3003-6      GUIDELINES FOR COMPUTING INCOME

A. General Income Rule

The Heating Assistance Program generally uses actual gross countable income received by the household in the month prior to the application being received. Heating Assistance does not prospect income into the future to determine eligibility or the benefit amount. Exceptions to the general income calculation method are described in this section.

B. Categorically Eligible Households

Categorically eligible households are addressed in HAPHeating Assistance Program MS 3002-1(A)(8). If a household is categorically eligible, HAPHeating Assistance Program will determine income eligibility as described in that section.

C. Variable or Irregular Income

If a household member worked a variable work schedule, such as workers who are employed in mining, construction, ferry workers, on-call workers, oil field and service workers, or other workers with rotating schedules, fluctuating payroll schedules, or seasonal lay-offs that do not reflect income on a monthly basis, HAPHeating Assistance Program will calculate their income using a 12-month average of all available income for the previous 12 months from the date they applied.

D. Application-Month Income Exception

If a household is over income based on income from the month prior to receipt of the application, but information available to DPADivision of Public Assistance indicates the household may be income eligible in the application month, the household does not have to reapply. Eligibility may be determined using actual income received in the application month.

If application-month income is used and verification is incomplete, the application must be pended for the information needed to determine the household’s actual application-month income.

E. Countable Household Income

Income from all members in the household, including ineligible aliens, is counted, except earned income from students under the age of 18 who are not the head of household.

All unearned income is counted unless it is specifically listed in HAPHeating Assistance Program MS 3003-2, Non-Countable Income.

F. Notice and Verification Requirements

The notice must include what income was counted, who received the income, the source of income, and the calculation of the income in making the eligibility determination.

If the household’s income is not clearly indicated on the application and cannot be ascertained through other information resources available to HAPHeating Assistance Program, the application should be pended for this information.