Backdate CT TANF

[hua7450]

Summary

Backdates Connecticut Temporary Family Assistance (TFA) parameters, adds regional payment standards, housing subsidy provision, and replaces hardcoded payment standard tables with a formula-based approach using FPG.

Closes #7482
Closes #6639

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Connecticut TFA Income Rules

Regulatory Authority

• Connecticut General Statutes § 17b-104(a) — Standard of Need (55% FPL)
• Connecticut General Statutes § 17b-104(c) — Payment Standard (73% of Need Standard)
• Connecticut General Statutes § 17b-104(d) — Housing Subsidy (92% of Payment Standard)
• Connecticut General Statutes § 17b-112(c) — Earned Income Deduction ($90/person)
• Connecticut General Statutes § 17b-112(d) — Child Support Pass-Through, Resource Limit, Income Eligibility, High-Earnings Reduction
• CT TANF State Plan 2024-2026 — Statewide Payment Standards
• CT TANF State Plan 2021-2023 — Regional Payment Standards (pre-2022)
• SSA POMS SI BOS00830.403 — Regional Payment Standards (Effective July 1, 2014)
• SSA POMS SI BOS00830.403 (archived 2011) — Regional Payment Standards (Effective July 1, 1995)

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1. INCOME ELIGIBILITY TESTS

Resource Limit

Period	Limit
2017-10-01 to 2023-09-30	$3,000
2023-10-01 onward	$6,000

Source: CT TANF State Plan 2024-2026, Resource Limit, CGS § 17b-112(d)

Recipient Income Eligibility

Period	Limit
2018-01-01 to 2023-12-31	100% FPL
2024-01-01 onward	230% FPL

Source: CT TANF State Plan 2024-2026, Recipient Income Eligibility, CGS § 17b-112(d)

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2. INCOME DEDUCTIONS & EXEMPTIONS

A. Child Support Deduction — CGS § 17b-112(d)

• Amount: Up to $50 deducted from gross unearned income
• Effective: 2017-10-01

B. New Applicant Earned Income Deduction — CGS § 17b-112(c)

• Amount: $90 flat deduction per person from gross earned income
• Effective: 2017-10-01

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3. INCOME STANDARDS BY FAMILY SIZE

Statewide Formula (2022-07-01 onward) — CGS § 17b-104(a)(c)

Payment Standard = 73% × Need Standard = 73% × 55% × FPG

No statutory cap on family size. FPG updates annually following the October fiscal-year convention.

Family Size	2024-01 (2023 FPG)	2026-01 (2025 FPG)
1	$487.82	$523.62
3	$831.77	$891.66
8	$1,691.65	$1,811.77
10	$2,035.61	(uncapped)

Source: CGS § 17b-104(c), CT TANF State Plan 2024-2026, p.53

Regional Payment Standards — Post-COLA (Effective 2014-07-01 to 2022-06-30)

Family Size	Region A	Region B	Region C
1	$443	$366	$366
2	$563	$487	$487
3	$698	$597	$589
4	$815	$701	$684
5	$919	$803	$779
6	$1,028	$908	$885
7	$1,143	$1,026	$994
8	$1,257	$1,134	$1,100

Source: SSA POMS SI BOS00830.403 (labeled "Effective July 1, 2014")

Regional Payment Standards — Original AFDC-Inherited (Effective 1997-01-01 to 2014-06-30)

Family Size	Region A	Region B	Region C
1	$402	$333	$333
2	$513	$443	$443
3	$636	$543	$536
4	$741	$639	$622
5	$835	$731	$708
6	$935	$827	$805
7	$1,040	$933	$904
8	$1,143	$1,031	$1,001

Source: SSA POMS SI BOS00830.403 (Wayback Machine, 2011) (labeled "Effective July 1, 1995")

Amounts were frozen from 1995 through 2007, then received CPI adjustments in FY2008, FY2009, FY2014, and FY2015. The regional system was abolished by PA 22-118 § 236 effective July 1, 2022.

Need Standard Rate: 55% of FPL (from 2022-07-01) — CGS § 17b-104(a)

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4. BENEFIT CALCULATION

Formula:

Benefit = Adjusted Payment Standard − Countable Unearned Income

Housing Subsidy — CGS § 17b-104(d):

Families receiving housing assistance get 92% of the payment standard:

Adjusted Standard = Payment Standard × 0.92   (if receiving housing assistance)
Adjusted Standard = Payment Standard           (otherwise)

High-Earnings Reduction — CGS § 17b-112(d), effective 2024-01-01:

When gross earned income ≥ 171% of FPL, benefit is reduced by 20%:

Reduced Benefit = Benefit × 0.80

Source: CT TANF State Plan 2024-2026, p.10

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5. REPLACING TABLE VALUES WITH FORMULA-BASED RATES

Why

The previous implementation stored payment standards as a hardcoded table (amount.yaml) with dollar values by family size, effective 2023-10-01 and 2025-03-01. This had two problems:

1. Period gap: For July 2022 – September 2023 (when the statewide formula was in effect but before the first table entry), the table backward-extrapolated October 2023 values, overstating payment standards by $60–$200 depending on family size.
2. Manual updates: Each FPG change required manually computing and entering 8 new dollar values.

