TANF version 31.0The Urban Institute TRIM3 Reference Contact Us Version History Dictionary
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TANF version 31.0 The Urban Institute TRIM3 Reference Contact Us Version History Dictionary |
The TANF module simulates the operation of the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program. This program provides cash welfare payments to needy children (and their parents or other caretaker relatives) who have been deprived of parental support or care because (1) a parent is incapacitated, absent, or deceased, or (2) the principal earner in a two-parent family is unemployed. The rules for eligibility and benefits vary by state, and TRIM3 captures that variation. Eligibility and benefits are calculated for each month. As in the actual program, if a family's income varies from month to month, so will their eligibility and/or benefits.
Some aspects of the TANF program are not generally captured by the simulation. For example, the presence of a stepparent or a pregnancy in a unit usually cannot be determined. Therefore, a stepparent family will usually be treated as any other 2-parent family, and there will be no units eligible on the basis of pregnancy only. Also, the model does not simulate benefits paid for foster children.
Some states are funding the benefits of certain types of units (such as two-parent units) entirely through state funds rather than TANF grant funds. Because eligibility and benefits for these units are still the same as under TANF, TRIM3 baseline simulations of TANF count benefits for these units as TANF.
The following discussion documents the operation of the TANF module, as follows:
In TRIM3, the basic filing unit for the TANF program is the family, with subfamilies separate (click here for details regarding family definitions). Since data on family composition is only available on an annual basis, the model assumes that family composition is constant from month to month. If data on family composition were available on a monthly basis, there might be some months in which a person was not in the household, which could affect a family’s eligibility and benefits.
In every every TANF filing unit, one adult is selected to be the unit head. TRIM3 considers the head of the unit to be the parent (or caretaker) who is the "principal earner". TRIM3 assumes the parent/caretaker with the greatest number of months in the labor force is the "principal earner". The other parent/caretaker (if any) is considered the spouse. If both persons have the same number of months in the labor force, the male is considered to be the head.
In some states, the TANF program treats certain types of adults -- step parents, unmarried parents, and non-parent partners -- differently than others. Usually, TRIM3 does not model such rules since the CPS-based input data does not reliably report the presence of such persons. However, if supplemental data is available to link children with their parents (thus providing information on the presence of these types of adults), the basic filing unit definition can be adjusted accordingly. The rules in the subcategory Parents indicate whether such supplemental data is available and if so, how such persons are treated.
TANF is designed to aid "...children (and their parents or other caretaker relatives) who have been deprived of parental support or care because (1) a parent is incapacitated, absent, or deceased, or (2) the principal earner in a two-parent family is unemployed." To determine if a family meets these qualifications (i.e. to determine if the family is categorically eligible) and which unit members are eligible to be aided, TRIM3 performs the following steps:
The program rules in the subcategories Citizenship Variables and Citizenship Tests determine whether or not non-citizens will be eligible to receive TANF. Persons found to be ineligible for benefits because of their citizenship status are excluded from the unit. More details on the general process of identifying non-citizens and determining their eligibility are available here. TANF modifies this process slightly by applying different rules to post-refrom immigrants who are no longer subject to the federal "bar" on eligibility (see the rules LegalAlienEligiblePostBar and SponsorDeemingYearsPostBar).
If a family contains eligible children, the next step is to determine whether the head and/or spouse is excluded from the unit. TRIM3 simulates the rule that any head or spouse who receives SSI is excluded. It does not simulate program provisions (in place in various years in some or all states) that withhold benefits from adults who are on strike, who are being sanctioned due to failure to comply with work registration or other work activities, or who are excluded due to being drug felons.
If a unit contains only "other related" children (as opposed to "own" children), the unit head and/or spouse (a non-parent...usually a grandparent, aunt, or uncle) must often meet additional criteria in order to be included in the unit. Actual rules vary by state and by year. Whether or not a particular non-parent caretaker is included in the unit may depend on his/her preferences, income, employability, age, and/or disability status. TRIM3 does not model state or temporal variation in these rules. Instead, an estimate is made as to whether including the caretaker in the unit will make the unit worse off. If including the caretaker makes the unit worse off, TRIM3 excludes him or her from the unit. When there are two caretakers, the spouse is always excluded (although the spouse's income is still considered to be available to the head).
