Participants must cooperate with child support requirements.

The requirement to cooperate with child support enforcement applies to parents:

· Receiving MFIP assistance.

· Receiving SSI but whose children are receiving MFIP assistance.

· Disqualified from receiving MFIP assistance because of fraud, or EBT misuse.

· Not receiving MFIP assistance because the 2-parent household chose to have that parent’s assistance discontinued, see 18.21 (Two-Parent Families & Extensions).

Participants are exempt from cooperating with child support if one of the following is true:

· The parent is enrolled in the Safe at Home program, see 8.36 (Resources for Addressing Family Violence).

· The child was conceived as a result of rape or incest.

· Legal proceedings for the adoption of the child or children are pending.

· The parent is working with a public or private social services agency in trying to decide whether to give a child up for adoption. (The decision process cannot last for more than 3 months).

· Cooperation will cause physical or emotional harm to the child.

· Cooperation will cause physical or emotional harm to the parent, reducing the parent’s ability to adequately care for the child.

For more information about good cause for exemptions from cooperating with child support, see Combined Manual 0012.21.03 (Support From Non-Custodial Parents).