16 Del. Admin. Code § 3000-3023
Applicants must reside in Delaware to be eligible for benefits. Persons including the homeless (those with no fixed address or not living in a permanent dwelling) who currently live in Delaware and plan to stay, regardless of the length of time they have been here, meet the residency requirement. Verification of residence is required at the time of application, at each subsequent redetermination, and any time an address change is reported.
Persons who reside in Delaware but because of local mailing practices have an out- of- state address are considered residents.
Examples of acceptable verification of residence are a landlord statement, a lease, a utility bill, or a collateral statement.
Before an application for cash assistance can be approved, DSS must verify that an applicant who moved to Delaware within three (3) months of the application filing date is not a recipient of assistance in the state where he/she previously resided. The eligibility worker will contact the public assistance agency in that state to verify the client's status with the agency. The client's written notice that benefits have ended is also acceptable verification.
Cash assistance checks must be mailed to the residence of the recipient, protective, or voluntary payee unless the recipient:
Lives in an area where home delivery is not available or customary and the situation is verified. These recipients may have their cash assistance checks mailed to their own post office box.
OR
Lives in an area where theft of benefits is prevalent and the theft is documented in the case record by reports to the police or the postal inspector. These recipients may have their public assistance checks mailed to their own post office box or the local DSS office. If a local DSS office is used, the recipient must take steps to obtain their own post office box.
OR
Is homeless. These recipients may have their cash assistance checks mailed to the local DSS office.
RESERVED
Migrant families claiming Delaware residence meet the residency requirement if the family:
Recipients do not lose their residence status because of a temporary visit out of state provided that the visit does not exceed thirty (30) days and the recipients:
The assistance case of a recipient who leaves the State with the intent to establish residence in another state must be closed. The recipient may receive one grant payment after leaving the State if he/she is ineligible in the new state until residency is established. No further payments can be made to a client living out of state without the written approval of the DSS Director. To obtain approval, a memo listing the reasons that the grant should continue is sent to the Director.
A child who is temporarily absent from the home to receive medical care, or to attend school elsewhere because of special educational needs, such as enrollment in the Job Corps or Sterck School For the Deaf, may receive assistance if the following conditions exist:
The nature and anticipated length of the absence is documented in the case record.
Children absent from the home for any other reasons longer than one hundred twenty (120) days may not continue to receive assistance.
Note: A child who is absent from the home as the result of a court action is not considered temporarily absent. In such cases the assistance for the child is terminated.
A caretaker who is temporarily absent from the home to receive medical care can receive cash assistance for a period not to exceed 90 days provided that:
The nature of the caretaker's health problem and the anticipated length of the absence must be verified by a physician. If the absence continues for more than 90 days, the assistance case must be closed. The adult caring for the children in the assistance unit at the time of the closing may apply for assistance for the children if they are still in need.
In active cases, a caretaker who is temporarily absent from the home for reasons other than to receive medical care (e.g., to handle a family emergency or seek employment) may continue to receive assistance for a period not to exceed thirty (30) days if the conditions listed in DSSM 3023.5 are met.
The nature and anticipated length of the absence must be documented in the case record. If the absence continues for more than thirty (30) days, the assistance case must be closed. The adult caring for the children in the assistance unit at the time of the closing may apply for assistance for the children if they are still in need.
No grant payment may be authorized or continued for an institutionalized individual. Examples of institutions include veteran's institutions, state mental institutions, hospitals for tuberculosis and prisons.
People can only receive one cash assistance payment for themselves at a time. This means that a person cannot be open in more than one DCIS case nor can they be open in more than one assistance group at the same time.
This does not preclude a person moving in the same month from GA assistance group to a TANF assistance group in the same month. Please see DSSM 3023.9.1 ABC and GA Overlapping Eligibility Exception.
An individual can receive a GA benefit and become eligible for TANF in the same month. The individual is entitled to the difference between the GA benefit received and the TANF benefit. An example of this is when a pregnant woman receiving GA has her baby and is opened in TANF. In this situation the GA assistance group is closed for the mother after the baby is born.
16 Del. Admin. Code § 3000-3023