A different approach is used if the total income of the caretakers exceeds the percent-of-poverty specified by the rule CareTakerHighIncomeThreshhold. That income level is used as a proxy for the children having some income or assets in their own name (a proxy must be used since the CPS does not report income or assets for children under age 15). If the caretaker’s income exceeds CareTakerHighIncomeThreshold percentage of poverty, the model includes the caretaker in the unit for eligibility testing purposes; this generally means that the unit (including the children) will be found to be ineligible.
In order for a unit to be fully categorically eligible, the children in the unit must be deprived of parental support or care. Children in a single-parent unit, or in a unit headed by non-parent caretakers, are always considered to be deprived of parental support. These units are classified as "basic" TANF units.
Children in two-parent units (i.e. units that can not be classified as "basic") are considered to be deprived of parental support if their parents meet either of the following conditions (note that both parents are considered, even if one or both of them are ineligible):
These units are classified as "Incapacitated Parent" (IP) units. States generally define incapacity as an impairment that eliminates or substantially reduces a parent's ability to support a child, based on medical testimony. Many states accept eligibility for disability benefits under other programs as proof of disability for TANF purposes. TRIM3 considers as incapacitated anyone who is aged (65 or older) or disabled.
These units are classified as "Unemployed Parent" (UP) units. Not all states cover such families -- only those with a non-zero value for the rule MandatoryMonthsUPCopverage have some kind of UP program. The value of MandatoryMonthsUPCoverage specifies the maximum number of months a unit can receive benefits as a UP unit in any 12-month period (a value of 12 effectively simulates no time limit). This allows the model to simulate time-limited UP programs, even when there are no time limits being placed on non-UP units.
Among states that have a UP program, the specific eligibility requirements vary. TRIM3 rules can be used to simulate many combinations of UP eligibility requirements: from the most restrictive case including time limits, a requirement that principal earners be in the labor force, and a maximum number of hours per month; to the least restrictive case where there are no special eligibility rules for 2-parent families. TRIM3 does not model rules that impose a special waiting period on UP units, that impose a work history test on the principal earner, or that deny UP eligibility to strikers.
In TRIM3, any unit with an unemployed head is eligible for their state's UP program. If the head is not unemployed, the unit can still be eligible in the following conditions:
A unit that is categorically eligible can be classified in various ways. The TANF program often treat units in some categories differently from units in other categories. We have already discussed the initial classification of units into Basic, IP, and UP. This section presents some other classifications that are significant.
"Basic" units are divided into "Earner" and "Non-Earner" units. A unit is considered to be an "earner" unit in any month that an eligible head and/or spouse is an earner. In all other months the unit is considered to be a "non-earner". Note that units can be "earners" one month and "non-earners" in another month. Also, note that if a head or spouse is an earner but is not an eligible member of the unit, their earner status does not make the unit an earner unit.
TRIM3 determines the applicant/recipiency status of a unit by checking whether the unit was simulated to receive TANF benefits in the previous month. If so, the unit is considered a recipient, otherwise an applicant.
Units headed by unmarried teenaged mothers may be subject to residency requirements. Under these rules, an unmarried teenaged mother who is not living with her parents may be ineligible, unless she receives an exemption. See the state-specific program rules MinimumEligibleAge and TeenMomOption for details.
When the head and spouse (either parents or non-parent caretakers) are excluded from the unit, the unit is considered to be a "child-only" unit. In TRIM3, child-only units may result from any of the following conditions:
Some states "cap" the number of otherwise-eligible children who can be aided in a TANF unit. While "capped" children are sometimes treated differently than other children in the various eligibility tests, the primary impact of "capping" is on the benefits calculated for the unit. Generally, "capping" involves limiting the number of otherwise-eligible children who are permitted to receive benefits to just those who were in the family when the unit first applied for TANF. Children born after the initial application are not aided (i.e. the unit’s benefits are not increased to account for the larger family size).
The rules FamCapPctToDropFromUP and FamCapPctToDropFromNonUP indicate whether to model a family cap in each state. TRIM determines whether a child should be "dropped" (i.e. excluded from receiving benefits) on a probabilistic basis. A child has a possibility of being "capped" if s/he was born after the implementation of family caps in his/her state (specified through the program rule FamCapMaxAgeToDrop) and if s/he is not the oldest child in the unit. The probabilities that are applied are calculated from program data and are intended to "cap" the correct percentage of children in each state.
