§ 43-5-65 — Application of eligibility.

(a) As a condition of eligibility, a needy family applying for Family Independence benefits shall complete an application of eligibility containing a written declaration of information as may be required to establish eligibility and amount of aid. The application shall include blanks, wherein must be stated the names of all children, adults, or minor parents applying for or receiving aid, their birthdates and Social Security numbers; their present place of residence; their income received from employment, the absent parent, governmental social insurance or aid programs, gifts, sale of real or personal property, interest, dividends, or from any other source; and any interest in property, real or personal. Failure to provide this information shall result in a finding of ineligibility of benefits for Family Independence benefits. The department shall provide assistance as needed to complete the application and shall ensure that all applicants or recipients have or promptly apply for and obtain a Social Security number. No assistance may be granted to Family Independence applicants or recipients until a valid Social Security number has been provided to the department for each member of the family for whom aid is sought or when numbers are not available until there is proof that application for the Social Security number has been made. The department shall assist the applicant or recipient in obtaining a Social Security number through procedures adopted in cooperation with the Social Security Administration or the applicant or recipient may apply for a Social Security number at the Social Security Administration office. For purposes of state-funded or Title IV-E Foster Care, the application for the Social Security number must be made by the state or local department. The application for eligibility also shall provide that, as a condition of eligibility for aid, each applicant or recipient shall: (1) Assign to the State any rights to support from any other person the applicant may have in his own behalf or in behalf of any other family member for whom the applicant is applying for or receiving aid and which have accrued at the time the assignment is executed or which may accrue in the future; however, by accepting public assistance for or on behalf of a child or children, or by making application for services under Title IV-D or through placement of a child or children in state-funded foster care or under Title IV-E, except where good cause as determined by the department exists, the recipient or applicant is considered to have made an assignment to the State Department of Social Services of any rights, title, and interest to any support obligation which is owed for the child or children or for the absent parent's spouse or former spouse who is the recipient or the applicant with whom the child is living, if and to the extent that a spousal support obligation has been established and the child support obligation is being enforced pursuant to Title IV-D of the federal Social Security Act. The assignment to the department is considered to have been made up to the amount of public assistance money or foster care board payments paid for or on behalf of the child or children for that period of time as the public assistance monies or foster care board payments are paid. The assignment consists of all rights and interest in any support obligation that the recipient may be owed past, present, or future by any person up to the amount of public assistance money paid to the recipient for or on behalf of the minor child or children or a child in foster care. The department is subrogated to the rights of the child or children or the person having custody of the child or children to collect and receive all support payments. The department has the right to initiate a support action in its own name or in the name of the recipient to recover payments ordered by the courts of this or any other state or to obtain a court order to initiate these payments including an action to determine the paternity of a child. (2) Cooperate with the State in establishing the paternity of a child born out of wedlock with respect to whom aid is claimed and in obtaining support payments for the applicant and for a child with respect to whom the aid is claimed or in obtaining any other payments or property due the applicant of the child and that, if the relative with whom a child is living is found to be ineligible because of failure to comply with the requirements of items (1) and (2), aid for which the child is eligible must be provided in the form of protective payments. The department shall establish criteria in accordance with federal regulations to determine whether action to establish paternity and secure support is not in the best interest of a child. (b) The term "protective payments" shall mean payments with respect to any dependent child which are made to another individual who, as determined in accordance with standards prescribed by the department, is interested in or concerned with the welfare of such child or relative, or are made on behalf of such child or relative directly to a person furnishing food, living accommodations, or other goods, services, or items to or for such child. (c) Prior to determinations of eligibility, the department shall conduct a personal interview with the adult members of the family or with the caretaker relatives of the needy children. (d) The department shall redetermine all elements of eligibility periodically but not less frequently than every twelve months. The department may require the family to complete a new application at the time of each redetermination. (e) If the application is mailed to the family, it must be accompanied by an addressed envelope for its return. In no event may the acts of mailing to the recipient or the recipient's return of a completed application to the department be substituted in lieu of a personal interview. (f) Each adult member of the family shall provide, under penalty of perjury the information necessary to complete the application. The applications used by the department shall contain a statement that the applicant or recipient understands that he has an obligation to report immediately to the department any changes of address, household composition, employment, loss of employment, or any other factor which may affect eligibility and that the declarations in the application are correct and complete to the best of the applicant's or recipient's knowledge or belief and are made under penalty of perjury. The statement shall clearly specify that failure to report changes in circumstances that may affect eligibility and grant amount within ten calendar days of the day on which the change becomes known to the recipient constitutes withholding of information and permits the department to recover any overpayment occasioned or caused by the withholding in accordance with Section 43-5-30. This application must be signed by the applicant or recipient of assistance or any person completing the application for an applicant or recipient unable to do so himself. The person completing the application for an applicant or recipient unable to do so himself must sign a statement attesting to the fact that this section has been explained to the applicant and to the belief that the applicant understands.

Legislative History

HISTORY: 1978 Act No. 549; 1979 Act No. 76 SECTIONS 2, 3; 1982 Act No. 460, SECTION 1; 1985 Act No. 70, eff May 2, 1985; 1986 Act No. 323, SECTION 2, eff February 20, 1986; 1995 Act No. 102, Part VI, SECTION 4, approved June 12, 1995 and takes effect ninety days after receipt of approval of a federal waiver authorizing the department to implement these provisions or ninety days after federal law permits implementation; 1997 Act No. 133, SECTION 7, eff June 11, 1997.