42 U.S.C. § 608 — Prohibitions; requirements

(a) In general. (1) No assistance for families without a minor child. A State receiving a grant under section 603 may not use any grant money to assist a family unless the family includes a minor child who lives with the family, consistent with paragraph (10), or includes a pregnant individual. (2) Reduction or elimination for failure to cooperate. If the agency administering the State plan under part D finds that an individual is not cooperating in establishing paternity or establishing, changing, or enforcing a support order for the individual's child, and the individual has no State-approved good-cause or other exception under section 654(29), the State must deduct at least 25 percent of the assistance otherwise payable to the individual's family. The State may also deny the family all assistance. (3) Assignment of support rights. As a condition of paying assistance, a State must require a family member to assign to the State any right that member has to support from another person, either for the member or for another person for whom the member applied for or receives assistance. The assignment may not exceed the total assistance paid to the family and may cover only support that comes due while the family receives assistance. (4) Teenage parents who do not attend school or equivalent training. A State may not use grant money to assist an unmarried individual under 18 who has a minor child at least 12 weeks old in the individual's care and has not completed high school or its equivalent, unless the individual participates in (A) education aimed at earning a high-school diploma or equivalent, or (B) another education or training program approved by the State. (5) Teenage parents not living under adult supervision. (A) General rule. (i) Except as provided in (B), a State may not assist an individual described in (ii) if the individual and the child described in (ii)(II) do not live in a home maintained by the individual's parent, legal guardian, or other adult relative as that adult's own home. (ii) The individual must (I) be under 18 and (II) be unmarried and have a minor child in the individual's care. (B) Exception. (i) If an individual described in (ii) does not have an appropriate adult-supervised home, the State agency named in section 602(a)(4) must provide or help locate a second-chance home, maternity home, or other suitable adult-supervised supportive living arrangement, considering the individual's needs and concerns. This is not required if the agency finds the current arrangement suitable. The agency must then require the individual and the child to live in that arrangement as a condition of continuing to receive federally funded assistance, or in another suitable arrangement if circumstances make the current one unsuitable. (ii) This exception applies when the individual meets (A)(ii) and (I) has no living parent, legal guardian, or other suitable adult relative described in (II), or does not know where such person is; (II) no living parent, guardian, or suitable adult relative who could meet State criteria to be the individual's guardian allows the individual to live in that person's home; (III) the agency finds that (aa) the individual or child is or was subjected to serious physical or emotional harm, sexual abuse, or exploitation in the home of the individual's parent or guardian, or (bb) substantial evidence shows an act or failure to act that would cause imminent or serious harm if they lived there; or (IV) the agency otherwise finds that waiving the (A) requirement for the individual or child is in the child's best interest. (iii) “Second-chance home” means an entity that gives these individuals a supportive, supervised home where they must learn parenting skills, including child development, family budgeting, health and nutrition, and other skills that promote long-term economic independence and their children's well-being. (6) Medical services. (A) A State may not use grant money to provide medical services. (B) “Medical services” does not include prepregnancy family-planning services. (7) No assistance for more than five years. (A) A State may not use grant money to assist a family containing an adult who has received federally attributable assistance under a State program funded by this part for 60 months, consecutive or not, after that program began, subject to this paragraph. (B) In counting months for a parent or pregnant individual, the State must leave out a month when the assistance was provided while the individual was (i) a minor child and (ii) neither the head of a household nor married to the head of a household. (C) Hardship exception. (i) The State may exempt a family because of hardship or because it includes someone who has been battered or subjected to extreme cruelty. (ii) For a fiscal year, the average monthly number of families covered by these exemptions may not exceed 20 percent of the average monthly number of families assisted during that fiscal year or the immediately preceding fiscal year, but not both, as the State chooses. (iii) For this exception, “battered or subjected to extreme cruelty” means being subjected to (I) physical acts causing or threatening physical injury; (II) sexual abuse; (III) sexual activity involving a dependent child; (IV) being forced, as the caretaker relative of a dependent child, to engage in nonconsensual sexual acts or activities; (V) threats or attempts of physical or sexual abuse; (VI) mental abuse; or (VII) neglect or deprivation of medical care. (D) Months in high-unemployment Indian country or Alaskan Native villages. (i) When counting months an adult received assistance under a State or tribal program funded by this part, the