Entering, Changing and Ending Earned Income

Employment Status Page

The purpose of the Employment Status page is to record if the client is employed or unemployed.

During the Interview, as part of the Income and Expenses Q and A Navigator, you will select either Yes or No to indicate if the client has employment or unemployment details. If a Yes answer is given, a record is displayed in the Employment Status page.

If the client is employed, earned income information is collected in the Earned Income Folder page. If the client is unemployed, unemployment information is collected in this page as well.

If the client has an active earned income record and on the Income and Expenses Q and A Navigator you answer No to the employment question, the earned income page will be set to Requires Re-edit.

The History icon is available on all workflow pages. This icon displays a historical record of all past entries on the page and the dates entries were made, displayed from most recent action to the earliest application.

Enter Employment Status Information

  1. open the Employment Status page in the Assessed Person Income and Expenses section
  2. on the Employment Status page, based on the Yes/No response in the Q & A section, the Employed field will either be Yes or No
  3. if No, select the Reason Not Employed from the following drop-down list:
    1. Dismissed by Employer
    2. Involved in a Work Stoppage
    3. Laid Off
    4. Leave of Absence
    5. Never Employed
    6. Plant Shutdown
    7. Quit a Job
    8. Refused a Job Offer
    9. Retired
    10. Seasonal Employment
    11. Other
  4. if for the Reason Not Employed, you select Other, enter the description in the Other Reason Not Employed field
  5. for Justification, if the reason not employed is Quit a Job, Refused a Job Offer, Leave of Absence, or Involved in a Work Stoppage, select the justification reason from the following drop-down list:
    1. Below Minimum Wage
    2. Bona Fide Job Offer Rescinded
    3. Child Care
    4. Discrimination
    5. Emergency Situation
    6. Forced Retirement
    7. Health/Safety Reasons
    8. Migrant/Seasonal Laborers
    9. No fault Lay off
    10. Religious Conflict
    11. Resigned at Employer’s Request
    12. Sexual Harassment
    13. Striker Replacement Job
    14. Transportation Problem
    15. Unreasonable Work Conditions
    16. Voluntary Reduction of Hours
    17. Other
  6. if for Justification, you selected Other, enter the description in the Other Justification field
  7. for Employed Last 12, if the client was employed in the last 12 months, select Yes; otherwise, select No
  8. for Total Earned Last 12, enter the total amount of money earned in the last 12 months from the client’s employment
  9. for Health Insurance Offered Last 12, if the employer offered the client health insurance within the last 12 months select Yes; otherwise select No
  10. click Save
  11. click Next, or to exit the page and the workflow, click Finish

Earned Income Page

When Yes is selected in the Employment Status page, the Earned Income page must be completed. The Earned Income page displays the following tabs:

  • Employed - used to collect income data for a client
  • Employer - used to collect employer information
  • Earnings - used to collect wages earned per pay period
  • Prospective - used to calculate the monthly prospective amount that will be used in the Eligibility and Benefit Calculation (EBC); and
  • Expenses - used to collect information about expenses incurred for self-employment

Employed Tab

The Employed tab is used to collect data about the earned income status, whether the income is countable for Cash and/or SNAP and employment information. You can add or update employment information for a household member who has a responsibility in at least one household in the eligibility group.

The information collected on this tab includes:

  • wage type
  • start date of employment
  • actual end date, if the client is no longer employed
  • frequency of the pay period
  • hourly wage received
  • number of hours worked per week
  • countable indicators for Cash and SNAP
  • if unemployed, the reasons for unemployment

The following information is captured for a client who is not employed:

  • date the job ended
  • reason not employed; and
  • justification reason

Add Employment Information on the Employed Tab

  1. open the Earned Income page. The Employed tab displays by default.
  2. for Type, select the wage type from the following list:
    • Wages
    • Americorps OJT
    • Federal work study
    • Full Employment income
    • Non-federal work study
    • Self-employment
    • Student earnings
    • Youthbuild
  3. for Start Date, enter the start date. You can type in the date or select a date from the popup calendar

    Important: Entering the correct date that the client started with an employer is critical to asses when the 12-payment counter accretes for the 100% Earned Income Disregard

    At application if a client is on a leave of absence, the employer must be entered into BEACON as a new record with zero income. This step is to ensure that the 100% Earned Income Disregard is applied correctly.

  4. for Frequency, select the frequency of the earnings received from the employer from the following list
    • Weekly
    • Biweekly (every two weeks)
    • Monthly
    • Semi-monthly (twice a month)
    • Bi-Monthly (every two months)
    • Semiannual (twice a year)
    • Quarterly
    • Annual
  5. for Hourly Wage, enter the hourly wage the client earned

    Important: You will need to manually add a decimal point when entering income that is not a whole dollar amount. BEACON adds a decimal point only for whole dollar amounts. ExampleExampleIf a weekly payment of $40.50 is made and is entered as 4050, BEACON will add a decimal point and make the amount $4050.00.

