Refugee Cash Assistance (RCA)

When a refugee applies for RCA, the eligibility case manager shall first determine if the applicant would be eligible for TANF. If it is determined that the applicant would not be eligible for TANF, then eligibility shall be determined according to the requirements of this section.

All employable refugees who apply for RCA must meet the employment requirements of Section 1349 - Work Requirement. This condition of eligibility applies only to RCA. It does not apply to the other programs available to refugees.

RCA is available to refugees only during their first eight months (if the date of entry is prior to October 1^st, 2021) and twelve months (if the date of entry is on or after October 1^st, 2021) in the United States.

Financial assistance to refugees through RCA, regardless of family composition, will be based upon the State’s TANF Standard of Need with income and resources taken into consideration on the same basis as the TANF program and payments made in accordance with the State’s TANF payment levels. The Standard Filing Unit (See the TANF Manual), which is used in the TANF program, is also applied to the RCA/RMA program. When determining need and the amount of assistance for the large extended family group, it may be necessary and more practical to set up more than one budget unit. The term family means one or more adults and children, if any, related by blood or law, and residing in the same household. When adults other than spouses reside together, each may be considered a separate family.

The standard for an assistance unit of one person in TANF may be used for single individuals and the two-person standard for a husband and wife.

All refugee recipients who are sixty-five (65) years of age or older or who are blind or disabled must be referred to the Social Security Administration to apply for SSI benefits. They will be included in the assistance benefit if they meet TANF Standard of Need, until SSI benefits have begun.

All income and/or resources available to the refugee must be considered in determining need. They must meet the same income and/or resource standards for TANF persons with the following exceptions:

The budgetary standards and other disregards for the TANF program shall apply in the same manner to the RCA program. See the TANF policy manual. The Standard of Promptness for the eligibility case manager to complete an RCA/RMA application is forty-five (45) days from the date of application. The procedures for the application process follow the same procedures outlined in the TANF policy manual.

Need, as well as other eligibility factors, Redetermination takes place at the end of their 12 month eligibility period. The eligibility period starts the month of their arrival into the United States (or the month they became eligible for refugee benefits. i.e., asylee and human trafficking victims). If the circumstances of a recipient of RCA should change at any time, he/she is responsible to the extent of his or her ability for reporting such changes to the county department. The county department must review the case when apprised of such a change and make any adjustments.

Those mandatory special redeterminations that are required between regularly scheduled semi-annual redeterminations of eligibility in certain classes of TANF cases also apply to RCA and RMA.

Recipients of RCA are not eligible for TANF ES. Employable recipients of RCA, however, must register for employment services according to requirements of Section 1349 - Work Requirement. Refugees who are recipients of TANF are eligible for TANF ES.

When there is an urgent need for assistance, the agency should make such provisions as are necessary to speed up the application process and accelerate issuance of the initial grant to the recipient.