Consider Extra Unemployment Compensation Income

The recently passed American Recovery and Reinvestment Act authorizes states to pay an additional $25 in unemployment compensation. HUD recently clarified that the law does not provide for this money to be excluded from income in assisted housing programs, so you must include it in calculations of annual income.

However, the same law provides special one-time payments of $250 to certain recipients of Social Security, Supplemental Security Income (SSI), Railroad Retirement benefits, and Veteran Disability compensation or pension benefits. Payment of these benefits is set to begin in May 2009. To receive the payment, the individual must be eligible for Social Security or SSI during the months of November 2008, December 2008, or January 2009. The law specifically excludes these payments as income in all federal assistance programs, so you should not include them in your calculations of resident or applicant annual income. This is the opposite of what you should do for the extra unemployment benefit.

Under regulations defining “income,” if a new law specifically excludes an amount as income, you must exclude it.

Don't Consider Tax Credits Income

The Making Work Pay Credit, created under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, provides some people with a special $400 or $800 federal income tax credit. Tax credits have no impact on the calculation of resident or applicant annual income. Don't count the credit as income. Annual income means income before tax deductions or credits.

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