MEMORANDUM

This memo provides instructions and information regarding the following October 1, 2001 KEESM changes:

• Extension of time limits for domestic violence victims

• Change in the definition of an ABAWD

• Assessment

• Work program components

• Employment related workshops

• Job skills training/post secondary education/vocational education authorization guidelines

• Change in the treatment of income for ABAWDs and ineligible aliens

• Twelve month child care plans

• Elimination of monthly reporting and retrospective budgeting for non-TAF FS programs

• Minimum benefit reduction amount on food stamp fraud claims

The October 1, 2001 manual revision is available online on the KEESM home page and the Summary of Changes (formerly State Commissioner’s Letter) is available by clicking on the "SCL" button on the home page. Hard copy of this material will not be issued to staff until sometime in late September. Training material for the 10-1-01 changes is available from the EES Intranet Home Page, on the "Training" link. A separate memo will also be issued about the training material.

1. KEESM 2244 - Extension of Time Limits for Domestic Violence Victims - Refer to item 9 of the Summary of Changes. An extension of the 60 month time limit may be given if domestic violence/sexual assault issues are determined using the same methodology employed for determining other hardship exemptions. The additional federal protection for domestic violence/sexual assault victims is the right to return to TAF assistance in subsequent years if DV/SA victimization occurs or re-occurs and the household is otherwise eligible. Local areas should establish screening mechanisms to ensure that new and re-applications for assistance are checked for possible eligibility under this policy regardless of prior months spent on assistance. This eligibility information is contained in the new notices sent to recipients regarding 60 months case closures.

2. KEESM 2521 - Persons Exempt from the ABAWD Provision - Refer to the Summary of Changes, item 11. Effective October 1, 2001, able bodied adults without dependents are exempt from the ABAWD restrictions if the household in which they are living contains a minor child. Minor children include children age 18 and still receiving TAF. The minor child does not have to be on the same food stamp case as the able bodied adult without dependents for this provision to apply. The minor child merely needs to be living in the same home with the able bodied adult. This change should result in less persons being identified as ABAWDs and subject to the 3 month limit on participation. An example of this policy change would be when a 19 year old lives with his/her parents and minor siblings. After October 1, the 19 year old will not be subject to the ABAWD provisions as long as there are minor children in the home.

Ongoing cases with persons already identified as an ineligible ABAWD should be reviewed when the case is being processed for the change from DF to DI SEPA coding as listed in item 7 below. If the ABAWD individual is now a non-ABAWD, change the participation from DF to IN on SEPA. Cases changed shall have a regular FS benefit change notice sent with wording added to explain why the individual is being added onto the case.

The following notices have been revised as a result of this change:

• F216 - FS Denial - ABAWD Requirements Not Met

• F416 - FS Closure - ABAWD Requirements Not Met

• F716 - FS Chg in Benefits - ABAWD Requirements

• F845 - FS - Important Information (ABAWD)

3. KEESM 3140-Assessment - Refer to Summary of Changes, Item 21. The Assessment Protocol in this section of the KEESM has been updated to reflect corrections of the question numbers on the Assessment Guide, ES-4307, in the Threshold column. Please note that the Protocol on page 6 of the ES-4307 has not been updated with these corrections. The ES-4307 is not being changed at this time since additional changes may be made to this form in the near future based on the recommendation of the Assessment Work Group. When considering Thresholds for possible referrals, please refer to the updated Assessment Protocol information in 3140.

4. KEESM 3300 - Work Program Components - Refer to the Summary of Changes, item 22. The work program component section of the manual has been re-formatted, re-numbered, and contains several changes. Six work program components will no longer be available effective October 1. The unavailable components are: Apprenticeship, Community Workshop, Job Club, Life Skills Workshop, Organized Support Group, and Job Retention Workshop. KsCares will automatically convert the work programs components. Clients in the Apprenticeship component will be converted to the Employment component. Clients in one of the other five components will all be converted to the Employment Related Workshop component. The components that are being deleted will be removed from the KsCares Table at the time of the conversion, and it will no longer be possible to assign clients to those components. The field will be notified prior to the conversion.

The Activities to be converted will be those that are not yet completed (have no Actual End Date) or that have an Actual End Date of 10/1/99 or later. In addition, WP payment authorizations (on AUSW or TRPA) that were created on 10/1/99 or later with one of these Activities will also be converted, as well as any WP payments made on or after 10/1/99 with one of these Activities. (The 10/1/99 date is used because it may be necessary to resubmit corrected TANF participation reports after that date.) Also, any APP Activities converted to an EMP Activity will have the following Description inserted on SESP, "Converted from APP Activity".

