Household Composition: AU Composition TAFDC

The AU Composition workflow contains the following pages:

  • Apply for Assistance
  • Assessed Person
  • Personal Relationships, and
  • AU Composition Q & A Navigator

Apply for Assistance Page

For TAFDC, you must indicate which household members are applying for assistance with the grantee. The application date for each household member will default to the grantee’s application date, but can be changed by you if it is different from the grantee’s application date.

For active cases (where the grantee already has a case established), use this page when a household member is added to the grantee’s household, or to reapply for a household member who has been previously denied or closed. For each household member added, you must indicate that the household member is applying for assistance with the grantee. The application date for the household member must be entered by you.

To show that everyone is applying for a particular program, you must do the following:

  1. select the grantee
  2. select Applying, Yes
  3. check the Include all members? checkbox and
  4. click Save.

To show that certain people are applying for a particular program, you must do the following:

  1. select the grantee
  2. select Applying, Yes
  3. do not check the Include all members? Checkbox
  4. click Save
  5. select the next person applying for the program
  6. select Applying, Yes
  7. do not check the Include all members? Checkbox
  8. click Save
  9. repeat this process for each person applying for the particular program

Note: If a person is not applying for a program, you must select ”No” for that person(s).

To update Applying For Assistance for a household member within a program:

  1. select a household member
  2. select Applying as Yes or No. If Applying for Assistance is set to Yes, enter the application date, and
  3. click Save

Certain individuals are not eligible to receive TAFDC. An ineligible individual for TAFDC is one who:

  • is fleeing to avoid prosecution or jail after being convicted for a felonious crime or an attempt to commit a felonious crime on or after 9/26/96, or which, in the state of New Jersey, is a high misdemeanor
  • is violating a condition of probation or parole imposed on or after 9/26/96 under federal or state law
  • has an outstanding default or arrest warrant against him or her issued by any court of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts
  • is convicted under federal or state law of a felony committed after 8/22/96 that included the possession, use or distribution of a controlled substance. This individual is ineligible for TAFDC for 12 consecutive months following his or her release from incarceration, unless exempt or granted a Domestic Violence waiver (a person who did not serve a period of incarceration has no period of ineligibility)
  • is a patient in a mental institution
  • is an inmate of a penal or other public institution
  • is absent from the United States (not temporarily absent)
  • is an ineligible Noncitizen or
  • is permanently living outside the Commonwealth.

Assessed Person Page

The Assessed Person page is used to enter all personal information on every person applying for assistance except the grantee. The Type field (for the person’s name) will default to Name at Birth. The Last name, First name, Middle initial, Suffix and Birth date will be pre-populated with the demographic information entered on the Household page. You must enter a Social Security Number for each person who has one and is applying for assistance.

A Name Clearance must be completed for each person applying for assistance. The Name Clearance process will search the database and match the following information:

  • name: primary or alternate (same gender, date of birth within one year of the person’s date of birth) and
  • Social Security Number (exact Social Security Number).

To do a Name Clearance for each person applying for assistance, you must click on Name Clearance.

  1. The Name Clearance page is opened. If there are any records that match the entered information, they are displayed in the Name Clearance page. If there are no records, then the message: ”Zero records” will be displayed.
  2. Once the records are displayed (or there are no records), if the New button is clicked on the Name Clearance page, nothing will display on the Assessed Person page. However, if the SSN entered is the primary SSN for the client, you will get an edit preventing you from selecting New. The new client is treated as a new client and a new APID is created at the end of the workflow.  You can continue entering demographic information for this client on the Assessed Person page.
  3. Once the records are displayed, if the Match button is clicked on the Name Clearance page, the existing client details for the client that you selected are brought over and the APID of the selected record will be used from this point forward.
  4. Once the records are displayed, if the Match button is clicked on the Name Clearance page and the name entered in the page does not match with the matched client’s name, a warning message asking you how to treat both of the names will be displayed.
    1. If you choose As a primary Name, the name entered in the page will be the primary name and the name from the matched client will become the alternate name.
    2. If you choose As an alternate Name, the name from the matched client will be the primary name and the name entered in the page will become the alternate name.
    3. If you choose Ignore, the name from the matched client will become the primary name and the name entered in the page will be ignored.
    4. The same set of warning messages will display if the SSN entered on the page does not match with the SSN of the matched client.
  5. If the DOB entered on the page is different from the matched client’s DOB, the warning message will prompt you to decide whether to keep the DOB entered on the page or ignore it.
  6. If the gender selected is different from the matched client’s gender, a warning message will prompt you to decide whether to keep the gender entered in the page or to ignore it.

You can click the "X" at the top far right corner of the page to cancel out of the Name Clearance page. Once you return to the Assessed Person page, complete the remaining fields.

Selecting Spanish in the language drop-down box will generate a Spanish application for the applicant to sign. Selecting any other language will generate an English application for the applicant to sign. If you select Other as a language, you must enter the language in the Other field.

You must select a value for Race. Click on the Select button, then the appropriate check box.

If the client has Alternate Names and/or Alternate SSNs, click the pop-up box to enter the necessary information, using Name Clearance to determine if the client’s Alternate Names and Alternate SSNs are already known to DTA. Otherwise, click on None for Alternate Names and Alternate SSNs.

Personal Relationships Page

This page is used to capture personal relationships (natural, adoptive, step), between household members who have a status in household of Present. Each household member’s relationship to the grantee will be captured initially using the Household page, but it can be updated from this page. These relationships are used by you to determine the assistance unit(s) for a household and to determine grant calculations.

When setting personal relationships, it is important to remember that the relationship must be that of the household member in the Personal Relationship tab to the household member whose name appears in the bottom left hand portion of the page.

ExampleExampleMary Smith is a grantee in a household consisting of herself, her husband Paul, their son Jimmy, and her daughter from a previous marriage, Sally.

When Mary’s name is highlighted in the Member List, relationships are set relative to Mary.  Thus:

     1. Select Paul and set his relationship to Mary as Spouse, and
click Update.

     2. This process will also automatically set Mary’s relationship to Paul as Spouse.

Following the procedure described above, select and set Jimmy as Child and Sally as Child. This process will also automatically set Mary’s relationship to Jimmy and Sally as Mother:

  1. from the member select list select Paul
  2. Paul's name will now appear in the bottom left hand portion of the page
  3. using the same procedure, select and set Jimmy as Child and Sally as Stepchild

This process will also automatically set Paul’s relationship to Jimmy as Father and to Sally as Stepfather. Remember to Update each time a relationship is set:

  1. from the Member List select Jimmy
  2. Jimmy’s name will now appear in the bottom left hand portion of the page
  3. using the same procedure, select and set Sally as Half Sibling.

This process will also automatically set Jimmy’s relationship to Sally as Half-Sibling.

Note: Where possible, the system sets the reverse relationship based on gender. For example, when setting the reverse relationship to Child, Mother will be set if the individual’s gender has been set as female, and Father will be set if the individual’s gender has been set as male.

AU Composition Q & A Navigator Page

This page is used to ask a standard set of questions (about Pregnancy, Temporary Absence, Caretakers, Boarders and Foster Care) and record a yes or no answer for all clients in the assistance unit. To complete the page, you must do the following:

  1. answer each question by clicking Yes or No
  2. depending upon the answer, the Client Selection popup is automatically displayed allowing you to select the applicable household member(s) for whom you have answered the question
  3. select the applicable household member(s)
  4. when finished, click Select
  5. to save the information, click Next and the information is saved when leaving the page.

Related Topics

Household Composition Policy and Procedures

Last Update: September 18, 2014