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Department
of Human Services Families
First Online Policy Manual Income |
Revised: |
20.3 |
EARNED INCOME |
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Earned income is money derived from an
individual’s work efforts, such as wages, salaries, commissions, or as
profits from a self-employment enterprise. The following monies are considered earned income: ·
Wages,
salaries, commissions. ·
Garnished or
diverted wages are considered to be earned income. ·
Profit from self-employment
enterprises such as the following: -
Farming. -
Small
business enterprises. -
Roomers/boarders. -
Rental
receipts—Rent receipts from property owned/being purchased by an
individual/family when the owner/purchaser is actively engaged in the production
of the income are earned income. -
Total gains
of any capital goods or equipment related to the business, excluding the
costs of doing business. ·
Rental
income is considered earned if the individual is actively engaged in
producing the income. The cost of
doing business is an allowable deduction regardless of whether the income is
earned or unearned. ·
Training and
Rehabilitation allowances—count as earned income any wages paid for
on-the-job training or public service employment, except JTPA earnings of child
applicants/recipients. (See JTPA
earnings for children clients later in this section.) Exclude all
training allowances and incentive payments in Families First Work projects
and JTPA projects. ·
Severance
Pay and Vacation, Sick, Longevity, Bonus Pay, Maternity Leave Pay, and Jury
Duty Pay. -
Severance
pay is counted as earned income. -
Vacation,
sick, longevity, bonus pay, maternity leave pay, and jury duty pay are
counted as earned income when mandatory deductions are made. ·
JTPA
payments to adults and minor caretakers are considered earned income if the
payments are wages or compensation in lieu of wages. ·
Allowances
and Other Benefits under the National and Community Service Trust Act of
1993: This Act establishes the Corporation for National and Community
Service, which administers national community service programs including
AmeriCorps, which provides an individual with an education ward of $4,725 per
year of completed national service.
There are three programs encompassed in AmeriCorps. 1.
AmeriCorps *
USA for participants age 17 and over. 2.
AmeriCorps*
VISTA for participants age 18 and over. 3.
AmeriCorps*
NCCC for participants age 16 to 24. Payments provided to AmeriCorps participants are: ·
Living
Allowance: Treat this stipend as earned income for Families First
participants who were not receiving Families First at the time they joined
AmeriCorps VISTA. Apply the earned
income disregards EXCEPT in the case of VISTA volunteers. This stipend is disregarded for VISTA
volunteers. ·
For a
participant who receives Families First as a dependent child, disregard it in
determining the amount of grant if the child is a full-time student or a
part-time student working less than full-time.) ·
Child Care
Allowances: These allowances paid to participants are disregarded if used to
pay child care. ·
The basic
health insurance policy, child care services, auxiliary aid and services to
disabled participants, and the national service education award are treated
as in-kind benefits, which are disregarded in Tennessee. In addition to these basic AmeriCorps programs, the Corporation for
National and Community Service oversees the following programs: ·
The Senior
Corps for participants over age 55. ·
The Youth
Corps for participants age 14-17. ·
Learn and
Serve for participants in grades K-12. Even though only AmeriCorps participants receive the education award,
some of the other Corporation programs provide “stipend” benefits (living
allowance, child care allowance, in-kind benefits) to participants. There is a summer program lasting 8-12 weeks (known by various names,
such as Summer of Service, Summer of Safety) in which participants in all six
programs are placed in AmeriCorps programs.
These participants are eligible for a $1000 education benefit upon
completion of the service. Reimbursements for normal living expenses such as rent, personal
clothing, and food eaten at home, are a gain or benefit. The amount by which a reimbursement exceeds
the actual incurred expense is counted as earned income. However, reimbursements are not considered
to exceed actual expenses, and the expense amount need not be verified,
unless the provider or the client indicates the reimbursement amount exceeds
the expense. When a reimbursement
covers multiple expenses, individual expenses do not have to be separately
identified if none of the covered expenses are normal living expenses. |
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