Note: Food stamp rules count a lump sum as a resource. See WAC 388-470-0055(2). The food stamp program has a $2,000 resource limit for households without a senior and a $3,000 limit for households with a senior.
If you receive a lump sum to replace lost or stolen property or to pay medical bills, the funds are not counted as income or resources under TANF for 60 days regardless of the dollar amount. WAC 388-455-0010. However, the dollars must be used for that purpose within the 60-day period. Money left over after the 60 days is treated as a resource and if you are over the resource limits for TANF, you will be ineligible until these funds are under the TANF resource limits. On TANF you may have up to $3000 in a savings account, a home, household furnishings, and a vehicle worth up to $5,000. These are "exempt resources". You still may be eligible for TANF if your assets that are not exempt do not exceed $1,000 in value.
Compensatory awards issued by court order or due to settlement from wrongful death, personal injury, damage or loss of property are treated as a resource the month after you get money. WAC 388-455-0005 and -0010. Therefore, if you spend all the money during that first month or spend it down so you are within the exempt resources (see above), there will be no interruption of benefits. If you have any money, on the first day of the next month and it exceeds the TANF resources limit, you will be ineligible until the funds have been spent down to the resource limit. (NOTE: Again, if you are terminated and become an "applicant" again, then you are not allowed the $3,000 savings account exemption. That exemption is only for TANF recipients.)
All other lump sum payments are treated according to WAC 388-455-0015. DSHS will consider the funds as income in the month received. If the income is too much for you to be eligible for an TANF at all, then you will be ineligible for at least one month. To figure out how much a lump sum will reduce your grant for the month you receive the lump sum, DSHS first considers how much of your $1,000 resource limit is used up. Whatever is left of the lump sum counts as income.
For example, if you receive a back L&I check of $500, and you have $700 in a savings account, the first $300 of the L&I check is added to your savings to allow the maximum $1,000 in resources. The leftover $200 is then counted as income, which reduces your grant amount for that month by $200.
Depending upon the dollar amount, the lump sum may reduce or eliminate benefits for a two-month period. However, the maximum period of ineligibility regardless of the amount you received is two months. After the two-month ineligibility period, you may reapply. However, if there is any money left the resource rules will apply. Therefore, you will have to spend the dollars below resource limits to be eligible.
It is possible to limit your ineligibility to one month. If you know you are going to get money BEFORE you get it, you may go off the grant and food stamps the month before you receive the dollars. Keep your medical assistance. You may do this by either telling the worker to take you off assistance before you receive the check and food stamps or by returning the check and food stamps unspent to the CSO. Then, you will only lose one month of benefits instead of two, as long as the lump sum money you receive is spent down during the month you are off assistance to the $1,000 limit for TANF, or down to $2,000 if you only want food stamps. As soon as you have spent the funds below these resource limits, you should file a new application for TANF grant and/or food stamps. Remember DSHS has 30 days to process a new application, so you need to be prepared for a delay before new benefits are awarded.
Some kinds of money are treated differently by DSHS, and do not count against your grant as income, even if they are more than your $1,000 resource limit. Examples include loans (you will probably need to give DSHS a document proving that you actually have to repay the money); earned income tax credit; energy assistance payments; many types of school grants and work study (see our publication Student Financial Aid and Welfare Benefits); and many types of Native American benefits. For a complete list of income that does not count against your grant, ask your DSHS worker for a copy of WAC 388-450-0015. Although these types of payments do not count as income, they will probably count as a resource for the next month.
Check with your caseworker about medical coverage. There are numerous medical programs: some have no resource limits and many allow for much higher income each month than TANF does.
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