States may limit the length of time a unit can receive TANF benefits, and may also require that the adult members of the unit meet certain work-related requirements. However, states may exempt units from either or both of these requirements. TRIM3 models time limits (see the Time Limits section under "Benefits") but due to lack of sufficiently detailed information on the CPS, work requirements are not modelled. Never-the-less, TRIM3 models exemptions from both time limits and work requirements, because some states treat units differently depending upon whether or not they are exempt from work requirements and/or time limits. The Exemption group of rules defines who is exempt from work requirements and/or time limits, according to each state’s definition of "exempt." Each rule in this group has 2 values for each state: one value to apply when determining exemption from work requirements, and a separate value to apply when determining exemption from time limits. A unit may be exempt from work requirements but not the time limit, or vice versa, or exempt from both, or from neither. For details about how exemption status is determined, click here.
The information in the TRIM3 database concerning exemptions should not be used to compare rules across states or across years without a complete understanding of each state’s rules. For instance, an apparent change in policy concerning exemptions from work activities may not be a true change in policy, if there was a concurrent change in the work activities required of different types of individuals (which is not captured by the model.)
If a unit is determined to be categorically eligible, an assets test is performed. TRIM computes the value of two kinds of assets - financial assets and non-exempt vehicle value - for each unit. The combined total of these two measures is then compared to a state-specific maximum amount. The unit is ineligible if the total value of its assets exceeds the maximum allowable by the state.
Because actual financial asset values are generally not available on the CPS, the value of these assets is inferred based on the unit's asset income (specified by the program rules AssetIncome and AssetIncomeReporterUnits), and an assumed rate of return specified by the program rule AssetRate. For example, if a unit has monthly asset income of $120, and the assumed asset rate is 6%, the unit would be inferred to have financial assets of ($120*12)/ 0.06, or $24,000. Note that the income amount must be annualized (by multiplying it by 12) since the assumed rate is an annual rate.
Some or all of the value of the vehicle(s) owned by a unit may be counted towards the unit's assets maximum. While information on the value of vehicles is not available on standard CPS-based input files, TRIM has the capability to simulate the correct treatment of vehicle values if the information is available. (This could be the case if vehicle value was imputed to a CPS-based file, or if TRIM was run on an input file based on a survey that does ask about vehicle values. Also, when TRIM is run as a "calculator" for hypothetical families, users provide vehicle values for those hypothetical families.)
When vehicle value is available, it is specified via the variable-list rule VehicleValue. A portion of the total value may be exempted; only the remainder (i.e. the "non-exempt" value) is counted towards the unit's total assets. The various methods available for exempting vehicle value for each state is specified by the rule group Vehicle Exemption Rules. Click here for details and examples...
The total value of a unit's assets (financial and vehicle) must not exceed the maximum specified by the state. The maximum amount of assets a unit may have can vary depending upon whether the unit is already on TANF or is a new applicant. These amounts are specified in the state-specific program rules MaximumAssetValueForApplicants and MaximumAssetValueForRecipients. Certain state-level variations on the asset test (other than variations that can be captured with the exisitng rules) are specified in the state-specific program rules AssetsTestOption and AssetsTestOption2. Consult the descriptions of each potential value of AssetsTestOption (in the TRIM3 dictionary) to determine exactly which variations can be modeled.
Depending upon it's source, income is classified as either earned or unearned. The program rule EarnedIncome lists those income types that are considered "earned", while UnearnedIncome lists those that are considered "unearned". In certain circumstance, the user may wish to apply income smoothing to earned income. Between them, the rules EarnedIncome and UnarnedIncomedefine the total income of the unit. Depending upon the purpose for which income is being calculated, various adjustments are made to this basic concept of income.
A deduction for child care expenses may be taken from a unit's earned income. The variable(s)
containing child care expenses are specified by the program rule
ChildCareExpenses, while the amount of child care expenses that can be deducted in each
state is specified by the rule ChildCareExpensesCap (the amount specified by this rule
is reduced if there are no full-time workers in the unit). The rule
ChildCareExpDedUsedFor indicates (for each state) when this deduction is to be applied.
