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(Revised 5/15/07 ML #3087)
Contrary to superceded prior federal policy, it is now allowable for the same child to be simultaneously eligible for both Supplemental Security Income (SSI) and Title IV-E Foster Care or Adoption Assistance (ACYF-PA-94-02). In fact, dual SSI/IV-E eligibility is quite common and very significant to federal support for foster care and subsidized adoptions. SSI is a means-tested program for the elderly and disabled, including children with mental and physical disabilities, whether in foster care or not. Title IV-E is a means-tested program for children in foster and adoptive placements. Since both means tests are similar (both originated in the welfare programs), a disabled child in placement will often meet both means tests simultaneously.
While a child may be eligible for both SSI and IV-E simultaneously, SSI offsets any SSI payments dollar-for-dollar for any IV-E maintenance funds received by an individual child in the same month. Therefore, as a practical matter, either SSI or IV-E, but not both, may be claimed by the State to help pay for a child’s foster care in a given month. Nevertheless, it is still important for IV-E eligibility to be established in every possible foster care case, even if the SSI is claimed for foster care income maintenance, because IV-E administrative funds are claimed for every IV-E eligible child. Thus, for a SSI/IV-E eligible child, the state and counties may claim both IV-E maintenance and IV-E administrative funding, or they may claim SSI maintenance and IV-E administrative funding. See Section 10-20-25-20 on selecting the source of maintenance funding for the SSI/IV-E eligible child.