f. Verifying Compliance Based on Monthly Income

The statute provides two additional pathways for an individual to demonstrate community engagement: (1) Section 1902(xx)(2)(F) of the Act specifies that an applicable individual demonstrates community engagement if they have a monthly income that is not less than the applicable Federal minimum wage requirement under section 6 of the FLSA multiplied by 80 hours, and (2) Section 1902(xx)(2)(G) of the Act specifies that a seasonal worker described in section 45R(d)(5)(B) of the Code demonstrates community engagement if they have an average monthly income over the preceding 6 months that is not less than the applicable Federal minimum wage requirement multiplied by 80 hours. See section II.C.8. of this IFC for further details about who qualifies as a seasonal worker.

As described in section II.C.8. of this IFC and implemented at § 435.552(f), the determination of “monthly income” for the purpose of demonstrating community engagement refers to the same MAGI-based methodologies used for financial eligibility under § 435.603. States generally do not need to establish separate data sources to verify that an applicable individual demonstrated community engagement based on their monthly income or average monthly income. Rather, to verify community engagement on this basis, States should use the same data sources they use to verify financial eligibility. We note that, for seasonal workers, an average income for the preceding 6 months must be calculated for each month in which an applicable individual is required to demonstrate community engagement, if the State does not elect to use a reasonable predictable changes methodology. Please see section II.C.8. of this IFC for more information about averaging income for seasonal workers, including an example of how the 6-month average is constructed for a given month of the review period.

For a State that has elected a reasonably predictable changes methodology as part of its MAGI-based methodologies (as discussed earlier in section II.C.8. of this IFC), we expect the monthly income in each of the preceding 6 months to be relatively stable because the income determination will have considered a prorated portion of the household's fluctuating income.