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A deduction for work-related expenses may sometimes be taken from a unit's earned income. Since the CPS-TRIM input data does not contain information on work-related expenses, TRIM3 makes the simplifying assumption that all units with earnings have work-related expenses and that these expenses are high enough to allow maximum usage of the state's work expense deduction. The rule WorkExpenseDeduction indicates (for each state) when the work expense deduction may be applied, while the rule WorkExpenseDeductionFormula describes how each state's deduction is applied. Often, the description refers to a "fixed" amount and/or a "fractional" or "percentage" amount. The former amount is given by the rules WorkExpenseDedAppFixed and WorkExpenseDedRecipFixed and the latter by WorkExpenseDedAppFraction and WorkExpenseDedRecipFraction (two rules are required for each amount becuase the amounts sometimes vary depending upon the applicant/recipient status of the unit).
Often, rather than being used to model work expense deductions, the work expense deduction rules are used in conjunction with the earnings disregard rules to model those portions of the earnings disregard that are not captured those rules.
Often, states allow units to disregard a portion of their earnings when computing their income. The rule EarningsDisregardUsedFor indicates (for each state) when an earnings disregard may be applied, while the rule EarningsDisregardFormula describes how each state's disregard is applied. Most of the formulas refer to values given by the remaining earnings disregard rules -- those that control how the "fixed" portion of the formula is applied (EarningsDisregardFixed, EarningsDisregardFixed2, MonthsFixedIsAllowed), and those that control how the "fractional" or "percentage" portion of the formula is applied (EarningsDisregardFraction, EarningsDisregardFraction2, MonthsFractionIsAllowed). Some formulas also refer to New Earner Disregards and/or January high-earners.
The program rules in the group Earnings Disregard were originally designed to model all of the various types of disrgards used by the states. However, with time the variety of disregards implemented by states has grown, so that by itself this group of rules is unable to model the complete range of TANF earnings disregards. Consequently, the work expense deduction rules are generally used in conjunction with the original earnings disregard rules to model TANF earnings disregards.
Child support income is specified through the rule ChildSupportIncomeOfChild, which is usually set to MonthlyChildSupportIncomeOfChild. MonthlyChildSupportIncomeOfChild is produced by the Child Support module and contains the amount of child support income collected on behalf of the child. The variable specified for ChildSupportIncomeOfChild should also be specified for UnearnedIncome and UnearnedIncomeAlternative.
States may choose to disregard some or all of a family’s child support income when determining eligibility. The amount to be disregarded is specified through ChildSupportDisregard_Eligibility and ChildSupportDisregard_Eligibility2.
States have several options concerning treatment of child support income in the benefit calculation. The state may choose to retain some or all of the child support collected on behalf of families receiving TANF in order to offset the costs of providing TANF benefits. If a state decides to transfer some or all of the child support to the family, then the state must decide whether to disregard some, all, or none of the transferred child support when calculating the family’s benefits. The amount of child support transferred to the family is specified through ChildSupportTransferToFamily and ChildSupportTransferToFamily2. The amount of the transferred child support that is disregarded when calculating the family’s benefit is specified through ChildSupportDisregard_Benefit and ChildSupportDisregard_Benefit2. Child support that is retained by the government is not counted when calculating the family’s benefit. TRIM3 makes the simplifying assumption that retention of child support begins in the first month of TANF participation (although in reality, in may take one or more months for government retention to begin).
In some cases, the child support income of children who have been capped is treated differently than the child support of non-capped children. Click here for details.
Sometimes, income from persons not in the unit is considered to be part of the unit's income. This income is said to be "deemed" to the unit, and is considered as part of the unit's unearned income. In TRIM3, income can be deemed from the following types of people when they are not part of the unit:
To be eligible for TANF benefits, a unit must pass two income tests -- a Gross Income test and a Net Income Test. For each of these tests, a different measure is taken of the unit's income and compared to state-specific threshholds. Units that exceed the threshholds are not eligible for TANF benefits
In TANF, a unit's gross income equals the earned and unearned income of all eligible unit members. State and local general assistance benefits are never counted. In TRIM3, gross income is initially computed by summing (for all eligible members of the unit) the income specified through the program rules EarnedIncome and UnearnedIncome. In addition, any income that can be deemed to the unit is included as unearned income. If the unit has any child support income, some or all of it may be disregarded based on the rules ChildSupportDisregard_Eligibility and ChildSupportDisregard_Eligibility2. Finally, if the unit has child care expenses, it may be able to deduct some or all of them from earnings based on the rule ChildCareExpensesDedUsedFor.