  1. for Weekly Hours, enter the number of hours worked per week.
  2. select the countable indicator to indicate whether the income must be considered for Cash and/or SNAP purposes.
  3. if the client’s job ended, for Reason Not Employed, select a reason from the following list:
    1. Dismissed by Employer
    2. Involved in a Work Stoppage
    3. Laid Off
    4. Leave of Absence
    5. Never Employed
    6. Plant Shutdown
    7. Quit a Job
    8. Refused a Job Offer
    9. Retired
    10. Seasonal Employment
    11. Other
  4. if for Reason Not Employed, you select Other, enter a description in the Other Reason Not Employed field
  5. if for the Reason not Employed, you selected Quit a job, Refused a job offer, or Leave of Absence, in the Justification field, select the justification reason from the following list:
    1. Below Minimum Wage
    2. Bona Fide Job Offer Rescinded
    3. Child Care
    4. Discrimination
    5. Emergency Situation
    6. Forced Retirement
    7. Health/Safety Reasons
    8. Migrant/Seasonal Laborers
    9. No Fault Lay off
    10. Religious Conflict
    11. Resigned at Employer’s Request
    12. Sexual Harassment
    13. Striker Replacement Job
    14. Transportation Problem
    15. Unreasonable Work Conditions
    16. Voluntary Reduction of Hours
    17. Other
  6. if from Justification you selected Other, enter a description in the Other Justification field
  7. click Save.
  8. click Next, or to exit the page and the workflow, click Finish

Change Employed Tab Data

  1. access the Earned Income page
  2. select the earned income from the select list
  3. modify the applicable information; for more information on these fields, see the procedure for entering earned income on the Earned Income page
  4. click Save
  5. click Next, to exit the page and the workflow, click Finish

Employer Tab

Use this tab to collect employer information. The data collected includes:

  1. employer
  2. employer phone
  3. FEIN (Federal Employer Identification Number)
  4. employee phone
  5. health insurance offered, and
  6. employer address

Add Employer Information in Employer Tab

  1. access the Earned Income page and click on the Employer tab
  2. for Employer, enter the employer name
  3. for FEIN, enter the Federal Employee Identification Number
  4. for Health Insurance Offered, if health insurance is offered through the employer, select Yes, otherwise select No
  5. for Employer Phone, enter the employer’s phone number
  6. for Employee’s Phone, enter the employee’s phone number
  7. to enter the address of the employer, click the Address detail pop-up icon
    1. enter the address detail
    2. click the Validate button to validate the address
    3. click the Save button to save the address and close the pop-up
  8. click Save

Update the Employer Tab

  1. access the Earned Income page and click on the Employer Tab
  2. select the earned income record to be updated from the select list
  3. update the fields
  4. click Save
  5. click Next, to exit the page and the workflow, click Finish

Earnings Tab

The Earnings tab collects information about wages earned per pay period.

This tab displays Period, Gross Income, Hours, Lump Sum, and Entered columns to collect information on the wages earned. The list is built using the Start Date and Frequency collected on the Employed tab. If the client has wage garnishments, they are also included on this page.

Add Earned Income Data to Earnings Tab

  1. open the Earned Income page and click the Earnings tab
  2. to switch between clients who are part of the same household, use the Member’s List where you can select the member who is employed
  3. for Garnishment, if the member’s wages are being garnished, select Yes; otherwise select No 

    Warning: BEACON defaults to the Period based on the Start Date and Frequency you entered on the Employed tab.

  1. for Gross Income, enter the gross earned income for the pay period
  2. for Hours, enter the number of hours worked. You must enter the actual number of hours worked by the client during each pay period.
  3. for Lump Sum, if the income received in a pay period is actually a lump sum payment, check the Lump Sum checkbox
  4. entered is a display-only date that is populated after you enter the gross income, hours and lump sum information
  5. click Save
  6. click Next, or to exit the page and the workflow, click Finish

If income is being garnished, open the Earned Income Garnishment page and capture the garnishment information.

Update an Earned Income Record

  1. open the Earned Income page in the Assessed Person Income and Expenses section
  2. select the earned income from the select list
  3. change the applicable information. For more information on these fields, see the procedure for entering earned income.
  4. click Save
  5. click Next, or to exit the page and the workflow, click Finish

Prospective Tab

The earned income Prospective tab is the fourth tab in the Earned Income page. It is used to calculate the monthly prospective amount that will be used in the Eligibility and Benefits Calculation (EBC). It displays the Start Date, Period, Amount, and Prospective Income Averaging.

