Reserves, Income, and Resources to Be Disregarded

  1. Law
  2. Georgia Code
  3. Social Services
  4. Public Assistance
  5. General Provisions
  6. Reserves, Income, and Resources to Be Disregarded

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  1. In determining eligibility for and the amount and kind of public assistance to be provided, the board shall prescribe by regulations reasonable emergency reserves and the income and resources which may be exempt and disregarded. With respect to any category of assistance, the income and resources to be disregarded shall not be in excess of the amounts and kinds authorized under the federal Social Security Act and shall not be less than the amounts and kinds of income and resources required to be disregarded by the federal Social Security Act and any other act of Congress relating to the assistance programs in which federal financial participation is authorized under Titles IV, XVI, XIX, and XX of the federal Social Security Act.
  2. Notwithstanding any other provision of this Code section, this chapter, or state law, to the extent that such disregard does not violate federal law or terminate or decrease the state's eligibility for federal funding for public assistance or for disabled persons, the Department of Human Services, the Department of Community Health, and their successors shall disregard for the purpose of eligibility for public assistance or assistance for disabled persons any funds or property held in trust for a disabled person by a community trust created and administered in accordance with Chapter 10 of Title 30, a trust for a person with one or more impairments with substantially similar provisions for distributions, or any noncash distributions from such trusts.

(Ga. L. 1965, p. 385, § 14; Ga. L. 1967, p. 878, § 5; Ga. L. 1982, p. 3, § 49; Ga. L. 1987, p. 1435, § 1; Ga. L. 1990, p. 45, § 1; Ga. L. 1996, p. 804, § 3; Ga. L. 1999, p. 296, § 24; Ga. L. 2009, p. 453, § 2-2/HB 228; Ga. L. 2015, p. 5, § 49/HB 90.)

The 2015 amendment, effective March 13, 2015, part of an Act to revise, modernize, and correct the Code, deleted former subsection (b), which read: "For purposes of applying the $50.00 child support disregard provided for in Title IV of the federal Social Security Act, amounts paid by the Social Security Administration under the Old Age Survivors and Disability Insurance (OASDI) program, payments made by the United States Department of Veterans Affairs to the family, and any other benefits not assignable to the state pursuant to Title IV of the federal Social Security Act shall not be considered child support."; and redesignated former subsection (c) as present subsection (b).

Code Commission notes.

- Pursuant to Code Section 28-9-5, in 1996, "community trust" was substituted for "Community Trust" in subsection (c).

Editor's notes.

- Ga. L. 1987, p. 1435, § 5(b), not codified by the General Assembly, provided: "Subsection (b) of Code Section 49-4-6, as amended by Section 1 of this Act, is repealed effective on the date on which the federal acts referenced herein or any federal regulations or interpretations of such act or regulations by the federal agency or a judicial decision binding on the State of Georgia are amended or changed to allow federal financial participation in AFDC payments which treat social security disability benefits or veterans' benefits in the same manner as other child support payments."

Those provisions of Title IV of the federal Social Security Act relating to the child support disregard (42 U.S.C. § 602(a)(8)(A)(vi)) were repealed by § 103 of P.L. 104-193, the "Personal Responsibility & Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996."

U.S. Code.

- Titles IV, XVI, XIX, and XX of the federal Social Security Act, referred to in this Code section, are codified at 42 U.S.C. §§ 601 et seq., 1381 et seq., 1396 et seq., 1397 et seq., respectively.

Law reviews.

- For article, "Special Needs Trusts: A Planning Tool with Promises," see 16 (No. 2) Ga. St. B.J. 18 (2010).

JUDICIAL DECISIONS

Validity of 1987 amendment.

- The 1987 amendment to O.C.G.A. § 49-4-6 was presumed valid notwithstanding a contention that the amendment was passed in violation of the Fiscal Note Act (O.C.G.A. § 28-5-42), which mandates that "any bill having a significant impact on the anticipated revenue or expenditure level of any state department ... or other state agency must be introduced no later than the twentieth day of any session." Wilson v. Ledbetter, 194 Ga. App. 32, 389 S.E.2d 771 (1989), rev'd on other grounds, 260 Ga. 180, 390 S.E.2d 846 (1990).

RESEARCH REFERENCES

ALR.

- Personal injury recovery as affecting eligibility for, or duty to reimburse, public welfare assistance, 80 A.L.R.3d 772.

Validity of statutes or regulations denying welfare benefits to claimants who transfer property for less than its full value, 24 A.L.R.4th 215.


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