1.2 Business Process Steps
All Food Assistance recipients between 18-59, without a child under 18 in the household are required to participate in the Food Assistance E&T program for 30 hours per week if they are work eligible (mandatory for work registration), and do not meet a work eligible or ABAWD exemption reason. Failure to participate in the program or to meet 30-hour weekly participation requirements results in a Not Meeting Work Requirements violation of 3 months for the first violation, 6 months for the second violation and 12 months for the third violation. Good cause must be requested before a violation can be approved.
Eligibility Worker:
Determine if the consumer is a mandatory work registrant and required to participate in the E&T program. If they are required to participate, read the consumer the Consolidated Work Requirements and notify the consumer they are being referred to the E&T program.
o Start by determining if there is a child under the age of 18 in the household. If there is, mandatory participation is not required and further action is not needed. Next, use the Work Eligible indicator on the Food Assistance EDBC Summary page to determine if the Food Assistance consumer is required to participate in the E&T program. The Work Eligible indicator must read Yes for mandatory participation. If the ABAWD indicator on the Food Assistance EDBC Summary page is also Yes, then staff need to determine if the consumer is Exempt from ABAWD work/training requirements. Mandatory participation in the E&T program is not needed for ABAWDS who are exempt.
NOTE: If the Work Eligible indicator is Exempt orNo, then mandatory participation for the consumer is not needed. The Work Eligible indicator populates as No for children and individuals with a role of FRE. If the consumer meets any of the criteria listed below, then the Work Eligible Indicator displays as Exempt.
|
KEES Criteria |
Exclusion Reason on FA EDBC |
|
If the person’s total weekly hours for earnings and self-employment income is equal to or greater than 30 hours |
Working 30 Hrs |
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If the total of the person’s earned income and net self-employment income is greater than or equal to the federal minimum wage x 30 x 4.3 |
Federal Minimum Wage x 30 |
|
If the person has care of control of a child under the age of 6 or is a single parent of a child under the age of 6 |
Child is < 6 |
|
If the person is subject to TANF work requirements |
TANF |
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If the person is receiving unemployment income |
Unemployment |
|
If the person is active in a drug/alcohol treatment and rehab program |
Drug and Alcohol Treatment Center |
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If the person is a student enrolled at least half time in higher education |
School Attendance |
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If the person has one of the following: active medical condition, PMD Tier 1 Presumptive medical condition, social security disability income, SSI income, railroad disability income, veteran’s disability income, or a MediKan OPA |
Ill, Injured or Incapacitate |
|
If the person’s age is greater than or equal to 60 |
Age 60 or Older |
Exemption reasons for ABAWD work/training requirements include:
· Alcohol or drug treatment program
· Care of incapacitated FA household member
· Foster Care individual 24 years old or younger
· Homeless
· Pregnant
· Applied for or Receiving unemployment compensation
· Student
· Veteran
Read the consumer the Consolidated Work Requirements and notify the consumer they are being referred to the E&T program.
KEES:
Sends the FAET Referral task in real time to the FAET queue.
Sends the Food Assistance Work Rules Notification form to approved Food Assistance households via a nightly batch.
E&T Supervisors:
Assign referrals to E&T career navigators using a round robin assignment method.
E&T Career Navigator:
Claim and complete the task.
Create an Active FAET program block in KEES when referral is received.
Note: KEES creates a Work Eligible - No FAET Program task for the FAET queue when more than 15 days go by after Food Assistance is approved for an E&T mandatory ABAWD, but an active FAET program block does not yet exist.
Engage with the consumer and send the W001: Work Program Appointment Letter from KEES.
o If the consumer fails to show for their appointment, send an email to the Non-Compliance Coordinator to start the good cause process.
