Food and Nutrition Services - Admin. Letters

DSS ADMINISTRATIVE LETTER NO. ECONOMIC AND FAMILY SERVICES 2-2010
Temporary Income of 2010 Census Workers (January 6, 2010)

(Food and Nutrition Services)

TO:	County Directors of Social Services
ATTENTION:	Food and Nutrition Services Managers & Supervisors Crisis Intervention Program Managers & Supervisors
SUBJECT:	Temporary Income of 2010 Census Workers
DATE:	January 6, 2010

I. GENERAL INFORMATION

North Carolina has received a waiver from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) to participate in a demonstration project to disregard income from temporary census workers from January 1, 2010 through September 30, 2010 for determining eligibility and benefits for the Food and Nutrition Services (FNS) program. By participating in this demonstration project North Carolina hopes to assist the Census Bureau in recruiting recipients from low-income neighborhoods to gain employment. Additionally, North Carolina believes that encouraging our citizens to work for the census will assist our State in ensuring an accurate census.

In order to promote consistency, the income from temporary census employment also will be disregarded in determining eligibility for the Crisis Intervention Program (CIP). Please note that this exclusion applies to temporary census workers only; permanent census workers’ income will be treated as countable earned income.

Some of the Census jobs are actually through private companies contracted through the Census Bureau. Under the terms of this demonstration project, only income directly from the Census Bureau can be excluded. The state cannot exclude income for FNS applicants/recipients employed by an outside contractor.

The purpose of this letter is to provide instructions to county departments of social services on the treatment of this income in determining and reviewing FNS and CIP eligibility.

II. IMPLEMENTATION INSTRUCTIONS

The instructions and implementation process for the treatment of temporary census income in these programs are as follows.

A. For applicants/recipients who received earnings from temporary 2010 census employment from January 1, 2010, through September 30, 2010, take the following actions.

1. Exclude as income any wages from temporary census employment that is received directly from the Census Bureau during this period.

2. Do not require a recipient to report earnings from census employment. Recipients will not be penalized for failing to report census income from temporary employment received January 1, 2010, through September 30, 2010. This waiver is retroactive to January 1, 2010, and, as counties become aware of any cases which income was not excluded in January 2010, benefits must be supplemented.

B. For applicants/recipients who received income from census employment prior to January 1, 2010, take the following actions.

1. Count as earned income through December 31, 2009.

2. For any pending applications, treat as terminated income by counting actual wages in each month through December 2009.

3. As counties become aware of cases in which income was not excluded, evaluate for supplemental benefits for January 2010 and any subsequent months.

C. Instructions will be issued at a later date for applicants/recipients who receive income from temporary census employment after September 30, 2010

If you have any questions regarding this information, please contact the Economic and Family Services Help Desk at 919-334-1100 or by email at DSS.EFSHD@dhhs.nc.gov.

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Sincerely,



Dean Simpson, Chief
Economic and Family Services Section

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