Child Care – Diverting Income 

In this video, you will learn how and when to divert income for child care and how to code the income diversion. 
Diverting income for child care ensures the correct copayment is applied. When other benefits are issuing on the case, the diverted income only affects child care. 
Child care considers income from a new source differently than other programs. While other programs use actual or anticipated income, new income for child care is not considered until the applicant has received at least one full check in hand from the new source. 
Income from a new source is only considered in the application month if the first full check is received on or before the date of application 
For example:
Mary received her first full check on February 6th but didn’t apply for child care until February 11th. This income would not be diverted because she received at least one full check on or before the date of application.
Once you have determined if the income will be considered in the application month you must then determine if the income will be considered the following month.
Income from a new source is not considered until a full check has been received on or before the first day of the month.   
For example:
 Mary applied for child care on February 11th. She just started a new job and will receive a partial check on February 20th, but won’t receive her first full check until March 6th.   Because this income is from a new source and her first full check was not received on or before March 1st this income must be diverted for both February and March. 
However, if Mary had received her first full check on February 27th, meaning she would have received her first full check on or before March 1st, the income would be diverted for February only.
Remember, diverted income is only used for new sources of income.  When a client returns to his or her job after a leave of absence, the income source is not considered new.
Our system does not automatically remove diverted income, so you must set a reminder to do this manually. Failure to remove the diverted income for the appropriate month will result in an error.
Now let’s walk through a final example of diverting income and how we would enter this information in the computer: 
Rose Howard applied for child care on January 16th . She recently started a new job and is paid bi-weekly, she will receive her first partial check of $390 on January 23rd.  Ms. Howard will receive her first full check of $837 on February 6th which equals an anticipated monthly income of $1800.  Since the income is from a new source, and Ms. Howard did not receive a full check before her application date, the income will not be considered for January and must be diverted. Also, while the check received on February 6th is for a full period; it was not received on or before the first of the month.  Therefore, the income must remain diverted for February. Prior to negative action deadline in February, the diverted income must be removed effective March 1st.  
To code Ms. Howard’s example in FACS, we will take the following steps:
Go to the Interview notebook and enter all required information in the case info, intake, household, income, deprivation, child care, expenses, and Social Services tabs.  
Now we will click on the Eligibility Notebook icon on the FACS toolbar, and click on the child care tab to enter Ms. Howard’s information.
 
➢ The “Application Source” field has two entry choices.  When the client applies at a local county office? you will select “county office” The OKDHS Live code is automatically entered by the computer when the client applies for benefits online.
➢ In the “Action Taken” field click on the drop-down menu and choose “Opened”. 
➢ The “Reason for Denial or Closure” field requires no entry for an “open” action.
➢ The “Request Date” field will already be coded;
➢ The “Certification Date” is the date all needed verification has been provided and the interview is completed. In our example, we will enter 01-16-2015.
➢ For an open action, the “effective date” field will already be coded.
➢ In the “Date of last review” field, enter the child care certification date which in this example is  01-16-2015.  

However, If the client receives other benefits on the case, the child care date of last review field will need to be synchronized with the other programs so that all benefit reviews are done at the same time. 
➢ In the “Effective Months” field enter 99.  
➢ In the “number of children receiving child care” field, enter the appropriate number of children. In Rose Howards’ example we will enter “1”.
➢ In the “Total Diverted Income” field enter the amount of income to be excluded from the co-payment calculation. In this example we will enter Ms. Howard’s gross anticipated income of $1800.  
➢ The “court ordered child care” field only needs an entry if the absent parent is court ordered and paying a portion of the child care cost.
➢ The “child support” field only needs an entry if the household pays court ordered child support for a child who is not living in the home. 
➢ No other entries are necessary. 

Next, go to the Auth. Daycare tab and enter all required information. 

Once this is completed save the case by clicking on the Save the Case icon on the FACS toolbar and check for edits.  Once there are no edits, we will go to a blank screen in IMS and type “GE” space case number and hit enter.  The GE screen “section detail status” has an “O” for open, the diverted income is $1800 and the DC co-pay amount is zero. 

Now that we know the case is correct, the case can be supervisory reviewed  
Once this has been done, we will need to click on the Eligibility Notebook icon on the FACS toolbar, and click on the child care tab to remove the diverted income so it will be considered in the co-payment calculation for March.
➢ In the “Action Taken” field Click on the drop-down menu and choose “Change of Information only”. 
➢ In the “effective date” field, enter 03-01-15.  This is the first month in which income from the new job can be counted for Ms. Howard.
➢ In the “Total Diverted Income” field, delete the $1800.
  
We are now ready to save the case by clicking on the Save the Case icon on the FACS toolbar and check for edits.  Once there are no edits, we will go to a blank screen in IMS and type “GE” space case number and hit the enter key. The GE screen “section detail status” has an “O” for open, the diverted income is $0 and the co-pay amount is $146.  Now that know that the diverted income has been removed, the case can be supervisory reviewed.   
In this video you have learned how and when to divert income for child care and how to code the income diversion.  We hope it was helpful.  This video was presented by the MET Unit and approved by the Training Unit and the Child Care Subsidy Unit.