How

CGS § 17b-104(c) defines the payment standard as a formula, not a fixed table:

Payment Standard = 73% × Need Standard = 73% × 55% × FPG

This PR replaces the hardcoded table with a single rate parameter (payment_standard_rate = 0.73) and chains through existing variables:

ct_tfa_payment_standard → payment_standard_rate × ct_tfa_need_standard → 0.73 × 0.55 × tanf_fpg

The formula dynamically computes the correct payment standard for any period using the appropriate FPG (via the October fiscal-year convention already implemented in tanf_fpg). No family size cap applies — CGS § 17b-104 does not specify a maximum, and SSA POMS lists amounts up to 20 persons.

Validation: Formula vs State Plan Table

Comparing formula-computed values against the CT TANF State Plan 2024-2026 table (p.53) using 2023 FPG:

Size	Formula (0.73 × 0.55 × FPG/12)	State Plan Table	Diff
1	$487.82	$489	+$1.18
2	$659.80	$661	+$1.20
3	$831.77	$833	+$1.23
4	$1,003.75	$1,044	+$40.25
5	$1,175.73	$1,177	+$1.27
6	$1,347.70	$1,349	+$1.30
7	$1,519.68	$1,520	+$0.32
8	$1,691.65	$1,693	+$1.35

All sizes are within ~$1–2 of the formula except size 4, which is off by $40.25. This is likely a typo in the State Plan — $1,044 should read $1,004 (the digits 0 and 4 are adjacent). Every other size follows a consistent ~$1 rounding pattern.

Our implementation uses the formula, which we believe is correct per the statute.

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Changes in this PR

Parameters — New:

• payment_standard_rate.yaml — 73% rate per CGS § 17b-104(c), effective 2022-07-01
• regional_in_effect.yaml — boolean guard (true 1997-01-01, false 2022-07-01)
• regional/region_a/amount.yaml, region_b/amount.yaml, region_c/amount.yaml — regional payment standard tables (1997-01-01 AFDC amounts + 2014-07-01 COLA amounts)
• housing_subsidy_rate.yaml — 92% rate per CGS § 17b-104(d), effective 1995-07-01
• high_earnings/in_effect.yaml — boolean toggle (false before 2024, true from 2024-01-01)

Parameters — Modified:

• Backdated child support deduction, earned income deduction, max unit size, resource limit to 2017-10-01
• Resource limit: added $3,000 (2017-10-01) before the existing $6,000 (2023-10-01)
• Added specific CGS subsections to all references: § 17b-112(c) for earned income, § 17b-112(d) for others
• Added descriptive suffixes to State Plan page 10 references
• Removed incorrect CGS § 17b-112(c) citation from new applicant deduction (per review finding)

Parameters — Deleted:

• payment/amount.yaml — hardcoded payment standard table by family size (replaced by formula-based approach)

Variables — New:

• ct_tfa_region enum (REGION_A, REGION_B, REGION_C) with default REGION_B

Variables — Modified:

• ct_tfa_payment_standard.py — rewritten: statewide path now uses payment_standard_rate × ct_tfa_need_standard (chaining through tanf_fpg), eliminating the hardcoded table and correctly computing payment standards for any period; regional path uses select() by region with capped size lookup
• ct_tfa.py — added housing subsidy adjustment (92% for housing-assisted households), added high-earnings reduction (20% when earned income ≥ 171% FPG, guarded by in_effect toggle)

Tests:

• Updated all statewide payment standard test values to formula-computed amounts (e.g., size 3: $831.77 from FPG, not $833 from table)
• Added 2025 FPG-based test cases (2026-01 period)
• Added regional payment standard tests for all 3 regions across 2015, 2020, 2021 periods
• Added effective date transition tests (post-2014 COLA amounts)
• Added housing subsidy tests (statewide + regional, with/without unearned income, zero floor)
• Added high-earnings reduction tests (with/without unearned income, zero floor)
• Added 2023-01 test case validating the period gap fix ($770.55 from 2022 FPG, not extrapolated $833)
• Added historical resource limit tests ($3,000 in 2020 vs $6,000 in 2024)
• Added integration tests: housing subsidy, regional with unearned income, large household

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[codecov]

Codecov Report

✅ All modified and coverable lines are covered by tests.
✅ Project coverage is 100.00%. Comparing base (55a0045) to head (7fda7ae).
⚠️ Report is 2 commits behind head on main.

Additional details and impacted files

@@             Coverage Diff             @@
##             main     #7483      +/-   ##
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+ Coverage   97.82%   100.00%   +2.17%     
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  Files           3         3              
  Lines          92        58      -34     
  Branches        2         2              
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- Hits           90        58      -32     
+ Misses          1         0       -1     
+ Partials        1         0       -1     

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