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;
- retain their jobs for longer periods of time;
- avoid exhausting their lifetime TANF limit on assistance;
- improve their wage levels; and
- 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:
- 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:
- providing supportive counseling as appropriate;
- 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;
- developing contingency plans in the areas of child care, transportation,
and preventable crises;
- providing solutions-based problem solving and crisis intervention;
- providing referral, advocacy, and linkage services;
- education, information, and skill building in the areas of
time/financial management, contingency planning, life balance
(balancing work, school, and family responsibilities);
- offering suggestions for coping with job stress which may magnify
barriers to self-sufficiency, time demands, and difficult employers/coworkers;
- 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;
- focusing on utilizing current employment as a stepping stone
to the next career opportunity;
- 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;
- networking with community resources to maintain client contact;
- providing continuous monitoring, re-assessment, planning, and
service delivery;
- 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;
- 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;
- 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;
- 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.
- Support Services which may include:
- Transportation;
- Special services (tools, uniforms, safety shoes, licenses,
etc.); and
- 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.