44TH LEGISLATURE - STATE OF NEW MEXICO - FIRST SESSION, 1999

RELATING TO PUBLIC ASSISTANCE; CLARIFYING CERTAIN DEFINITIONS OF THE NEW MEXICO WORKS ACT; AMENDING THE ELIGIBILITY DETERMINATION OF THE NEW MEXICO WORKS ACT TO CLARIFY THE CHILD SUPPORT PASS THROUGH.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF NEW MEXICO:

Section 1. Section 27-2B-3 NMSA 1978 (being Laws 1998, Chapter 8, Section 3 and Laws 1998, Chapter 9, Section 3) is amended to read:

"27-2B-3. DEFINITIONS.--As used in the New Mexico Works Act:

A. "benefit group" means a group of people that includes at least one dependent child living with [a] his parent, legal guardian or relative within the fifth degree of consanguinity; or a pregnant woman;

B. "cash assistance" means cash payments funded by the temporary assistance for needy families block grant pursuant to the federal act and by state funds;

C. "department" means the human services department;

D. "dependent child" means a natural or adopted child or ward who is eighteen years of age or younger;

E. "director" means the director of the income support division of the department;

F. "earned income" includes cash or payment in kind that is received as wages from employment or payment in lieu of wages; earnings from self-employment or earnings acquired from the direct provision of services, goods or property, production of goods, management of property or supervision of services [and all other income not classified as unearned income];

G. "federal act" means the federal Social Security Act and rules promulgated pursuant to the Social Security Act;

H. "federal poverty guidelines" means the level of income defining poverty by family size published annually in the federal register by the United States department of health and human services;

I. "household group" means a group [including the benefit group] of people [who live together] that consists of a benefit group and any other person who resides in a household, regardless of whether they are related or have a legal support responsibility for a member of the benefit group, but does not include:

(1) landlords;

(2) tenants; or

(3) members of a registered nonprofit organization or church who provide shelter to a benefit group through a program sponsored by the nonprofit organization or church;

J. "immigrant" means alien as defined in the federal act;

K. "landlord" means the owner of an estate in land or a rental property who has leased it to another person called the tenant;

L. "parent" means natural parent, adoptive parent, stepparent or legal guardian;

M. "participant" means a recipient of cash assistance or services or a member of a benefit group who has reached the age of majority;

N. "person" means an individual;

O. "secretary" means the secretary of the department;

P. "services" includes child-care assistance; payment for employment-related transportation costs; job search assistance; employment counseling; employment, education and job training placement; one-time payment for necessary employment-related costs; case management; or other activities whose purpose is to assist transition into employment;

Q. "tenant" means a person who pays rent for the use and occupancy of real property owned by a landlord; and

R. "unearned income" includes old age, survivors and disability insurance; railroad retirement benefits; veterans administration compensation or pension; military retirement; pensions, annuities and retirement benefits; lodge or fraternal benefits; shared shelter payments; settlement payments; individual Indian money; and similar kinds of income."

Section 2. Section 27-2B-7 NMSA 1978 (being Laws 1998, Chapter 8, Section 7 and Laws 1998, Chapter 9, Section 7) is amended to read:

"27-2B-7. FINANCIAL STANDARD OF NEED.--

A. The secretary shall adopt a financial standard of need based upon the availability of federal and state funds and based upon appropriations by the legislature of the available federal temporary assistance for needy families grant made pursuant to the federal act in the following categories:

(1) cash assistance;

(2) child-care services;

(3) other services; and

(4) administrative costs.

The legislature shall determine the actual percentage of each category to be used annually of the federal temporary assistance for needy families grant made pursuant to the federal act.

B. The cash benefit level for a benefit group not living in government-subsidized housing or receiving government-subsidized housing payments shall be increased by one hundred dollars ($100) per month.

C. The following income sources are exempt from the gross income test, the net income test and the cash payment calculation:

(1) medicaid;

(2) food stamps;

(3) government-subsidized foster care and adoption payments;

(4) supplemental security income;

(5) government-subsidized housing or housing payments;

(6) federally excluded income;

(7) educational payments made directly to an educational institution;

(8) government-subsidized child care;

(9) earned and unearned income that belongs to a person eighteen years of age or younger who is not the head of household;

(10) for the first two years of receiving cash assistance or services, if a participant works over the work requirement rate set by the department pursuant to the New Mexico Works Act, one hundred percent of the income earned by the participant beyond that rate;

(11) for the first two years of receiving cash assistance or services, for a two-parent benefit group in which one parent works over thirty-five hours per week and the other works over twenty-four hours per week, one hundred percent of income earned by each participant beyond the work requirement rate set by the department;

(12) fifty dollars ($50.00) of collected child support passed through to the participant by the department's child support enforcement program;

[(12)] (13) unearned income that belongs to the household group but not to the benefit group; and

[(13)] (14)  other income sources as determined by the department.

D. Earned income over one hundred thirty percent of the federal poverty guidelines that belongs to the household group but not to the benefit group is countable income. The department shall count the entire household group to determine family size when applying the federal poverty guidelines.

E. The department shall count the entire household group to determine family size when applying the financial standard of need. For a benefit group to be eligible to participate:

(1) gross countable earned income that belongs to the household group but not to the benefit group must not exceed one hundred eighty-five percent of the financial standard of need; and

(2) net countable earned income that belongs to the household group must not equal or exceed the financial standard of need after applying the disregards set out in Paragraphs (1) through [(5)] (4) of Subsection F of this section.

F. Subject to the availability of state and federal funds, the department shall determine the cash payment of the benefit group by applying the following disregards to the benefit group's earned gross income and then subtracting that amount from the financial standard of need:

(1) one hundred fifty dollars ($150) of monthly earned income and one-half of the remainder, or for a two-parent family, two hundred fifty dollars ($250) of monthly earned income and one-half of the remainder for each parent;

(2) monthly payments made for child care at a maximum of two hundred dollars ($200) for a child under two years of age and at a maximum of one hundred seventy-five dollars ($175) for a child two years of age or older;

(3) costs of self-employment income; and

(4) business expenses [and

(5) fifty dollars ($50.00) of collected child support passed through to the participant by the department's child support enforcement program and then subtracting that amount from the financial standard of need].

G. The department may recover overpayments of cash assistance on a monthly basis not to exceed fifteen percent of the financial standard of need applicable to the benefit group."