State or tribe must leave out a month in which the adult lived in Indian country or an Alaskan Native village if the most reliable data for that month, or a period including it, show that at least 50 percent of the adults there were unemployed. (ii) “Indian country” has the meaning given in section 1151 of title 18. (E) Subparagraph (A) does not require a State to provide assistance to anyone for any period. (F) This part does not prevent a State from spending State money that did not come from the Federal Government on benefits for children or families made ineligible by (A). (G) For (A), a grant under section 603(a)(5) is not a grant under section 603, and noncash assistance from section 603(a)(5) funds is not assistance. (8) Ten-year denial for fraudulent residence statements. A State may not use grant money to give cash assistance to an individual during the 10 years beginning when the individual is convicted in Federal or State court of falsely stating or representing the individual's residence to obtain assistance at the same time from two or more States under programs funded under this subchapter, subchapter XIX, or the Food and Nutrition Act of 2008, or benefits in two or more States under supplemental security income under subchapter XVI. This rule does not apply for any month beginning after the President pardons the conduct underlying the conviction. (9) Fugitive felons and probation or parole violators. (A) A State may not use grant money to assist an individual who (i) is fleeing to avoid prosecution, or custody or confinement after conviction, under the law of the place from which the individual flees, for a crime or attempted crime that is a felony there, or, in New Jersey, a high misdemeanor; or (ii) is violating a Federal or State probation or parole condition. This rule does not apply for any month beginning after the President pardons the conduct. (B) If the State has safeguards for information about applicants or recipients, those safeguards may not stop the administering agency from giving a Federal, State, or local law-enforcement officer a recipient's current address on request when the officer gives the recipient's name and says that (i) the recipient (I) fits (A), or (II) has information needed for the officer's official duties, and (ii) locating or apprehending the recipient is part of those duties. (10) Children absent from home. (A) A State may not use grant money to assist a minor child who has been, or whom a parent or other caretaker relative expects to be, away from home for 45 straight days. Instead, the State may choose a period of at least 30 and at most 180 straight days provided in its section 602 State plan. (B) The State may create appropriate good-cause exceptions if they are in that plan. (C) A State may not assist a parent or other caretaker relative who does not notify the administering agency that the child is absent for the period set by (A), by the end of the five-day period beginning when it becomes clear the child will be absent for that period. (11) Medical assistance for certain families. (A) Employment earnings. A State with a plan approved under subchapter XIX must provide that a family treated under section 1396u-1(b)(1)(A), for subchapter XIX purposes, as receiving aid under a plan under this part as it existed on July 16, 1996, remains eligible for medical assistance under the State's subchapter XIX plan for the extended period or periods provided in section 1396r-6 or 1396a(e)(1), as applicable, and is properly notified of the extension as section 1396r-6(a)(2) requires. This applies when the family would lose that aid because of the caretaker relative's work hours or income, or because of section 602(a)(8)(B)(ii)(II), and the family was treated as receiving the aid in at least 3 of the 6 months immediately before ineligibility begins. (B) Child support. The same kind of State plan must provide that a family treated in the same way as receiving such aid remains eligible for medical assistance for the periods provided in section 1396u-1(c)(1) when it would lose that aid wholly or partly because child or spousal support was collected under part D, if it was so treated in at least 3 of the preceding 6 months. (12) Preventing unauthorized benefit spending. (A) A State must maintain policies and practices needed to prevent assistance under its program from being used in an electronic benefit transfer transaction at (i) a liquor store; (ii) a casino, gambling casino, or gaming establishment; or (iii) a retail business providing adult-oriented entertainment in which performers disrobe or perform unclothed. (B) Definitions. (i) “Liquor store” means a retail business selling exclusively or mainly intoxicating liquor. It does not include a grocery store that sells intoxicating liquor and groceries, including staple foods within section 3(r) of the Food and Nutrition Act of 2008. (ii) “Casino,” “gambling casino,” and “gaming establishment” do not include (I) a grocery store selling groceries including those staple foods that also offers, or is in the same building or complex as, casino, gambling, or gaming activities, or (II) another business where those activities are incidental to the business's main purpose. (iii) “Electronic benefit transfer transaction” means using a credit or debit card service, automated teller machine, point-of-sale terminal, or online system to withdraw funds or process payment for merchandise or a service. (b) Individual responsibility plans. (1) Assessment. The State agency administering the program must initially assess each recipient's skills, previous work experience, and ability to work if the recipient (A) is at least 18, or (B) has not finished high school or earned an equivalent