The following new components have been available on KsCares since June 25, 2001: Employment Related Workshops (ERW), Physical Health Care (PHC), and Children and Family Services (CFS). The Post Secondary Education (PSE) component will be added to KsCares on September 28 so that it will be available for use on October 1.

A summary of the KsCares Code Card changes is at the end of this memo.

5. KEESM 3310.4 (5) - Employment Related Workshops - Refer to the Summary of Changes, item 22. Road to Success Workshops will be piloted beginning in the Fall semester of 2001 at designated community colleges. Clients participating in these workshops will be coded in the Employment Related Workshops (ERW). The total cost of the workshop ($4,375) is to be prorated for the attending participants. For TAF work program participants, the client specific payment is to be made on KsCares, utilizing the CE Contracted Employment Payment Type and the RE Job Readiness WP Service for Payment codes.

NOTE: Regardless of the component enrollment of individuals who test positive on the ALDS battery, case managers should follow through with the referral to a diagnostic service provider to complete the LD evaluation. Under the ADA, individuals with LD are entitled to educational and employment-related accommodations which cannot be determined until a LD diagnosis is made.

6. KEESM 3322 - Job Skills Training/Post Secondary Education/Vocational Education Authorization Guidelines - Refer to the Summary of Changes, item 25. College courses directed toward a baccalaureate degree may be approved on a case-by-case basis by the EES Chief. There may be current work program clients who are working on a baccalaureate degree plan that is currently not being supported by the agency. As progress reviews are completed on these cases, these plans should be reviewed to see if the plan is now considered approvable.

The Education/Training Assistance Desk Aide which provides a comparison between the training plan approval criteria for Income Eligible Child Care and Work Programs and was developed for KEESM Revision 4 implementation, has been updated and is attached to this memo.

7. KEESM 4212.2 - Excluded Household Members and KEESM 4212.3 - Disqualified Household Members - Refer to Summary of Changes items 12 and 28. Effective October 1, 2001, all persons found to be an ineligible alien or ineligible ABAWD (after the policy change in KEESM 2521 is applied - see item 2 of this memo) will have a pro-rata share of their income counted toward the remaining family members instead of counting their income in full. This will require that the participation code on SEPA be changed from DF to DI. Because this change will cause an increase in food stamp benefits (if the ABAWD or ineligible alien has income), all currently ineligible aliens and ABAWDs coded DF must have the SEPA coding changed for the benefit month of November 2001. For efficiency, if the case is being exempted from monthly reporting, this change should be processed at the same time. Any case not changed for the benefit month of November must be provided restored benefits (if appropriate) back to November 2001.

A printout to assist staff in making this change to ongoing cases will be provided the week of September 17th. The report will list the following:

All persons on active FS program coded with DF on SEPA, and one of the following:

• IA (Ineligible alien) or ES (Emergency Service SOBRA alien) on ETRC, or

• AB (ABAWD) on JOPR, or

• NONE of the following codes on PRAP: FF (Fugitive Felon), DG (Drug Conviction), 1W (1^st Work Penalty, 2W (2^nd + Work Penalty), 1C (1^st CSE Penalty), 2C (2^nd +CSE Penalty), D1 (Disqualified Fraud 1^st time), or D2 (Disqualified Fraud 2^nd time), DP (Disqualified Permanent).

The printout will be sorted by Area/Section/Unit/Caseload/County. The report will have columns for case number, case name, and IA Citizenship, ES Citizenship, and ABAWD. A "Y" will be placed in the appropriate column indicating whether the case is coded with the AB on JOPR or one of the appropriate alien codes. If no "Y" is indicated, then the person listed is one of those with none of the appropriate coding (criteria 3 above).

8. KEESM 7340 - Eligibility Period for Child Care Assistance - Refer to the Summary of Changes, item 35. Effective with this manual revision, policy will allow a child care plan to be written for up to 12 months which will allow child care plans to correspond with the review period. Policy continues to allow review periods/plans to be written for less than 12 months as needed in order to line up child care review periods with other programs. A KsCares work request is in progress for the system to allow for a 12 month plan. Policy will be effective 10/1/01, however, if the system changes are not completed by that date; the field will be notified by HelpDesk when the changes are complete.

Staff should be reminded of policy contained in KEESM 7620, 7660 and 9312 regarding child care plans. Staff should set up child care plans based on a reasonable estimate of hours that child care is needed. If the agency has made a reasonable and fair estimate or has established an average of the hours needed for child care, that estimate or average can continue for the duration of the child care plan even if hours fluctuate on a weekly or monthly basis. Clients will be reminded of reporting responsibilities which may effect authorized hours after program approval.

