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New Hampshire FANF: recipient_rate gives every recipient the 75% Cliff Effect pilot disregard from September 2022; He-W 654.13(e) and FAM 603.01 set 50%

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Since Oct 16, 2026.

  • #10251 by @PavelMakarchuk — open

Assessment

Difficulty
2/5
Estimated time
1-3 hours
Newbie friendliness
72/100
Issue type
Bug
Clarity
Clearly specified
Activity status
Active
Tech stack
python
Domain
backend

Research direction

Read the recipient_rate parameter metadata and the nh_fanf_countable_earned_income formula, then run the reproduction in the issue to confirm the 2025 result. Update the rate and document the pilot limitation as described; verify that countable income and the FANF amount reflect the 50% disregard. The separate applicant-exception defect is explicitly out of scope.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Description

bug hhs/tanf states/nh

Summary

gov.states.nh.dhhs.fanf.income.earned_income_disregard.recipient_rate is 0.5 from 1997-02-01 and 0.75 from 2022-09-01, and nh_fanf_countable_earned_income applies it to every enrolled unit's earnings. The parameter cites the New Hampshire TANF State Plan, "Cliff Effect Initiative" (p. 29 of the plan effective October 1, 2023). That section describes a narrower measure: "Participants are eligible for a 75% TANF earned income disregard when starting a new full-time position or current employment increase to full time", and a 100% disregard for high-demand jobs with medical benefits "during the two-year pilot. The pilot was implemented in September 2022." DHHS's Cliff Effect Progress Report (March 2023), Tables 1-2, lists it as a voluntary "two-year pilot program, October 1, 2022 – September 30, 2024" for "any TANF participant that starts new full-time employment" (62 participants had the 75% disregard at the report date).

New Hampshire's rule for recipients is still 50%:

  • He-W 654.13(e) (source note ends "ss by #11186, eff 9-20-16"): "The 50% EID shall be used to determine: (1) The eligibility and the benefit amount for current FANF financial assistance recipients; ...". The State Plan effective 10/1/2020 said the rule was "being amended to include 75% ongoing beyond the pilot"; He-W 654.13 was not amended, while He-W 654.14 (child care age bands, another Cliff Effect item) was (#13665, eff 6-21-23).
  • FAM 603.01 (SR 14-04; same text in an August 2026 web-archive copy): "50% of gross earned income of current recipients, or of applicants who have received FANF assistance within the 6 month period prior to application".
  • NCCP TANF State Profile 2025/2026, New Hampshire: "Parents may deduct 50% of gross earned income" in the benefit calculation.

So PE counts a quarter of an enrolled unit's earnings where New Hampshire counts half: the grant is higher by 25% of earnings (up to the payment standard), and enrolled units stay eligible with earnings up to four times the payment standard instead of two.

Reproduction

Same result on policyengine-us 1.811.2 (45d51ef5d4) and on main (26348e7cf7).

from policyengine_us import Simulation
sim = Simulation(situation={
    "people": {"a": {"age": {2025: 30}, "employment_income": {2025: 18_000}},
               "b": {"age": {2025: 5}}, "c": {"age": {2025: 2}}},
    "spm_units": {"s": {"members": ["a", "b", "c"], "is_tanf_enrolled": {2025: True}}},
    "households": {"h": {"members": ["a", "b", "c"], "state_name": {2025: "NH"}}},
})
sim.calculate("nh_fanf_payment_standard", "2025-01")         # 1,332.50 = 60% x 26,650 / 12
sim.calculate("nh_fanf_countable_earned_income", "2025-01")  # 375 = 25% x 1,500
sim.calculate("nh_fanf", 2025)                               # 11,490 = 12 x (1,332.50 - 375)

Expected with the 50% disregard: 12 x (1,332.50 - 750) = $6,990.

Possible fix

Set recipient_rate to 0.5 throughout and note the pilot in the metadata (the inputs cannot identify the pilot group: participants who started or moved to full-time work, October 2022 to September 2024).

Related, separate defect in the same formula: He-W 654.13(d) and FAM 603.01 ("Exception") compute the benefit of an applicant who passes the 20% eligibility test with the 50% disregard; nh_fanf_countable_earned_income uses 20% for both the test and the benefit of a unit that is not enrolled.

Impact

PRD comparison (2025 aligned view, shared set): the cause applies to 16 New Hampshire SPM units; $128,941 of PE - PRD (2026: $129,364). Cause tanf_nh_recipient_disregard.

Dominant language
Python
Stars
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Forks
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Avg merge
3d 5h
Merged PRs (30d)
329

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