The maximum amount of gross income a unit may have can vary depending upon whether the unit is already on TANF (i.e. a "recipient" unit) or is a new applicant. These amounts are specified in the rules GrossIncomeStandardApplicants, GrossIncomeRateApplicants, GrossIncomeStandardRecipients, and GrossIncomeRateRecipients. Certain variations on the gross income test are specified in the rule IncomeTestsOption. Consult the descriptions of this rule (in the TRIM3 dictionary) to determine exactly which variations can be modeled.
For the net income test, unearned income is treated the same as it is for the gross income test. However, earned income is only counted for eligible adults in the unit. Furthermore, in addition to the child care expense disregard, other disregards may be applied to earnings based on the setting of the rules WorkExpenseDeduction and EarningsDisregardUsedFor.
Net income tests are specified in the program rules NetIncomeStandardApplicants, NetIncomeRateApplicants, NetIncomeStandardRecipients and NetIncomeRateRecipients. Certain state-level variations on the net income test are specified in the program rule IncomeTestsOption. Consult the descriptions of each potential value of this rule (in the TRIM3 dictionary) to determine exactly which variations can be modeled.
If a unit passes all eligibility tests, a benefit is calculated. Note that TRIM does not currently model the fact that sanctions may lower the benefits of some units.
When calculating benefits, unearned income is initially treated the same as it is for both the gross and net income tests. However, if the unit has child support income, some of it may be retained by the state, and therefore not counted as part of the unit's income. Furthermore, the amount that is not retained may be subject to a different disregard than in the net and gross income tests. See the section on the child support disregard for details. Also, note that in some cases the amount of income deemed from grandparents may be different for the income tests than for benefit computation.
The treatment of earned income is similar to the net income treatment. However, note that a particular disregard or deduction may be used for the net income test but not for benefit calculation (or vise-versa), or it may be applied differently in each case. See the sections on the various disregards and deductions ( child care, work expense, earnings disregard) for details. Also, an additional earnings disregard may be allowed for capped units when computing benefits (see the rule FamCapUseEarningsDis).
States may limit the length of time a unit can receive TANF benefits. Due to the lack of sufficiently detailed information on the CPS, time limits can not be directly simulated. However, TRIM3 simulates an approximation of their impact on the caseload. It begins by narrowing the "pool" of units which a state's time limit might affect by applying the following three criteria:
Then, a portion of the units that meet all of these criteria are considered by TRIM3 to have reached their state's time limit. The portion selected varies by state and is specified by the rule TimeLimitProbablity. During the baseline alignment process, the values in this rule are adjusted so the simulated number of time-limited units approximates published figures. For those units that are selected to be time-limited, the rule TimeLimitConsequence indicates whether the entire unit becomes ineligible, or if the unit can remain eligible with just the unit's head losing benefits.
Once the unit's income has been determined, the benefit is computed as the difference (subject to certain constraints) between the unit's income and the benefit standard applicable to the unit's size. Note that for benefit purposes, the size of the unit is the size after the family cap has been applied. For units that have reached their state's time limit, the size also takes into account that in some states the unit remains eligible but the head becomes ineligible for benefits (thus reducing the unit size by 1). The benefit computation formula can be expressed as follows:
Benefit = (benefit standard - income) * (payable portion of difference)
If Benefit > maximum benefit Then benefit = maximum benefit
and the rule group Benefit Computation Group specifies the values used by each state when applying the formula:
TRIM imposes a minimum benefit which will be paid (see the rule MinimumBenefitAmount). Units eligible for an amount lower than the minimum in a particular month do not receive benefits, although they remain technically eligible for TANF. Benefits lower than the minimum amount are reset to zero, and only units eligible for positive benefits are considered eligible by the model.
