07/26/2024
Policy Memo
Summary
- Illinois Public Act 102-1115 directs Healthcare and Family Services (HFS), Child Support Services (CSS), to pass through to the family all child support payments collected.
- Beginning 07/01/2024, CSS will begin redirecting all child support payments collected to the families.
- The Act also directs the Illinois Department of Human Services (IDHS) to consider child support paid to the family as exempt unearned income for the TANF program.
- Changes were implemented in IES in January 2024 to exempt all child support payments entered for an individual when determining TANF eligibility and/or benefit amount.
- This change does not affect SNAP. Child support, including pass through payments, continues to be considered non-exempt unearned income when determining eligibility.
- Further information will be published in a forthcoming Manual Release.
Illinois Public Act 102-1115 was signed 01/01/2023 with an implementation date of 07/01/2024. The Act directs both:
- HFS/CSS to pass through to the family all child support payments, whether they be current, past or future support due to the family, and
- IDHS/FCS to disregard all child support payments when determining eligibility and payment amount for the TANF program.
All child support paid and/or passed through to the family is considered exempt unearned income for both the eligibility determination and benefit amount calculation for the TANF program.
This change in income does not affect SNAP. Child support, including pass through payments, remain non-exempt unearned income for the SNAP household. See PM 08-04-04-g: Contributions and PM 08-04-04-h: Child Support Pass Through Payments for further details.
The current pass through payment of $100 or $200 will continue to be sent out using the pass through interface via IES. Any child support received by CSS in a month which exceeds the pass through amount will be sent via the Illinois Comptroller the following month via the Excess batch process in KIDS.
FCRC Responsibilities
FCRC staff should continue to enter excess child support payments received for households upon receipt of HFS 1967, Excess Child Support, via Mobius using the instructions included below in the IES section of this memo.
Child support payments should continue to be entered as unearned income for the minor child included in the TANF household for whom the support is paid, under the designated child's RIN in IES; this process has not changed.
- If the minor child is no longer in the household and/or on the TANF EDG, the payments received should be budgeted under the adult receiving the payments using the IES process below until further policy guidance.
Child support, including pass through payments, continues to budget toward SNAP eligibility.
IES Changes
Beginning January 2024, changes were implemented in IES to stop child support payments from budgeting toward the TANF eligibility determination and benefit calculation.
Due to this change, IES treats all child support payments budgeted as pass throughs after 12/31/2023 as exempt unearned income for the TANF program. This can be verified by viewing the budget calculation for a specific TANF EDG on the Eligibility Summary screen in IES.
Excess child support payments sent via the Comptroller, and the FCRC notified via Mobius, should be budgeted in the same manner with the exception of the Unearned Income Type dropdown on the Unearned Income - Details screen in IES. All child support payments received whether pass through or excess (both past and current) should be budgeted as pass through payments until further policy guidance.
- Unearned Income - Details screen
- Unearned Income Document Type = Pass Thru Payment
Note: The Child Support/Monetary Gifts selection in the dropdown should not be utilized to budget child support payments identified outside of the pass through batch until further guidance from policy.
[signed copy on file]
Dulce M. Quintero
Secretary Designate, Illinois Department of Human Services
