Table 5

State Policy Documentation Project

Table 5: States' Treatment of Child Support Income When Determining Eligibility for TANF and Medicaid Under the Family Coverage Category

Table 5 describes how states' treat families' child support income when they evaluate whether or not they are eligible for Medicaid under the family coverage category. It also compares these Medicaid policies to states' treatment of child support income under their TANF eligibility rules.

When evaluating a family's eligibility for Medicaid, states minimally are required to disregard the amount of child support income that they disregarded when evaluating AFDC eligibility on July 16, 1996. (In general, most states on July 16, 1996 disregarded up to $50 per month in child support income). However, states also can adopt more generous disregards of child support income under their family coverage categories. States also have discretion to decide how much child support income they will disregard when evaluating a family's TANF eligibility.

Column 1: Column 1 describes the child support disregards used by a state when evaluating a family's eligibility for Medicaid.

Column 2: Column 2 describes the child support disregards used by a state when evaluating a family's eligibility for TANF. In some states, child support disregards vary depending on whether a state is evaluating a family's eligibility for TANF benefits or the amount of TANF benefits that it will receive. Column 2 does not address how child support income is treated when a state is calculating the size of a family's TANF benefit, only how it is treated for purposes of determining eligibility for TANF benefits.

Column 3: Column 3 indicates whether or not a state's Medicaid and TANF child support disregards are identical.

Unless otherwise noted, Table 5 presents information on the Medicaid eligibility rules used by a state under its family coverage eligibility category. States marked with an "*" have not yet established such a category, but instead cover families with children not on welfare through a medically needy category. States marked with a "**" also have not established such a category, but instead cover such families under an 1115 waiver expansion. In these cases, Table 5 reflects the policies used by the state to determine the eligibility of families with children under its medically needy or 1115 waiver rules.

States marked with "***" use "fill-the-gap" budgeting rules under TANF. In these states the TANF countable income standard (shown in Table 2) is set at a level about the maximum amount of cash benefits that a family can receive. Child support payments that bring the family's income above the maximum amount of benefits that it can receive, but that remain below the TANF countable income standard, are not counted against the family for the purpose of determining eligibility for Medicaid or for the purpose of determining the size of the family's TANF benefits.

Table 5 States' Treatment of Child Support Income When Determining Eligibility for TANF and Medicaid Under the Family Coverage Category
	Medicaid How is child support income treated?	TANF How is child support income treated for purposes of eligibility?	Are the TANF and Medicaid policies the same?
Totals	32 Disregard up to $50 6 Other disregard 12 No disregard 1 Not available	12 Disregard up to $50 9 Other disregard 30 No disregard	27 Yes 23 No 1 Not available
Alabama	Disregard up to $50	No disregard.	No
Alaska	Disregard up to $50	Disregard up to $50	Yes
Arizona	Disregard up to $50	No disregard	No
Arkansas	No disregard	No disregard	Yes
California	Disregard up to $50	Disregard up to $50	Yes
Colorado	Disregard up to $50	No disregard	No
Connecticut	Disregard up to $100	Disregard up to $100	Yes
Delaware***	Disregard up to $50 plus some or all additional child support income under "fill-the-gap" budgeting rules	Disregard up to $50 plus some or all additional child support income under "fill-the-gap" budgeting rules	Yes
District of Columbia	No disregard	No disregard	Yes
Florida	Disregard up to $50	No disregard	No
Georgia ***	Disregard up to $50 plus some or all additional child support income under "fill-the-gap" budgeting rules	Disregard up to $50 plus some or all additional child support income under "fill-the-gap" budgeting rules	Yes
Hawaii **	No disregard	No disregard	Yes
Idaho	Disregard up to $50	No disregard	No
Illinois	Disregard up to $50	Disregard up to $50	Yes
Indiana	Disregard up to $50	No disregard	No
Iowa	Disregard up to $50	No disregard ⁽¹¹⁾	No
Kansas ⁽¹²⁾	No disregard	No disregard	Yes
Kentucky	Disregard up to $50	No disregard	No
Louisiana	Disregard up to $50	No disregard	No
Maine ***	Disregard up to $50 plus some or all additional child support income under "fill-the-gap" budgeting rules	Disregard up to $50 plus some or all child support income under "fill-the-gap" budgeting rules	Yes
Maryland	No disregard	No disregard	No
Massachusetts **	No disregard	Disregard up to $50 for children included in the TANF grant. Disregard up to $90 for a child excluded from the grant due to family cap	No (but, MA also provides Medicaid to all TANF recipients)
Michigan	Disregard up to $50	Disregard up to $50	Yes
Minnesota	Disregard up to $50	No disregard	No
Mississippi	Disregard up to $50	No disregard	No
Missouri	No disregard	No disregard	Yes
Montana	No disregard	No disregard	Yes
Nebraska *	No disregard	No disregard	Yes
Nevada	Disregard up to $75	Disregard up to $75	Yes
New Hampshire	No disregard	No disregard	Yes
New Jersey	Disregard up to $50	Disregard up to $50	Yes
New Mexico	Disregard up to $50	Disregard up to $50	Yes
New York	Disregard up to $50	Disregard up to $50	Yes
North Carolina	Disregard up to $50	No disregard	No
North Dakota	Disregard up to $50	No disregard	No
Ohio	Disregard up to $50	No disregard	No
Oklahoma	No disregard	No disregard	Yes
Oregon	Disregard up to $50	No disregard	No
Pennsylvania	Disregard up to $50	Disregard up to $50	Yes
Rhode Island	Disregard up to $50	Disregard up to $50	Yes
South Carolina ***	Disregard up to $50	Child support income may be disregarded under "fill-the-gap" budgeting rules	No
South Dakota	Disregard up to $50	No disregard	No
Tennessee ***	Child support income may be disregarded under "fill-the-gap" budgeting rules	Child support income may be disregarded under "fill-the-gap" budgeting rules	Yes
Texas*	Disregard up to $50	Disregard up to $50	Yes
Utah*	Disregard up to $50	No disregard	No (but, UT also provides Medicaid to all TANF recipients)
Vermont	Not available	Disregard up to $50	Not available
Virginia	Disregard up to $50	Disregard up to $50	Yes
Washington	No disregard	No disregard	Yes
West Virginia ⁽¹³⁾	Disregard up to $50	No disregard	No
Wisconsin	Disregard up to $50	For all but a small group of beneficiaries (who receive up to a $50 disregard of child support income), Wisconsin disregards all child support income	No
Wyoming	Disregard up to $50	No disregard	No

NOTES

11. Iowa has retained a $50 disregard of child support income for families who were enrolled in AFDC prior to enactment of the 1996 federal welfare law and who were benefitting from the state's child support disregard policy.
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12. Kansas has passed a law mandating a disregard of up to $40 in child support income under TANF and Medicaid, but this disregard policy has not yet been implemented due to difficulties reprogramming the state's computer system.
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13. When discontinuing the $50 disregard under TANF, West Virginia instituted a policy in which the TANF grant is increased by $50 for families when child support is collected.
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This page last updated September 02, 2005