Additional state-level variations on benefit computation are specified by the program rule group BenefitComputationOption and the rule FamCapOption. Consult the descriptions of each potential value of these rules (in the TRIM3 dictionary) to determine exactly which variations can be modeled.
As mentioned in the section about income determination for benefits, a state may retain all or some of a unit's child support income to defray the cost of benefits. To reflect the fact that units eligible for benefits may have their child support income reduced, the TANF module creates a variable UnitCS_FinalTransferElig, which contains the portion of the unit's original child support income (specified for each child by the rule ChildSupportIncomeOfChild) which is not retained by the state (i.e. the amount which would be transferred to the family). If a unit is subsequently simulated to participate, the result variable ChildCS_Final indicates for each child the portion of the unit's total transfered child support income which is considered to have been received on behalf of that child. If a family is ineligible for TANF or chooses not to participate, then ChildCS_Final is set equal to the child support income amount specified through ChildSupportIncomeOfChild. ChildCS_Final should be used as input to all modules run after TANF that need to know the amount of child support income actually received by the family (i.e. this TANF result variable should be used in place of the ChildSupport result variable MonthlyChildSupportIncomeOfChild).
Note that states which retain child support income may transfer some of it to the family at two points. The first has already been discussed -- at the point of determination of income for benefit calculation. States may also transfer child support income after benefits have been calculated. The rule ChildSupportOptions indicates which states do this. States may transfer an amount of child support income which is sufficient to meet the unit's "unmet need" or to "fill the gap". The "unmet need" is the difference between the need standard and the unit's benefits and income (as measured for benefits). In "fill the gap" states the additional amount transfered is equal to the difference between the family's need standard and the family's maximum possible benefit (which may be higher than their actual benefit) and income (as measured for benefits). Among "unmet need" and "fill the gap" states, there may be differences as to whether or not capped children are included in the calculation of the need standard, and whether the need standard is specified by dollar amount #1 or dollar amount #2. The additional amounts transferred by these states are factored into the result variables discussed above (UnitCS_FinalTransferElig and ChildCS_Final).
In 1998, Minnesota began a program called MFIP. In the MFIP program, if a unit makes it through the eligibility tests and gets to the point of benefit calculation, a combined cash and food benefit is computed. To calculate the benefit, the unit's net countable income is subtracted from the state's payment standard. The difference is the total benefit. To determine how much of the total is cash and how much is food, the state first subtracts a fixed food stamp amount (based on family size) from the total benefit. Any amount up to the fixed amount is provided to the unit through an electronic benefits transfer (EBT) card that can only be used for food. Any amount greater than the food stamp portion is provided to the unit through an EBT card and can be used as cash. Click here for details.
If a unit is eligible for a benefit in one or more months of the year, TRIM3 must determine if the unit will participate. A unit’s probability of participation for each month is determined through use of a probit function. Explanatory variables in the function include information on (1) the benefits for which the unit is eligible in that month, (2) the marital status, age, education, race, and disability status of the unit head, (3) the presence of children less than six in the unit, (4) the employment status of the head, spouse, and other adults in the household, (5) whether or not this unit is in a UP state, and (6) whether or not the unit passed the full need standard in a majority of the months in which it is eligible. If the unit’s random number for TANF participation purposes is less than the probability of participation, the unit will participate in that month.
During each year’s "baseline" simulation created by TRIM3 project staff, adjustments are made such that the probabilities of participation combined with the random numbers will produce a caseload that comes acceptably close to administrative target data in terms of both its size and its key characteristics. Adjustments are also made such that eligible units that reported receiving TANF according to the input survey data are always included in the baseline caseload. Adjustments may also be made to the participation decision of eligible units that did not report receiving TANF (click here for details). The correlation between the monthly random numbers is also set during the baseline simulation. When the random numbers do not vary from month to month, a unit’s participation decision will change from one month to the next only if its underlying probability of participation changes due to a change in the potential benefit. Note that the procedures for running and aligning baseline simulations are complex. Consult TRIM3 project staff for more detailed information.
In an alternative simulation (specified by setting the program rule SimulationMode to 0), the analyst has the option of letting the participation function determine participation decisions or leaving participation decisions unchanged from the baseline simulation.