Along with the 12 month plan, system changes are also planned to better accommodate suspending a plan. On or about 10/1/01, KsCares will allow plans to be written for zero hours in a month. Previously, a plan could be suspended by terminating the plan and opening another plan in a following month while the case remained open. With the system changes, staff will not be required to end one plan and create a new one for a following month. A child care plan may be suspended up to 90 days as long as the family remains financially eligible, or is eligible under a child care subtype, and responds to their redetermination responsibilities as appropriate. Examples of a need for suspension include but are not limited to: parent's maternity or other temporary leave, child's illness, temporary unemployment, a summer or holiday visit to the absent parent or other relative, or school age children requiring child care when the family share exceeds the cost of care during the school year.

9.  KEESM 9000 - Reporting Changes and KEESM 9310 - Responsibility after Approval for Non-Monthly Reporting Households - Refer to items 39 and 40 of the Summary of Changes and 10/1/01 KEESM Section 9000 for a detailed description of the policy changes. As stated in the Summary and manual material, effective October 1, 2001, certain FS households who are now subject to monthly reporting and retrospective budgeting will become 10 day change reporters subject to prospective budgeting. These changes shall be applied as follows:

1. Applicant Households - This policy change shall be applied to all affected applications processed on or after October 1, 2001. No monthly report form shall be required for any prior month or future month and new reporting requirements are applicable from the date of approval. For all affected applications processed on or after October 1, 2001, prospective budgeting methods shall be used for all prior and future month benefit determinations. Normal review periods as outlined in KEESM 9772 shall be established.

2. Ongoing Households - Current recipients who will no longer be required to monthly report based on this policy change are to be converted to change reporting and prospective budgeting over the three month period from October 2001 through December 2001.

This policy change will require that approximately 20,000 food stamp cases statewide be changed during this three month period. To assist staff in identifying cases to be changed, a printout has been prepared listing the following:

• Active FS program coded with a "Y" on MRHR but EXCLUDING those cases where the FS PI and the participating TAF PI (active case) are the same person.

The printout will be sorted by Area/Section/Unit/Caseload/County and will be generated and issued the week of September 17th. The report will list case number, case name, FS participation code and AF participation code. For the most part the AF participation column will be blank, but some entries will list AF participation codes of WT, OU or SS. Cases where the AF PI is coded SS should be carefully evaluated as to whether the case should be subject to monthly reporting for TAF purposes. Current policy states that households in which all adult members are elderly or disabled are exempt from monthly reporting and retrospective budgeting for TAF and FS. (See current KEESM cite 9000 (3). KEESM cite effective 10/1/01 is 9000 (1)(a)(i).)

NOTE: Monthly reporting cases approved between 9/17/01 and 9/30/01 that need to be converted to non-monthly reporting will not appear on the first printout. Manual systems will need to be utilized to track these cases and insure that they are converted appropriately.

NOTE: A second printout, as described above, will be generated in mid-January 2002. This second report should be used to identify and correct any food stamp programs that still need to be changed from monthly reporting to non-monthly reporting.

Actions to exempt households from monthly reporting and retrospective budgeting shall begin on October 1. The last monthly report form due for these cases will be either the September, October or November report, depending on the month in which the case is being converted. If the report is not returned as required in the month of conversion, the case shall be closed following current practices.

Once the monthly report form is received, the following actions are to be completed to convert the case:

1. Exempt program from monthly reporting on MRHR. Reason code is "NA".

2. Change case to prospective budgeting. Rebudget case for the following month using prospective income and expense screens. Convert income and expenses as appropriate (see KEESM 7112). Do not make any changes to the retrospective income/expense screens.

3. Make other changes as needed and authorize benefits. Do not shorten the review period.

4. SEND SPECIAL NOTICE V040. This notice tells the client of the change in benefits, if any, AND tells of the new reporting method. Space is included on the notice to enter the amount of earned and/or unearned income that is currently being counted in the benefit determination so the household can determine a baseline from which to report a $100 or $25 change in income. (The converted amount of earned income should be entered on the notice.) The notice also tells the household if they have any of the reportable changes since October 1, they are to report them within 10 days of the date of the letter. The notice now also contains a "Change Report Form" which can be used to report the household’s next change.

For programs that are closed due to no monthly report form and who later return the completed monthly report form, the program shall be reinstated and converted to non-monthly reporting as described above.

SPECIAL NOTES REGARDING THIS POLICY CHANGE:

Deauthorizations for Earned Income - Ongoing non-monthly reporting FS cases with earned income will continue to deauthorize each month until system changes have been made. Staff will still get an alert monthly when the case is deauthorized and will need to reauthorize the case for the upcoming month. HelpDesk will notify staff when the programming is completed for this change.

