37.49.405    IV-E FOSTER CARE ELIGIBILITY: TREATMENT OF INCOME

(1) All available income of any required member of the filing unit is counted in determining IV-E eligibility, unless a specific provision elsewhere in this chapter provides that the income will be excluded, disregarded, or otherwise not counted.

(2) Income averaging may be used to determine monthly income if:

(a) income information is obtained for an annual or quarterly period of time. In such cases, the monthly income is calculated by dividing the total amount of income by the number of months the payment or payments are intended to cover; or

(b) income fluctuates significantly from month to month. An example would be an employee paid an hourly wage whose hours worked vary from month to month.

(3) Income tax refunds are not considered as either earned or unearned income but are considered a resource to the filing unit.

History: Sec. 53-2-201 and 53-6-113, MCA; IMP, Sec. 53-2-201 and 53-6-131, MCA; NEW, 1999 MAR p. 1514, Eff. 7/2/99; AMD, 2003 MAR p. 1196, Eff. 6/13/03.