Calculate the Monthly Prospective Amount

  1. access the Earned Income page and complete the information on the Employed and Earnings tabs
  2. click the Prospective tab
  3. the Start Date for the prospective amount is a display-only field and will be set to the current date
  4. the period income and gross income information is copied over from the Earnings tab. You can select one or more gross income records to use in calculating the monthly prospective amount
  5. to indicate that the associated amount must be used in the monthly prospective amount calculation, select Prospective Averaging
  6. to calculate the monthly prospective amount, click Calculate and the calculated amount will display in the Monthly Prospective Amount field
  7. click Save
  8. click Next, or to exit the page and the workflow, click Finish

Update Prospective Tab Data

To recalculate an existing monthly prospective amount record that has already been calculated:

  1. access the Earned Income page and click the Prospective tab
  2. select the record or records you wish to recalculate from the Select list
  3. click the Refresh button to refresh the Prospective list with details from the Earnings tab
  4. click Calculate to calculate the monthly prospective amount and the calculated amount will display in the Monthly Prospective Amount field; the updated information is considered in the eligibility calculations for the original Start Date
  5. click Next, or to exit the page and the workflow, click Finish

Expenses Tab

This tab is used to collect information about expenses incurred while being self-employed. For each expense, you must capture:

  • Type
  • Start Date
  • Amount
  • Frequency
  • Whether it is countable for a cash program and/or SNAP, and
  • Whether it is deductible for a cash program and/or SNAP

Note: It is important that you create an expense record for each expense individually on this tab.

Add Expense Information to Expenses Tab

  1. access the Earned Income page
  2. complete the Employed, Employer, Earnings, and Prospective tabs
  3. to add self-employment expenses, click on the Expenses tab
  4. select the Detail Pop-up and enter the information below
  5. for Type, select the type of expense from the drop-down list
  6. for Start Date, enter the date the expense started; you can type in the date or select a date from the pop-up calendar
  7. for Amount, enter the amount of the expense 
  8. for Frequency, select the frequency of the amount from the following drop-down list:
    1. Weekly
    2. Biweekly (every two weeks)
    3. Monthly
    4. Semi-monthly (twice a month)
    5. Bi-Monthly (every two months)
    6. Semiannual (twice a year)
    7. Quarterly
    8. Annual
  9. if the expense is countable for Cash, select Yes for Countable Cash, otherwise select No
  10. if the expense is countable for SNAP, select Yes for Countable SNAP, otherwise select No
  11. click the Calculate button
  12. if Yes was selected in the countable Cash and/or countable SNAP, and if the client is pending, active or ineligible in the Cash or SNAP household, then the monthly expense amount is calculated and defaulted in the cash and/or SNAP amount fields; you cannot change the amounts in these fields unless the expense is recalculated
  13. click Save
  14. to add more expenses, add a new row by clicking on the Add-A-Row icon and follow steps 4-13 above
  15. click Next, to exit the page and the workflow, click Finish

Update Expense Tab Data

  1. open the expenses tab
  2. select the details tab for the record you are updating
  3. change the applicable information.
  4. click calculate
  5. click Save
  6. click Next, or to exit the page and the workflow, click Finish

Delete Expense Tab Data

Only records not used in an eligibility calculation can be deleted. A record can be deleted only when it has not been saved to the database. If the record has been saved to the database, end the record by:

  1. accessing the Expenses tab
  2. selecting the record to be deleted from the Select List
  3. scrolling all the way to the right and click the red X

Deleting the Earned Income Record

Only records not used in an eligibility calculation can be deleted. A record can be deleted only when it has not been saved to BEACON.

  1. from the select list, chose the record to be deleted
  2. click Delete
  3. to acknowledge the "Do you wish to delete this data?" confirmation question, click Yes to delete the record
  4. click Save
  5. click Next, or to exit the page and the workflow, click Finish

Ending the Earned Income Record

The end button is disabled until all required information is entered. Once all information has been entered and saved, select finish then return to the page and the end button will be enabled.

  1. from the select list, chose the record to be end dated
  2. click End
  3. to confirm the default or selected end date, click OK to end date the record
  4. Click Save
  5. click Next, or to exit the page and the workflow, click Finish

Important: If a client is on a leave of absence, do not end the BEACON record. The record must remain active and zeroes entered for wages. This step is to ensure that 100% Earned Income Disregard is applied correctly. You must also change the client’s exempt/nonexempt status, if appropriate.

Important: Any time there is a change in a client’s employment status, their Pathways to Work Plan details must be reviewed in the Pathways to Work workflow by the case manager and/or the Full Engagement Worker.

Related Topics

Completing a Pathways to Work Plan

Last Update: August 9, 2023