TN 20 (03-05)

A. Policy

NOTE: The following procedures are effective for the period May 1994 through March 2005, with one exception described in SI 02005.006C.

1. Part of National Policy for Transitional Computation Cycle (TCC) Prohibited by Court

A court order issued on May 10, 1994, in the case of Jones et al. v. Shalala, requires SSA to cease counting nonrecurring income received in the first payment month of a TCC as income in the second and third month. This change is used to determine Federal and/or State supplementary payments in Supplemental Security Income (SSI) cases for residents of the Ninth Judicial Circuit. A case will come under this policy only if the TCC must be recomputed because income from the first month was counted in the second and third month. An individual who has any TCC computation during May 1994 through March 2005, which was computed using the first month’s income only in the first month, is not a Jones case.

2. Ninth Circuit Defined

The Ninth Circuit consists of Alaska, Arizona, California, Guam (Territory of), Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Northern Mariana Islands (Territory of), Oregon, and Washington.

3. Actions Needed

When a field office (FO) takes an action which will result in a TCC (TCC is explained in SI 02005.005 A.) for a resident of a State or territory in the Ninth Circuit, the FO must review the income for the first two months of the TCC to determine whether nonrecurring income is present. These instructions apply to pending appeals as well as initial applications and reinstatements.

B. Definition - nonrecurring income

Nonrecurring income is any type of income (e.g., Title II, wages, and deemed income, without consideration of the deemor’s income type) that is present in the first month of a TCC, but not in the second. For the purposes of determining nonrecurring income, the J and H codes are treated as identical. All Title II income codes (A, G, and W) are treated as identical. An increase or decrease in the amount of income with the same type code present in both months (e.g., wages go from $300 to $200) does not qualify as nonrecurring income.

The “frequency” code (N, T, or C) is not controlling. If wages are present in the first month and coded T, but not present in the second, this is nonrecurring income. Conversely, if wages are present in the first month and coded N or T, and wages are present in the second month and coded N or C, this is not nonrecurring income.

C. Process

If nonrecurring income is present and the system has computed payment amounts using nonrecurring income in the first three months, the FO must recompute the second and third months' payments excluding the nonrecurring income. This is only necessary if the TCC is within the period May 1994 through March 2005 and the nonrecurring income was used to compute countable income in the first three months of the TCC. The FO must then determine any underpayment due. The first month's payment in the TCC does not change. This recomputation must be done manually, although FOs may use the personal computer RMA computation program as appropriate. The TCC will continue to apply, but the nonrecurring income must be subtracted from the budget month income for the second and third months. If the recomputation results in an underpayment, issue a one-time payment (OTP). The instruction to issue an OTP applies only if the nonrecurring income was used in the payment computation for the first, second and third months and must be recomputed.

NOTE: See SI 02005.005 for the situation where the underpayment process does not apply.

EXAMPLE:

Date of Reeligibility: April 1, 2004

FBR: $564

Total Underpayment: $380.00

D. Procedure - general

1. Months of Eligibility

Determine if there will be at least two months of continuous eligibility. Be sure to examine computation history (CMPH) and/or windfall computation history (WCMP), for the TCC.

2. Income

Determine that there is countable income present in the first month (budget month 0).

3. Comparison

Compare the income received in the first month of eligibility to that received in the second month of eligibility (budget month 1). Determine whether nonrecurring income exists in the first month.

4. Computation

If nonrecurring income exists in the first month, recompute as described in SI 02005.006 C.

E. Procedure - systems input

Follow current systems instructions (SM 01901.000) for issuing the required OTP. Resolve the overpayment that occurs by transmitting an N-TAC in the amount of the OTP. Pay the “Jones” underpayment even if an overpayment already exists on the record. This underpayment must have occurred because triple counting was applied in May 1994 through March 2005. Also, enter the annotation “JONES” and the month in the CG field.

F. Procedure - notices

NOTE: Follow the special notice procedures in NL 01001.010 if the notice will be sent to a claimant, beneficiary, or representative payee who alleges being blind or visually impaired.

FO’s must suppress the systems generated notice and prepare a manual notice covering each month the individual's payment/income changes (includes 1st month). Include the following language in the appropriate notice. See NL 00801.000 for instructions on preparing manual notices.

“This payment contains extra money due  (1)  for  (2)  as a result of a court order. Under the court order, we cannot count the  (3)   (4)  received as  (5)  in  (6)  when we figure  (7)  benefit for  (8)  .”

Fill-ins