3414 Employment Services - Case Management Services and Contracted Employment Services may be made available up to 12 months following the loss of cash assistance due to employment. See 3410 for specific requirements when authorizing a support service. Employed participants will benefit from early intervention at an intense level with services needed to maintain employment. Clients should be contacted as soon as possible following employment but no later than 30 days from the date of the reported employment. This need for services may remain for the entire 12 month period. The cumulative effects of living in poverty, paired with a possible reduction or loss of income and benefits, greatly impacts the need for maximum support during this time.

 

3414.1 Philosophy - The philosophy behind providing post-employment services is that participants will;

 

  1. retain their jobs for longer periods of time;
     
  2. avoid exhausting their lifetime TANF limit on assistance;
     
  3. improve their wage levels; and
     
  4. identify new personal skills and potential ways to pursue the move toward self-sufficiency.  

 

3414.2 Post Employment Services - Post-employment follow-up services fall into 2 categories:

 

  1. Post-employment Case Management Services - Solutions to get people from welfare to work develop from a framework that includes the individual's and family's social and economic reality. It takes more than getting up and going to work to keep a job; it takes being able to work that job into their whole life. Post-Employment Case Management services may be provided by the EES case manager or purchased through contracted employment services such as Job retention case management or mentoring and may include:
     
    1. providing supportive counseling as appropriate;
       
    2. developing a Post-Employment Self-Sufficiency Plan that prioritizes emergent needs, mobilizes resources, delineates responsibility, identifies time lines, and establishes both short and long-term goals and visions;
       
    3. developing contingency plans in the areas of child care, transportation, and preventable crises;  
       
    4. providing solutions-based problem solving and crisis intervention;
       
    5. providing referral, advocacy, and linkage services;
       
    6. education, information, and skill building in the areas of time/financial management, contingency planning, life balance (balancing work, school, and family responsibilities);
       
    7. offering suggestions for coping with job stress which may magnify barriers to self-sufficiency, time demands, and difficult employers/coworkers;
       
    8. exploring ways to help individuals to identify and establish their own network of services and resources so that participants may leave the program with an increased awareness of resources that can be utilized to overcome barriers;
       
    9. focusing on utilizing current employment as a stepping stone to the next career opportunity;
       
    10. creating systems of communication that meet the challenge of making contact with people who are unavailable during daytime hours; establishing ongoing contact with participants by phone, hand written notes and postcards, information and referral calls and messages, official letters, e-mail, office and home visits; developing a scheduling matrix to plan dates for participant contact for effective and efficient monitoring;
       
    11. networking with community resources to maintain client contact;
       
    12. providing continuous monitoring, re-assessment, planning, and service delivery;
       
    13. helping participants understand and maintain eligibility for programs such as health insurance, Child Support Services (CSS ), continuing and transitional EES Services, the Advanced Payment Option of the Earned Income Credit, non-cash recipient child care, food assistance and energy assistance;
       
    14. providing employment retention and re-employment services such as job readiness and job search to assist an individual to remain employed or to locate another job or to help a participant who loses employment to find another job as quickly as possible;
       
    15. visiting the job site, with the participant's permission; (p) providing referrals to available education and training resources, as needed, to increase an employed participant's skills or to help the participant qualify for advancement and longer-term employment;
       
    16. promoting job advancement by informing clients of the availability of education and training services (and support services for these activities) for twelve months following the loss of cash assistance.
       
  1. Support Services which may include:
     
    1. Transportation;
       
    2. Special services (tools, uniforms, safety shoes, licenses, etc.); and
       
    3. Child care.

 

3414.3 The Work Retention Payment program - Upon documentation of employment that discontinues the TANF benefits making the client eligible for transitional services or the Work Incentive Payment, the case manager may issue a Work Retention Payment. The first day of the month that TANF is discontinued, the case manager may issue a $100.00 support payment on the client’s EBT account and send the W-806 notice. When the client can document they have worked 90 consecutive days from the discontinuance of their TANF benefits without a break of more than 2 working days, the case manager will post a $300.00 support payment to the client’s EBT account and send the W-806 notice. These payments will not count against any food assistance benefits as they are issued as support benefits. The payment shall be issued under the Unsubsidized Employment activity. The client must provide documentation post marked no later than day 100 after the discontinuance of TANF benefits to receive the Work Retention Payment. The case manager will give the client the date by which the 90 day documentation is due when they send the W-806 for the first $100.00 payment. This will be the client’s only notification for the due date of the documentation to receive the $300.00 payment. The client may continue to receive the Work Incentive payment in conjunction with the Work Retention Payment. The Work Retention Payment will not count as TANF months on the client’s case. The Work Incentive Payment will always count as TANF months on the client’s case.