When the participation function is allowed to determine participation, a unit that was eligible in the baseline and chose to participate will always continue to participate as long as it is eligible for at least the level of benefits for which it was eligible in the baseline. If the potential benefits are lower, the probability of participation may fall below the random number (representing the unit’s "taste" for participation) and the unit might stop participating. Similarly, a unit that was eligible in the baseline and chose not to participate will never participate if the new level of potential benefits is the same or lower than in the baseline, but may begin to participate if the new level of benefits is higher.
If the analyst wishes to leave participation decisions unchanged from the baseline simulation, that may be accomplished through the program rule ParticipationBasedOnPrevRun. An analyst might wish to use this optional participation methodology to simulate "short-run" impacts of program changes (i.e. a unit's behavior might not respond immediately to changes in its benefit).
Regardless of the analyst’s decision concerning participation methodology for an alternative simulation, an alternative run should use the program rule ParticpationRandomNumbers to specify the participation random numbers that were produced by the baseline run (usually, this is the monthly TANF result variable RandomNumberPartAligned). In this way, the alternative run will reflect a participation rate consistent with the rate from the aligned baseline run.
When using a TANF output variable, pay particular attention to the dictionary’s description of the universe of that variable! Be aware that:
When simulating eligibility for medicaid's 1931 programs (specified by setting the program rule SimulationMode to "1931"), lump sum child support income may be treated as assets in the month it is received. If not, (i.e. it is treated as income), it may be treated differently from other types of income. See the dictionary entries under the Lump Sum Income category for details.
For some purposes, the TANF module needs to know information about a person's or an entire unit's status in years other than the simulation year. Specifically:
One of the criteria for determining if a person is disabled involves determining if the current month is part of a 3-month spell of disability. If the current month is January or February the 3-month spell will include December and (if January) November of the prior year. Likewise, if the current month is November or December, the 3-month spell will include January and (if December) February of the following year.
A similiar situation arises when determining if the primary earner of a two-parent unit is employed below the cutoff number of hours (and therefore eligible for a UP program). If the earner is over the cutoff in the current month but is not over the cutoff in the two prior months and the next month, the current month's condition is considered to be "temporary" and does not disqualify the earner from UP eligibility.
Both of these situations (determining disability and UP eligibility) require information about weeks and hours worked for months in the prior year as well as in the following year. The determination of disability also requires information about labor force activity in the prior year as well as in the following year.
The determination of whether a unit is an applicant or recipient involves looking at TANF receipt in the prior month. When the current month is January, information is required about TANF receipt in December of the prior year.
Sometimes, aspects of a state's TANF program are time-limited. For example, numerous states have time-limited earnings disregards. In any month of the simulation year, this will require information about not only how many months the disregard has been used so far in the simulation year, but how many months it was used in the prior year. Many states have a time-limited UP program. This requires information about the number of months a unit has been receiving TANF as a UP unit in the prior year.
Since information for the prior year and the following year is not available on the input file (which only contains information for the simulation year), it must be imputed. The various imputation methods used are described below:
Imputing Information About the Prior Year
The default method for imputing information about the year prior to the simulation year is to run a separate module (PriorYearMatch) each year to produce the prior-year information needed by the TANF module. The TANF module references this data via the variable-list program rules in the "Prior Year" category as follows:
| The variable-list rule: | Should reference the PriorYearMatch variable: |
|---|---|
| PriorYrHeadActivity | PriorYrHeadActivity (monthly variable) |
| PriorYrSpouseActivity | PriorYrSpouseActivity (monthly variable) |
| PriorYrHeadUsualHours | PriorYrHeadUsualHours (annual variable) |
| PriorYrSpouseUsualHours | PriorYrSpouseUsualHours (annual variable) |
| PriorYrHeadWeeks | PriorYrHeadWeeks (monthly variable) |
| PriorYrSpouseWeeks | PriorYrSpouseWeeks (monthly variable) |
| PriorYrTANFUnitBenefit | PriorYrTANFUnitBenefit (monthly variable) |
| PriorYrTANFUnitEarnedInc | PriorYrTANFUnitEarnedInc (monthly variable) |
| PriorYrTANFUnitType | PriorYrTANFUnitType (monthly variable) |
The following TANF result variables indicate what prior-year values were actually assigned to each person and/or unit:
When determining disability status and/or number of hours worked for UP-eligibility, the information needed for months in the prior year is assumed to be the same as that information for the same months in the current year. For example, when determining the number of hours worked in December of the prior year, the model uses the number of hours worked in December of the current year.
