Kansas Economic and Employment Services Manual

1413 Time In Which Application is to be Processed and Case Disposition - All applications shall be approved or denied on a timely basis except when a determination of eligibility cannot be made within the required period due to the failure of the applicant or a collateral to provide required information. Written notice must be given the applicant by the end of the required period giving the reason(s) for the delay. The approval of an application from a non-citizen who is otherwise eligible may not be delayed beyond the timely processing time frame due solely to the fact that no USCIS SAVE response to a request for verification of immigration status has been received.
 

Timely action is defined as follows:

• Cash Applications - Within 45 days of the application date. Refer to 1411.2. For management purposes the agency shall strive to process cash applications within 30 days.
  
  
• Food Assistance Applications - Within 30 days of the application date for households not entitled to expedited services. Refer to 1411.2.
  
  For households entitled to expedited service, the application must be processed within 7 days of the application date, so the person can access benefits on the 7^th day from the date of application.

  
  An exception to the above shall be granted for residents of public institutions who apply jointly for SSI and food assistance benefits prior to release from the institution per 1417. For residents of public institutions who apply for SSI and food assistance prior to their release from the institution, the worker shall provide an opportunity to participate as soon as possible, but no later than 30 calendar days from the date of release of the applicant from the institution. (SSA will notify the appropriate DCF office of the date an individual is released from an institution. This notification should occur just prior to the date of release.)
   

  For food assistance, the 30- and 7-day period is determined by using the day following the date the application is filed as day number one of the period. For food assistance applications to be considered timely, the household must be provided the opportunity to receive (access) their food assistance benefits by the last day of the processing period. To ensure that timeliness is met, the non-expedited application must be approved in time to allow 4 mail delivery days for the Kansas Benefits Card. The approval notice will be mailed the first mail day after approval to allow time for the household to access benefits by the 30^th day.
  
  Note: Even if the household already has an active EBT card according to the ebtEDGE Web Admin system, it will be unknown to the agency whether the person still has possession of the card, thus processing will still have to allow for the 4 mail delivery days for the Kansas Benefits Card for non-expedited approvals. For expedited applications, the application must be coded on the system as expedited when the application is registered. This will result in an inactive Kansas Benefits Card being mailed (unless the household already has an active EBT card according to the ebtEDGE Web Admin system) to the household that day if the registration is done before noon, or the next day if done after noon. Benefits must then be approved on or before the 6^th day from the date of application for benefits to be in the overnight batch file issuance, or on the 7^th day for an immediate issuance. The household shall either be told of approval at the time of interview/approval processing or a A phone call to the household letting them know that benefits can be accessed will be required to insure that the household has access to the benefits on the 7^th calendar day from the date of application. Document the approval discussion (either in-person or on the phone) to insure timeliness. This also applies to 30-day processing if necessary to insure timeliness is met.
   

• Child Care - Within 30 days of the application date for all applications except those from families participating in the Kansas Early Head Start/Child Care (KEHS/CC) Partnerships. Refer to 1411.2. For TANF applicant/recipients and food assistance work program participants, the request for a child care subsidy may be made verbally and must be documented in the file by EES staff. The basis for the number of hours approved for childcare benefits must also be documented in the file. For ease of administration, an application is not be required for those clients in transition from TANF child care to Income Eligible child care. The need for continued child care and financial eligibility shall be documented in the case file using current information. See 2830.

Eligibility for service is determined from the date of request. For child care needed for qualifying social service reasons, the service start date is indicated on the Request for Social Services Child Care ES-1627 and shall be used as the date of request. If the child is an adjudicated juvenile offender in the custody of JJA, an application and documentation of JJA custody are also required. (See 2831 and 2835).

Applications from families participating in the KEHS/CC Partnerships (as identified by the referral form) must be processed within 7 calendar days of the application date.  Referrals received from KEHS for families participating in the Child Care Partnerships and already receiving child care assistance are also required to be processed within 7 calendar days of receipt of the referral.