1840 Work Support Program | TANF

The Work Support Program provides Work Support Payments (WSP), Transitional Support Services (TSS), Transitional Shelter Assistance (TSA) and Job Coaching to working families. The WSP will assist the TANF applicant and former TANF recipients with additional work-related expenses and incidentals/support services available through TSS and TSA, which will facilitate a smooth transition from TANF dependency to self-sufficiency. The job-coaching component will provide one-on-one assistance on job-retention and conflict resolution skills while developing goals for career advancement.

The Work Support Program provides a time-limited cash supplement, TSS, TSA and Job Coaching to a TANF assistance unit (AU) that, because of employment, either becomes ineligible for TANF or experiences a reduction in its TANF benefit amount and declines ongoing TANF to stop the TANF clock. The goal is to remove barriers, assist the AU to becoming self-sufficient and preserve future months of potential TANF eligibility.

The Work Support Payment (WSP) is available to TANF applicants or recipients for a period of twelve (12) months and twice in their lifetime receipt of TANF.

During WSP eligibility, the TANF applicant or recipient will be eligible to receive:

The WSP is designed to assist the applicant or recipient in paying work-related expenses such as:

This list is not all-inclusive.

WSP is available to a TANF applicant if they are eligible for at least one month of TANF cash assistance even if the TANF benefit is $0.00. A TANF applicant or recipient can receive WSP if any of the following situations occur:

The AU that remains eligible for a reduced TANF benefit must be given an option to choose between TANF and the WSP.

If this applicant or recipient chooses to accept a WSP, they must continue receiving WSP for the entire 12-month period of WSP eligibility as long as they remain employed.

The applicant or recipient that receives WSP will not have an option to revert to TANF before expiration of the 12-month WSP eligibility period as long as the employed individual remains employed. However, they are subject to the involuntary loss of employment policy.

The Work Support Payments may be approved in a special circumstance for the following:

A self-employed individual may receive WSP if all eligibility requirements for the Work Support Program are met.

A self-employed individual’s employment hours are determined by dividing the net income by federal minimum wage.

TANF recipients participating in a Subsidized Employment (SE) are not eligible to receive WSP or TSS while their employment is subsidized.

When the participant in the SE activity successfully transitions to unsubsidized employment and the TANF case terminates due to earned income, the participant may be eligible for WSP, TSS, TSA or Job Coaching services.

An applicant or recipient can receive WSP once in twenty-four (24) calendar months and twice within the TANF 48-month lifetime limit.

The 12-month count for the WSP eligibility starts with the first month of ineligibility for cash benefits or the month after the TANF case closes due to employment.

A month in which an AU receives the WSP does not count towards the TANF 48-month lifetime limit.

WSP is tied to the individual, not to the AU.

WSP is not considered income in the TANF program and are therefore not subject to responsibility budgeting for the purpose of allocation or deeming.

In a two-parent household, if both parents are employed, both may be eligible for WSP.

Each parent in a two-parent AU may receive the WSP twice during their TANF lifetime limit, but not more than once in a twenty-four (24) month period, if each parent becomes employed and the AU meets the WSP eligibility criteria.

If both parents in a two-parent AU become employed in the same month, resulting in the termination of the TANF case, the AU can receive two (2) WSPs simultaneously, for a total of $400 per month for twelve (12) months if the AU remains employed.

An AU is not eligible to receive TANF cash assistance until after the 12 months of WSP has been exhausted unless the employed individual experiences an involuntary loss of employment or an involuntary reduction in employment hours.

An AU may be eligible to receive ongoing TANF cash assistance prior to the expiration of the 12-month ineligibility period if:

If the WSP participant loses employment voluntarily or involuntarily and the twelve (12) month WSP eligibility period has not been exhausted, the WSP must be stopped immediately.

In the event the participant becomes employed again and becomes ineligible for TANF, the participant may continue to receive any remaining months of WSP, not to exceed the original twelve (12) month WSP period. See Chart 1840.2.

At the initial approval of WSP, the employed participants must be informed of the voluntary quit of employment and WSP policy and its potential impact on the Food Stamps case.

The Work Support Program is designed to assist applicants and recipients with additional job-related expenses and to facilitate their smooth transition from TANF dependency to self-sufficiency.

Support services are available to TANF applicants to assist them in the following situations:

Transitional Support Services (TSS) are available to former TANF clients for a twelve (12) month period of WSP eligibility. The twelve (12) month count begins the month after TANF ineligibility. TSS should run concurrently with the AUs twelve (12) months of WSP.

Following WSP approval, a job coach will be assigned to the AU. The job coach will provide the recipients with one-on-one assistance to increase job retention and career advancement. Job coaching services will be provided to TANF recipients obtaining employment for up to twelve (12) months.

Transitional Support Services (TSS) can pay for or reimburse the cost of childcare, transportation, and incidental expenses to an applicant or a recipient.

TSS is available to:

TSS is available for a period of twelve months beginning with the first month of ineligibility for cash benefits or the month after the TANF case closes due to employment.

TSS payments for Transportation and Incidental expenses should be made directly to the provider of a service.

If an applicant’s job begins in the month in which the TANF application is denied, receipt of the TSS will not count toward the applicant’s TANF lifetime limit.

At the end of the twelve-month period of eligibility for TSS, the case manager should complete Form 207, Disposition Notification Work Support Payment and provide a copy to the client.

DFCS may pay for needed services only when the services are unavailable through other sources or cannot be obtained at any cost to the participant. Duplication of payment is prohibited.

Payment for transportation, incidentals, and childcare must be coordinated with other service providers in order to prevent duplication of payment and services provided or purchased must not exceed the normal cost of such services in the local area.

The purpose of the Transitional Shelter Assistance (TSA) is to help stabilize the TANF families who are eligible for WSP as they transition from TANF to employment. The TSA funds will be used to pay permanent housing deposits, utility deposits or other essential deposits. These funds will not cover cable, telephone or other non-essential utilities because they are not a necessity.

Participants leaving TANF will be eligible to receive TSA. They may be eligible if:

The participants eligible for TSA may be eligible to receive up to $1500.00 towards the payment of rental deposits and utility deposits. Payments will be made directly to the leasing agency or the utility company on behalf of the TANF participant.

All verified information from the participant, rental office or utility company must be submitted to Regional Accounting, along with the request for payment.

A copy of all submitted information to Regional Accounting must be sent to the State Office and another copy must be scanned into the case record as well as documented in case notes.

Third-Party Verification Required:

The TANF case manager will be the initial approving authority. When approving rental expenses:

When approving utility expenses:

If the payment is deemed to be expedited, the TANF Liaison will need to email a request to the Regional Accounting Field Operations Manager with the necessary attached documents. The originals should be hand delivered and the check available to be hand delivered to the vendors.

Following approval of the WSP, the recipient is expected to:

If the recipient fails to meet post-employment participation requirements without good cause, the WSP and TSS will be stopped.

Some good cause reasons for failure to meet a requirement include, but are not limited to the following:

The Agency will make all possible efforts to accommodate the WSP recipient’s hardship. If it has been determined that the recipient does not have good cause for non-compliance, a proper notice will be issued to the AU to allow adequate time for compliance.

The case manager will complete Form 207, Disposition Notification Work Support Payment as notification in the following situations:

The employment status of TANF applicants and former TANF recipients participating in WSP must be verified and documented monthly on the Support Services screens in Gateway.

Documentation is used to support the WSP and TSS payments and track the recipient’s period of eligibility.

When written communication is received for employment status, it must be scanned into the case record.

Verification of the amount of an expense must be provided before reimbursement of or payment for the expense can be paid. See Purchase of Services for more information on expenses TSS can pay.

Job retention and advancement is the goal of the Work Support Program. Although monthly verification of employment is required, we do not want to intrude on the employer-employee relationship. The following methods of verification are acceptable:

This list is not all-inclusive.

When approving WSP, the case manager must:

The job coach will:

This list is not all-inclusive.