When determining the number of months in the prior year that a two-parent unit has been receiving TANF as a UP unit, the following cummulative probability distribution is used:
| Probability | Number of Months |
|---|---|
| .341 | 0 |
| .498 | 1 |
| .572 | 2 |
| .637 | 3 |
| .707 | 4 |
| .731 | 5 |
| .748 | 6 |
| .766 | 7 |
| .784 | 8 |
| .796 | 9 |
| .796 | 10 |
| 1.0 | 11 |
When determining the number of months in the prior year that a unit has used the earnings disregard, the following cummulative probability distribution is used:
| Probability | Number of Months |
|---|---|
| .231 | 0 |
| .357 | 1 |
| .445 | 2 |
| .481 | 3 |
| .613 | 4 |
| .663 | 5 |
| .683 | 6 |
| .710 | 7 |
| .737 | 8 |
| .762 | 9 |
| .777 | 10 |
| .999 | 11 |
| 1.0 | 12 |
For consistency, two-parent units are checked to see whether this imputation results in more months than the above "Months on TANF UP" imputation. If so, the result from this imputation is set to the result from the "Months on TANF as UP" imputation.
In January, when determining if a unit is a recipient, two-parent units use the result from the "Months on TANF as UP" imputation. If the result of that imputation is greater than 0, the unit is assumed to be a recipient. For other unit types, recipiency is assumed if any CPS data indicates that the unit received TANF.
Imputing Information About the Following Year
The TANF module needs information about the year following the simulation year for only two purposes - determining disability status and determining hours-worked for UP eligibility. In both of these cases, the TANF module assumes that the information needed for months in the following year is the same as the informaion for those months in the simulation year.
Due to the complex nature of the handling of Child Support income by the TANF module, a number of result variables are created which contain information about Child Support income at various stages of processing:
The child support income received on behalf of a specific child (specified via the program rule ChildSupportIncomeOfChild) is saved as the result variable ChildCS_Intitial. It is summed across the family in various ways and stored as:
When detremining eligibility, the result of applying the disregard specified by ChildSupportDisregard_Eligibility to the child support income of the family is saved as the result variable UnitCS_Eligibility. For states where ChildSupportOption = 5, the amount in ChildSupportDisregard_CappedChild specifies a per-child disregard for the income associated with capped children, and the portion of the income in UnitCS_Eligibility which is attributable to the capped children is saved in the result variable UnitCS_Eligibility_Capped.
When computing benefits, the result of transferring the amount specified by ChildSupportTransferToFamily to the family is saved as UnitCS_InitialTransfer. The result of disregarding ChildSupportDisregard_Benefit of this transfered income is saved as UnitCS_Benefit. For states where ChildSupportOption = 5, all of the income associated with capped children is transferred, and the portion of the income in UnitCS_InitialTransfer which is attributable to the non-capped children is saved in the result variable UnitCS_InitialTransfer_NonCapped. The portion of the income in UnitCS_Benefit which is attributable to the capped children is saved in the result variable UnitCS_Benefit_Capped (and is identical to UnitCS_Eligibility_Capped).
After benefits have been calculated, additional transfers of any child support income still retained by the state may be made in states where ChildSupportOption is 1-4. The total amount transferred to the family is stored in the result variable UnitCS_FinalTransfer (when ChildSupportOption = 5, UnitCS_FinalTransfer = UnitCS_InitialTransfer).
For those children receiving benefits, the variable ChildCS_Final is calculated as the value of UnitCS_FinalTransfer spread across all eligible children in the same ratio that ChildCS_Initial has to UnitCS_Total. In states where ChildSupportOption = 5, this allocation is only done to non-capped children, and spreads UnitCS_InitialTransfer_Noncapped in the ratio that each child's ChildCS_Initial had to UnitCS_Total_Noncapped. The capped children simply retain all of their ChildCS_Initial income.
For children not receiving TANF benefits, ChildCS_Final is the same as ChildCS_Initial. Note that for units not receiving TANF benefits, the following result variables are reset to 0: