the Assistance Unit and the child is not eligible for Medicaid. In this instance, the TANF case is closed at the end of the month that the birth occurs.

4. If a child receiving SSI is the only child in the home, the child's caretaker relative can receive TANF if the child is deprived of parental care. The caretaker's needy legal spouse can receive TANF if the caretaker is the child's natural or adoptive parent and the caretaker is incapacitated or qualifies as an unemployed adult.

Family Budget Groups and Assistance Units

In some circumstances your Family Budget Group may have more than one Assitance Unit. In such cases, the income and the size of each Assistance Unit is used in determining the TANF Income-Eligibility or the General Assistance (GA) Income-Eligibility of the members of each Assistance Unit.

Resource-Eligibility for both TANF and GA, however, is always determined for the Family Budget Group as a whole.

And the size of the Family Budget Group is used to cap the total of the TANF and/or GA payments in accordance with the TANF Payment Standards.

See also:

DE DSS - Family Budget Group

DE GA - Assistance Unit

DE TANF - Financial Eligibility

DE TANF - Income Eligibility

DE TANF - Resource Eligibility

DE DSS - Application Procedures

DE DSS - Change Reporting Requirements

DE DSS - Contact Information

Source:

DSS Policy Manual (Sect. 3028.1, 3028.2 and 15130.1)

Back to:

DE TANF Overview

DE Division of Social Services - Overview

DE Benefit Information System Overview

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