PolicyEngine / PolicyEngine/policyengine-us

ME TANF maximum benefit and standard of need tables missing the 2025-10-01 COLA

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Description

## Summary

`gov/states/me/dhhs/tanf/maximum_benefit/amount.yaml` (and the matching `standard_of_need` and `additional_person` parameters) end at the **2024-10-01** values. Maine applied a COLA effective **2025-10-01** (10-144 C.M.R. Chapter 331, TANF Rule 125A, Maximum Benefit / Standard of Need charts), so any 2025-10+ calculation returns last year's amounts.

Observed with policyengine-us **1.774.5**:

```python
params.gov.states.me.dhhs.tanf.maximum_benefit.amount("2026-07-01")
# {'1': 425, '2': 669, '3': 895, '4': 1127, '5': 1352, ...} ← 2024-10 values
```

## Expected (effective 2025-10-01, TANF Rule 125A)

Adult-included maximum grant by unit size:

| Size | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | add'l member |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Max grant | 436 | 686 | 917 | 1,155 | 1,386 | 1,620 | +234 |
| Standard of need | 500 | 786 | 1,052 | 1,324 | 1,591 | 1,860 | +269 |

(Child-only max grant: 260/495/730/959/1,198/1,431 +234; child-only SON: 296/565/835/1,100/1,373/1,642 +269.)

## How this was found

An engine-vs-engine oracle comparison between PolicyEngine and the Axiom rules engine (rulespec-us `us-me-tanf`, which encodes the Rule 125A charts with a 2025-10-01 effective date) disagreed by exactly the COLA delta: PE `me_tanf` $895/month for a 3-person unit at 2026-07 vs $917 from the current chart.

Happy to provide the comparison harness output if useful.

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

Research direction

Update gov/states/me/dhhs/tanf/maximum_benefit/amount.yaml and the matching standard_of_need and additional_person parameter files with the 2025-10-01 Maine TANF Rule 125A values. Verify that requests dated 2025-10-01 and later return the listed adult-included and child-only amounts, including additional-member increments, instead of the 2024-10 values.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
python
Domain
data
Issue type
Bug
Difficulty
2/5
Estimated time
1-3 hours
Activity status
Quiet
Clarity
Clearly specified
Newbie friendliness
88/100

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