[hua7450]

Summary

California's Cash Assistance Program for Immigrants (CAPI) pays aged, blind or disabled noncitizens who are barred from SSI what SSI/SSP would pay, less $10 for an individual and $20 for a couple. The model computed CAPI differently in four ways:

Rule	Source	Before	This PR
Payment standard equals the SSI/SSP standard less the offset	MPP 49-050.1, .11–.13	Federal benefit rate plus the SPM unit's state supplement payment, which is $0 when nobody in the unit gets SSP	SSI/SSP standard for the person's category and living arrangement, from the state supplement parameters
Offset is $10 or $20 a month	MPP 49-050.11–.12	$10 or $20 a year	$10 or $20 a month (half the couple offset to each member, which also gives the $10 mixed-couple reduction in 49-050.13)
Benefit = standard less the individual's or couple's countable income; each member of a couple gets half	MPP 49-055.3–.4, 49-035.1	One standard and one pooled income for the whole SPM unit; the tax-unit spouse of a noncitizen couple was not eligible, so the couple got half	Per person (ca_capi_person), summed to the SPM unit; both members of a noncitizen couple, and the noncitizen spouse of a citizen, are eligible
Spouse-to-spouse deeming	MPP 49-035.71 (20 CFR 416.1160 et seq.); POMS SI 01320.430	Couple federal rate with no cap	Federal and state parts computed as an individual and under deeming; each is the lesser of the two

Example, 2026, aged individual living independently with cooking facilities and no income: CAPI was $994 × 12 − $10 = $11,918 a year; the CAPI standard is $1,233.94 − $10 = $1,223.94 a month, or $14,687.28 a year.

Relation to #10240

On main, ssi_countable_income is $0 for everyone who fails SSI's noncitizen test, so CAPI ignores income entirely. #10240 counts that income. The 2026-10-19 review of #10240 found that, once income counts, the three CAPI defects above (federal-rate-only standard, uncapped couple rate under deeming, pooling across the SPM unit) change outcomes. This PR fixes them and should merge before #10240. Until #10240 merges, the deeming branch and income-dependent cases are reachable only with pinned inputs, which the tests use and say so.

Changes

• ca_capi_payment_standard (new, Person, MONTH): SSI/SSP individual standard, or half the couple standard in an SSI couple computation, less the monthly offset. The standard follows ca_state_supplement_payment_standard's structure (the higher of the blind and aged/disabled amounts, the no-cooking food allowance for aged or disabled people, and the per-person out-of-home-care and medical-facility allowances). A disabled dependent child gets the disabled-child amount (MPP 49-050.25); a blind child gets the blind amount (POMS SI 01415.058).
• ca_capi_person (new, Person, MONTH): standard less own countable income; with deeming, POMS SI 01320.430 D, treating the ineligible spouse as the person's category (C.7). The federal parts use the independent-living benefit rates.
• ca_capi now adds ca_capi_person; ca_capi_income_eligible asks whether any member's ca_capi_person is positive; ca_capi_eligible_person no longer excludes is_ssi_eligible_spouse.
• payment_standard_offset/{single,couple}.yaml: period: month.
• Shared lookup in _ca_capi_ssi_ssp_standard.py, used by both new variables.

Tests

New ca_capi_payment_standard.yaml (7 cases) and ca_capi_person.yaml (4 cases: couple split and three POMS deeming cases), rewritten ca_capi.yaml and ca_capi_income_eligible.yaml (the old cases pinned ssi_amount_if_eligible and ca_state_supplement, which CAPI no longer reads), and a couple case in ca_capi_eligible_person.yaml. Cases use 2025–2026 because the state supplement parameters jump from 1991 to 2025 (#7787). The "Integration test, undocumented" case moved from 2024 to 2026 for that reason.

I scanned every YAML case that outputs or reads ca_capi, ca_capi_eligible, ca_capi_income_eligible or ca_capi_eligible_person, including county general assistance and partner tests; none other changes. Tests were not run locally; CI validates.

Not changed

• The state supplement's own structure (CA SSP: payment standard double-counts for facility residents and stores combined totals requiring annual updates #7892: living-arrangement standards added together; combined federal-plus-state totals). CAPI mirrors the state supplement's current standards so the two stay equivalent until CA SSP: payment standard double-counts for facility residents and stores combined totals requiring annual updates #7892 lands; out-of-home-care and medical-facility amounts inherit that issue and are not tested here.
• Sponsor deeming, the CAPI eligibility rules for undocumented people (MPP 49-020), and the SPM-unit resource test.
• County general assistance programs still read the SPM-unit ca_capi; they could read ca_capi_person instead in a follow-up.

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