Implement Kentucky State Supplementary Payment

[hua7450]

Summary

Implements Kentucky's State Supplementary Payment (SSP) — a state-administered, state-funded optional supplement to federal SSI covering Personal Care Home (PCH), Community Integration Supplementation (CIS), Family Care Home (FCH), and Caretaker Services categories.

Closes #8018

Regulatory Authority

• 921 KAR 2:015 — State Supplementation (primary)
• KRS 205.245 (enabling statute)
• CHFS Division of Family Support Operation Manual, Volume V, MS 1200 (R. 3/9/26, OMTL-690) (operational payment table)

Program Overview

• Administration: State-administered (Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services, Division of Family Support).
• Funding: State funds.
• Covered categories (921 KAR 2:015 §4(1)(c)): Personal Care Home, Family Care Home, Community Integration Supplementation, Caretaker Services in a private residence.
• Excluded: Medicaid/Title XIX nursing home residents are NOT supplemented by this program.

Eligibility

Requirement	Source	How Modeled
SSI categorical eligibility (ABD + resources + immigration)	§4(1)(a) / §3(3)	is_ssi_eligible
Income below state standard of need	§4(1)(b)	ssi_countable_income < ky_ssp_payment_standard
Residence in a qualifying category	§4(1)(c)	ky_ssp_category != NONE
Age ≥ 18	§4(1)(c)1–4	age >= 18
Kentucky residence	Program statute	defined_for = StateCode.KY

SSI receipt NOT required — §4(1)(b) accepts applicants whose SSI categorical criteria are met but whose income is above the federal FBR yet below the state standard (Group 2 pathway).

Benefit Amounts (MS 1200 page 1, effective 1/1/2026)

Category	Claim Type	Monthly Standard	Annual
Personal Care Home (PCH)	Individual	$1,610	$19,320
Community Integration Supplementation (CIS)	Individual	$1,514	$18,168
Family Care Home (FCH)	Individual	$1,166	$13,992
Caretaker Services	Individual	$1,056	$12,672
Caretaker Services	Individual w/ Ineligible Spouse	$1,056	$12,672
Caretaker Services	Eligible Couple (one receives care)	$1,552 total (stored as $776/person)	$18,624 total
Caretaker Services	Eligible Couple (both receive care)	$1,606 total (stored as $803/person)	$19,272 total

Personal Needs Allowance (§9(3)–(4); informational, not deducted from benefit):

• PCH residents: $60/mo
• FCH residents: $40/mo

Couple treatment:

• PCH / CIS / FCH: each spouse receives the individual standard (no reduced couple rate in §9(1)(a),(b),(d)).
• Caretaker: couple rates stored per-person (= couple total / 2). Under SSI's joint couple equal-split, the per-person formula reproduces the §9(2)(b) "one-half of the deficit to each" outcome.

COLA: Standards updated by CHFS MS 1200 annually.

Not Modeled (by design)

What	Source	Why Excluded
Medicaid/Title XIX nursing home residents	§4(1)(c)	KY SSP explicitly limited to PCH, FCH, CIS, and Caretaker Services; nursing homes receive SSI $30 PNA federally, not a state supplement
"Private Residence with SMI" distinct from CIS	§9(1)(d)	Modeled as the CIS category (KY uses CIS as the administrative name for this standard)
Per-spouse distribution of Caretaker "Eligible Couple, One Receives Care" benefit	OMVOLV example #6	Regulation pays full supplement to the care receiver only; model distributes equally across both eligible spouses. Household total matches regulation exactly.
Historical values prior to 2026-01-01	N/A	Parameters explicitly zeroed before 2026 start date; can be backdated when historical CHFS manuals are located

Files

policyengine_us/parameters/gov/states/ky/dcbs/ssp/
├── payment_standard.yaml
└── personal_needs_allowance/
    ├── pch.yaml
    └── fch.yaml
policyengine_us/variables/gov/states/ky/dcbs/ssp/
├── ky_ssp.py
├── ky_ssp_care_receivers.py
├── ky_ssp_category.py
├── ky_ssp_claim_type.py
├── ky_ssp_eligible.py
├── ky_ssp_payment_standard.py
└── ky_ssp_personal_needs_allowance.py
policyengine_us/tests/policy/baseline/gov/states/ky/dcbs/ssp/
├── integration.yaml
├── ky_ssp.yaml
├── ky_ssp_claim_type.yaml
├── ky_ssp_eligible.yaml
├── ky_ssp_payment_standard.yaml
└── ky_ssp_personal_needs_allowance.yaml
policyengine_us/variables/household/income/spm_unit/spm_unit_benefits.py    # + ky_ssp in BENEFITS list
policyengine_us/parameters/gov/household/household_state_benefits.yaml      # + ky_ssp in 2023 and 2024 sections
policyengine_us/programs.yaml                                                # + KY entry under ssi_state_supplement

Verification TODO

• Verify payment amounts against CHFS MS 1200 page 1
• Verify eligibility logic against 921 KAR 2:015 §4(1)
• Verify couple rate logic against 921 KAR 2:015 §9(2) and OMVOLV examples Implement policy parameter for % of poverty line below which gross monthly income must be for SNAP #6 and Add CPS module to openfisca-data #7
• Verify Medicaid facility exclusion against §4(1)(c)
• Verify Group 2 (non-SSI) pathway against §4(1)(b) and §3(3)
• Backdate values for 2017–2025 once historical CHFS MS 1200 manuals are located
• CI passes

Review-feedback fixes (latest push)

• Changed ky_ssp_category and ky_ssp_care_receivers from entity = Household to entity = Person (a person lives in a facility, not a household).
• Fixed PCH/FCH/CIS couple-standard calculation — removed erroneous / 2 that was halving couple benefits for categories with no reduced couple rate.
• Stored CARETAKER couple rates per-person in the parameter file so the formula is uniform across all categories; removed marital_unit.sum / 2 branching in ky_ssp.py.
• Added docstring and comments citing §4(1)(b) (Group 2 pathway), §4(1)(c) (covered categories; Medicaid facility exclusion), and §9(2) (couple treatment).
• Cleaned up PNA parameter descriptions to follow standard template ("provides this amount...").
• Rewrote integration tests to use real income sources (social_security, employment_income) rather than injected SSI intermediates, so the federal SSI → state SSP chain is exercised end-to-end.

Test plan

• 13 unit-variable tests (claim_type, eligible, payment_standard, personal_needs_allowance, ky_ssp)
• 12 integration tests with real income sources
• CI passes

[codecov]

Codecov Report

✅ All modified and coverable lines are covered by tests.
✅ Project coverage is 95.45%. Comparing base (20705b0) to head (1e28272).
⚠️ Report is 15 commits behind head on main.

Additional details and impacted files

@@             Coverage Diff             @@
##             main    #8019       +/-   ##
===========================================
+ Coverage   85.36%   95.45%   +10.08%     
===========================================
  Files           3        8        +5     
  Lines          41      132       +91     
  Branches        2        2               
===========================================
+ Hits           35      126       +91     
  Misses          6        6               

Flag	Coverage Δ
unittests	95.45% <100.00%> (+10.08%)	⬆️

Flags with carried forward coverage won't be shown. Click here to find out more.

☔ View full report in Codecov by Sentry.
📢 Have feedback on the report? Share it here.

🚀 New features to boost your workflow:

• ❄️ Test Analytics: Detect flaky tests, report on failures, and find test suite problems.