Child Support Income Records - It should be noted that child support income records will continue to be created and placed on the prospective and retrospective screens as they are done now. If the case is in prospective budgeting, then the amount on the prospective screen is what will be used to determine the FS benefits. In a prospective budgeting method, last month’s child support income is being used to anticipate next month’s child support. This process is currently being used with prospectively budgeted FS cases with child support income records.

TAF Program Closes and the FS Program Becomes Exempt from Monthly Reporting - Because most TAF programs will be subject to monthly reporting, numerous situations will arise when TAF programs close and the FS program remains open and needs to be converted to non-monthly reporting status. In these situations, at the time the AF program is being closed, the FS program shall be converted to non-monthly reporting status as described above. The monthly report form is still due in the month the change is being made, and if it is not returned the case would be closed. Notice V040 which explains the new reporting requirements must be sent.

TAF Program Opens and the FS Program Becomes Subject to Monthly Reporting - Situations will also occur that will require the FS program to be changed from non-monthly reporting to monthly reporting when the FS PI is approved for TAF cash assistance. This conversion should occur when the TAF case is approved. MRHR shall be coded as subject to monthly reporting. Since the FS case has been ongoing, the system will immediately put the FS program into retrospective budgeting when MRHR is changed. However, the FS program must be given two beginning months of prospective budgeting before the case is converted to retrospective budgeting per KEESM 7111 (5), therefore FSAD will have to be overridden from a retrospective calculation to a prospective calculation for the two beginning months. This will probably result in the beginning months for the TAF program and the FS program being out of sync. The client should also be sent notice V021 which explains the monthly reporting requirements.

Child Care - Effective 10/1/01, the Child Care Program will adopt the same change reporting requirements as other programs. Child care clients are also responsible for reporting changes in child care provider and hours of child care needed. A notice has been added to KsCares which is to be used to inform/remind child care clients of these reporting responsibilities. The notice is C102 Reporting Requirements - Child Care.

10. KEESM 11126.1 - Methods of Collecting Payments - Refer to the Summary of Changes, item 42. The minimum amount for benefit reduction for fraud food stamp claims is being increased from $10 per month to $20 per month. This will require changes to all active food stamp cases with active fraud claims with a repayment plan code of PA.

Currently the amount entered on OVCA for fraud claims with a PA repayment plan should be $10 in the AMOUNT field and 20 in the PERCENT field. Effective with repayment plans established after 10/1/01, the dollar value entered into the AMOUNT field shall be $20.

Ongoing cases with active Fraud claims need to have the AMOUNT field changed no later than adverse action deadline in January for the benefit month of February 2002. For efficiency, this change should be processed for affected cases at the same time work is done to exempt the case from monthly reporting if appropriate. Cases that are currently non-monthly reporting or who are staying as a monthly reporter could then be changed as time permits with affected cases changed for the February benefit month.

In many cases, a change in benefits will not result from this change. However, there are some cases where the amount currently being collected is the minimum of $10 and this amount will increase to $20. A special notice has been developed to use to notify households of this change. Other households that will not have a benefit change as a result of this change do not need to be notified separately of this change in policy.

To assist staff in making this change on ongoing cases, a printout has been prepared listing the following information:

•  Active FS program with

• Active FS fraud claim and

• Repayment plan code of PA on OVCA

The printout will be sorted by Area/Section/Unit/Caseload/County and will be generated and issued the week of September 17th. There will be columns for case name, case number and claim number.

The following notice has been revised as a result of this policy change:

• F831 - Repay Agreement - Fraud - Participating HH

11.  KsCares Code Card Changes - Please make the following changes to the KsCares Code Card:

Page 14 Activity (SESP)

Add ERW          Employment Related Workshops

Add PHC           Physical Health Care

Add CFS           Children and Family Services

Add PSE          Post Secondary Education

Delete APP      Apprenticeship

Delete CWK    Community Workshop

Delete JOC      Job Club

Delete LSK      Life Skills Workshop

Delete ORG     Organized Support Group

Delete RTN      Job Retention Workshop

Page 23 Activity (TRPA)

Add ERW         Employment Related Workshops

Add PHC          Physical Health Care

Add CFS          Children and Family Services

Add PSE           Post Secondary Education

Delete APP      Apprenticeship

Delete CWK     Community Workshop

Delete JOC      Job Club

Delete LSK       Life Skills Workshop

Delete ORG      Organized Support Group

Delete RTN        Job Retention Workshop

SCH:PJ:jmm

Attachments: Education/Training Assistance Desk Aide