California Supreme Court says child support counts toward welfare income limit
In a setback for families on welfare, the state Supreme Court ruled Monday that their application for benefits must include income that one parent is required to pay to support a child who lives outside the home.
Lawyers for a San Mateo County household argued to the court that it was unfair to consider the child-support funds as income “reasonably anticipated to be received” by the family — the law’s definition of income — because it was automatically deducted from the husband’s paychecks and unemployment benefits to support three children living elsewhere.
But the court unanimously upheld regulations of the state Department of Social Services, in effect since 1997, that count such payments as income to determine eligibility for the benefits program known as CalWORKS.
Previously, the department had discounted income earmarked for out-of-home child support in calculating welfare eligibility. That changed after Congress passed, and President Bill Clinton signed, a 1996 law that required states receiving federal funds to include work requirements in their welfare programs, along with limits on the duration of payments.
https://www.sfchronicle.com/news/article/California-Supreme-Court-says-child-support-14080581.php
= new reply since forum marked as read