Check the consumer's ABAWD status on the ABAWD Time Limit page and notify the Non-Compliance Coordinator to edit the months if needed.
o Non-Compliance Coordinator: If the consumer was not meeting work/training requirements at the time of approval for Food Assistance but is now meeting the work/training requirements through participation with E&T, then edit the status to Met work/training requirement from the month of E&T engagement through the future months listed.
o If the Food Assistance program block was discontinued by batch because the ABAWD months were not updated, then contact a supervisor to have the program block rescinded.
Work with the consumer to gain meaningful employment. The consumer must be in an activity and/or employed for a combination of 30 hours per week.
Monitor the consumer's total hours of employment and participation.
KEES
Sends a Not Meeting Work Requirements task to the career navigator assigned to the FAET program block if the consumer is not meeting the 30-hour minimum requirement.
E&T Career Navigator:
Claim/Complete the task.
Check the consumer's employment and activity hours or participation. If the consumer falls below the 30-hour minimum requirement, send an email to the Non-Compliance Coordinator to start the good cause process.
Non-Compliance Coordinator:
Request good cause.
o Cold call the consumer to obtain good cause.
o If the cold call attempt fails, then request good cause in writing from KEES using the W504: Request for Good Cause form. Give the consumer 10 days to provide good cause.
If good cause is received and approved, notify the career navigator.
If good cause is not received, or received but not approved, then start the violation process.
o Enter a Non-Compliance in KEES using a Type of Not Meeting Work Requirements and the appropriate 1st, 2nd or 3rd violation as the Reason. KEES automatically populates an End Date based on the tiered type.
o Update the consumer’s ABAWD Status on the ABAWD Time Limits page if appropriate. For example, the consumer’s status may need to be updated from Meeting Work Requirements to Not Meeting Work Requirements if the consumer is working below 20 hours/week.
o Run EDBC to Discontinue Food Assistance.
o Send the KEES generated NOA.
KEES:
Sends a Food Assistance Discontinuance task to the career navigator assigned to the FAET program block.
E&T Career Navigator:
Claim/Complete the task.
Update the End Date on any open activity records.
Discontinue the FAET program block using a Status Reason of Not Meeting Work Requirements.
KEES:
If the violation did not result in a full program closure, KEES will generate a Penalty Period Ending task for the Orange-Purple queue via batch when the violation period ends if Food Assistance is still Active when the batch runs.
1.3 Key Process Considerations
Mandatory Food Assistance E&T participants must meet 30 hours per week participation requirements. At least 11 hours per week must come from Employment, Training, or any activity other than Job Search or Job Readiness, otherwise the consumer's ABAWD month will be counted.
KEES looks at the EDBC results for the application month = 1 month to determine if the FAET Referral task should generate. This means the FAET Referral task could generate in scenarios where the come-up month for the application is the application month+2 months, and the consumer's Work Eligible Status changes between the 2nd and 3rd month, making them no longer mandatory for the E&T program. In this scenario, the Eligibility Worker should void the task from the Task Management window.
For example, Sarah applies for Food Assistance on 2/3. Her application is ready to be processed on 2/20. The come-up month in KEES is April. She reports she will start a new job in March and her first paycheck will be received in April. DCF is able to verify Sarah’s average weekly hours will be 30 hours per week. Sarah does not have an Exempt from work/training requirement record on the ABAWD Time Limit List page. She is Work Eligible-Yes when running EDBC for February and March. She is Work Eligible – Exempt when running EDBC for April because she is employed 30 hours per week. In this scenario, KEES will generate a FAET Referral task for the month of March (application month + 1 month) because Sarah was Work Eligible – Yes on EDBC. The Eligibility Worker should void the task because Sarah is Work Eligible – Exempt in April (come-up month).
Anyone who is mentally and physically unfit should not be referred to E&T. This includes someone who has a pending Social Security Disability application. In this scenario, a doctor’s statement is not needed. If there is an application pending, staff can exempt them from being referred without other documentation. The FAET Referral task should be voided in this scenario.
In-kind income counts towards participation for ABAWD work requirements and mandatory E&T work requirements. See the ABAWD Supplemental Training Guide for more information.