Virginia Administrative Code › Title 22 - SOCIAL SERVICES › Agency 40 - DEPARTMENT OF SOCIAL SERVICES › Chapter 295 - TEMPORARY ASSISTANCE FOR NEEDY FAMILIES (TANF) › Section 22VAC40-295-10 - Definitions

Current through Register Vol. 40, No. 24, July 15, 2024
The following words and terms when used in this chapter
				  shall have the following meanings unless the context clearly indicates
				  otherwise:
"Administrative disqualification hearing" or "ADH" means an
				  impartial review by a hearing officer of an individual's actions involving an
				  alleged intentional program violation for the purpose of rendering a decision
				  of guilty or not guilty of committing an intentional program violation.
"Adoption assistance" means a money payment or services
				  provided to adoptive parents on behalf of a child with special needs.
"Affordable child care arrangements" means the cost of the
				  child care is less than or equal to the payment amounts specified in the
				  Virginia Department of Social Services Child Care Services policy (Volume VII,
				  Section II, Chapter D, Revised February 2000).
"Application" means a request for financial assistance
				  received by the local social services agency in the format prescribed by the
				  Virginia Department of Social Services.
"Appropriate child care" means child care arranged by the
				  participant or, if the participant cannot arrange for the child's care, child
				  care arranged by the local department of social services with a
				  legally-operating provider.
"Assistance unit" means those persons who must participate
				  together as a family unit.
"Board" means the State Board of Social Services.
"Caretaker" means the natural or adoptive parent or other
				  relative with whom the child resides who is responsible for supervision and
				  care of the needy child and is the individual to whom the assistance payment is
				  made.
"Child" means a child who is eligible for TANF and has not
				  attained the age of 18 years, or if regularly attending a secondary school or
				  in the equivalent level of career and technical education, has not attained the
				  age of 19 years and is reasonably expected to complete his senior year of
				  school prior to attaining age 19.
"Department" means the Virginia Department of Social
				  Services.
"Dependent child" means a child living in the home of a
				  parent or relative.
"Determination of eligibility" means the screening procedure
				  to determine the need for assistance and the amount of the monthly assistance
				  payment.
"Disregard" means income that is not considered when
				  determining eligibility for the TANF program.
"Earned income" means income from wages, salary,
				  commissions, or profit from activities in which an individual is engaged as
				  self-employed.
"Emancipated child" means a minor who has been released from
				  parental care and responsibility by court order.
"Former recipient" means an individual whose case has been
				  closed and is not presently receiving an assistance payment through
				  TANF.
"Gross earned and unearned income" means total income before
				  application of any applicable disregards.
"Hearing officer" means an impartial representative of the
				  Department of Social Services to whom requests for hearings are assigned and by
				  whom they are heard. The hearing officer has been delegated the authority by
				  the Commissioner of the Department of Social Services to conduct and control
				  hearings and to render decisions.
"Income" means all income, both earned and unearned, which
				  is available or expected to be available to the assistance unit.
"Intentional program violation" or "IPV" means any action by
				  an individual for the purpose of establishing or maintaining the family's
				  eligibility for TANF or TANF service or for increasing or preventing a
				  reduction in the amount of the grant which is intentionally a false or
				  misleading statement or misrepresentation, concealment or withholding of facts
				  or any act intended to mislead, misrepresent, conceal or withhold facts or
				  propound a falsity.
"Local agency" means any one of the local departments of
				  social services.
"Lump sum" means money received in the form of a
				  nonrecurring payment that is treated as income in the month of receipt.
"Minor" means any person who is under the age of 18.
"Otherwise eligible" means that the individual is not
				  precluded from eligibility by some provision of law or regulation.
"Overpayment" means an assistance payment or the value of
				  services provided by a local department of social services that is greater than
				  the amount to which the assistance unit is eligible to receive.
"Parent" means a mother or father, married or unmarried,
				  natural or, following entry of an interlocutory order, adoptive.
"Payee" means the person to whom the assistance payment is
				  made payable. In most situations, the caretaker is the payee.
"Protective payee" means an appropriate individual to act
				  for the caretaker in receiving and managing the assistance payment. The
				  protective payee should be someone who is interested and concerned with the
				  welfare of the caretaker and his children.
"Reasonable distance" means that the travel time from the
				  child's home to the child care provider and the work site is generally no more
				  than one hour, based on transportation available to the parent.
"Recipient" means a person whose application for TANF or
				  TANF-UP has been approved and is currently a member of an eligible assistance
				  unit.
"Recoupment" means withholding all or part of an assistance
				  payment to a current assistance unit for the purpose of repaying a prior
				  overpayment.
"Recovery" means a voluntary or court ordered arrangement
				  with a current or former assistance unit for repayment of an
				  overpayment.
"Sanctioned caretaker" means a caretaker whose needs are
				  removed from the grant and who is ineligible for an assistance payment.
"SSN" means social security number.
"Standard of assistance" means the dollar amount, based on
				  the family size, which has been established by the State Board of Social
				  Services to cover predetermined monthly maintenance needs.
"Temporary Assistance for Needy Families" or "TANF" means
				  the program administered by the Virginia Department of Social Services, through
				  which a relative can receive monthly cash assistance for the support of his
				  eligible children.
"Unearned income" means income that is not earned.
"Unsuitability of informal child care" means that the child
				  care arrangement does not meet the requirements for relative care in the
				  Virginia Department of Social Services Child Day Care Services
				  policy.
Statutory Authority
§ 63.2-217 of the Code of Virginia.