certificate and is not attending secondary school. (2) Plan contents. (A) Based on the assessment under this subsection, the agency may, in consultation with the individual, create an individual responsibility plan that (i) states an employment goal and a plan to move the individual immediately into private-sector work; (ii) states the individual's duties, which may include attending school, keeping specified grades and attendance, keeping the individual's school-age children in school, immunizing children, attending parenting or money-management classes, or doing other things that help the person become and stay employed privately; (iii) is designed as much as possible to move the individual quickly into any private-sector work the person can handle and increase the person's responsibility and amount of work over time; (iv) describes the State services that will help the person obtain and keep private-sector work, including job counseling and other services; and (v) may require suitable substance-abuse treatment. (B) Timing. For a person already receiving aid under the preexisting part A plan when this part took effect, the agency may complete the paragraph (1) assessment within 90 days, or within 180 days if the State chooses, after the effective date. For any other person, it may do so within 30 days, or within 90 days if the State chooses, after eligibility is determined. (3) Penalty. In addition to other required penalties, the State may reduce assistance by an amount it considers appropriate for a family containing a person who, without good cause, fails to follow an individual responsibility plan that person signed. (4) State discretion. Use of this subsection is solely up to the State. (c) Sanctions are not wage reductions. A State penalty against an individual's family for failing to meet a program requirement is not a reduction of wages paid to the individual. (d) Nondiscrimination. These laws apply to every program or activity receiving money under this part: (1) the Age Discrimination Act of 1975; (2) section 794 of title 29; (3) the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990; and (4) title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. (e) Special rules for certain aliens. See title IV of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 for special rules about treating certain aliens. (f) Special rules for non-213A aliens. These rules apply if a State chooses to count a sponsor's income or resources in deciding whether a non-213A alien qualifies for assistance, or how much or what kind of assistance to provide. (1) Sponsor income and resources. For three years after the alien enters the United States: (A) Income rule. The income of the alien's sponsor and the sponsor's spouse counts as the alien's income to the extent it exceeds the sum of (i) the lesser of (I) 20 percent of the sponsor's and spouse's monthly wages, salary, or net self-employment earnings, plus all their costs of producing self-employment income that month, or (II) $175; (ii) the State cash-needs standard for a family of the same size and composition as the sponsor and the other household members claimed by the sponsor as dependents for Federal income-tax purposes whose needs are not counted in deciding whether the sponsor's family meets that standard; (iii) amounts the sponsor or spouse pays to dependents who do not live in the household; and (iv) alimony or child support paid for people outside the household. (B) Resource rule. The sponsor's and spouse's resources count as the alien's resources to the extent their combined value exceeds $1,500. (C) Multiple aliens. If one person sponsors two or more non-213A aliens living in the same home, the sponsor's and spouse's income and resources that would count under (A) and (B) are divided into equal shares, one for each alien, and each alien is counted as having one share. (2) Agency sponsors. A non-213A alien sponsored by a public or private agency is ineligible for three years after entry unless the State agency finds the sponsor no longer exists or can no longer meet the alien's needs. (3) Information. (A) The alien, as a condition of eligibility during those three years, must give the State agency sponsor information and documents needed for the agency's decisions and to obtain needed sponsor cooperation, plus information and documents that the agency requests and that the alien or sponsor supplied with the immigration application. (B) The Secretary must make agreements with the Secretary of State and the Attorney General so that information available to them and needed for a decision under this subsection is given to the Secretary, who may provide it on request to the concerned State agency. (4) “Non-213A alien” means an alien whose sponsor's affidavit of support or similar agreement for the alien's entry was executed other than under section 213A of the Immigration and Nationality Act. This section does not otherwise define “alien,” “sponsor,” or “affidavit of support.” (5) This subsection does not apply to a minor alien child if the alien's sponsor or the sponsor's spouse is the alien's parent. (6) This subsection does not apply to an alien (A) admitted as a refugee under section 207 of the Immigration and Nationality Act; (B) paroled into the United States under section 212(d)(5) of that Act for at least one year; or (C) granted political asylum by the Attorney General under section 208 of that Act. (g) Required information. At least four times each year and whenever the Immigration and Naturalization Service asks, each State receiving a section 603 grant must give that Service the name, address, and other identifying information of every person the State knows is not lawfully present in the United States.