Title: TANF Pay-After-Performance Program

Summary: Requiring the Department of Children and Families, in consultation with the Department of Economic Opportunity, to implement a Temporary Assistance for Needy Families Pay-After-Performance program to provide assistance to certain eligible persons; requiring the department to refer an applicant for temporary cash assistance to the applicable regional workforce board for work registration and orientation; providing requirements for work activities, reporting excused absences, and verification of work hours, etc.

Full Text:
An act relating to a TANF Pay-After-Performance program; creating s. 414.56, F.S.; requiring the Department of Children and Families, in consultation with the Department of Economic Opportunity, to implement a Temporary Assistance for Needy Families Pay-After-Performance program to provide assistance to certain eligible persons; requiring the Department of Children and Families to determine eligibility for participation in the program; requiring the department to refer an applicant for temporary cash assistance to the applicable regional workforce board for work registration and orientation; requiring the regional workforce board to provide certain information to an applicant; providing program participation requirements; requiring a regional workforce board to assess an applicant s need for immediate support services to assist with work activity requirements; providing requirements for work activities, reporting excused absences, and verification of work hours; providing for a reduction of a program participant s temporary cash assistance payment under certain circumstances; authorizing a specified number of hours of excused absences with good cause; authorizing a person to request a deferral from participation in the program; requiring a career advisor to assist such person in developing an alternative responsibility plan; requiring certain program applicants who are medically deferred to apply for specified services and programs; providing requirements relating to the assignment of work activities; providing for termination of program participation for noncompliance under certain circumstances; authorizing a participant to reapply after termination under certain circumstances; providing requirements relating to the methodology for temporary cash assistance payments; authorizing the Department of Children and Families to adopt rules; amending s. 414.0252, F.S.; conforming a cross-reference; providing an effective date. Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Florida: Section 1. Section 414.56, Florida Statutes, is created to read: 414.56   TANF Pay-After-Performance program.  (1)   PROGRAM CREATION. The department, in consultation with the Department of Economic Opportunity, shall implement a Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) Pay-After Performance program for eligible persons who receive temporary cash assistance pursuant to this chapter and who are referred to a regional workforce board for participation in the welfare transition program. (2)   ELIGIBILITY DETERMINATION. The department shall determine the eligibility of persons who may receive temporary cash assistance. A person who is currently enrolled in the welfare transition program on the effective date of this act is not subject to the requirements of the TANF Pay-After Performance program. (3)   REFERRAL AND ORIENTATION. The department shall refer an applicant for temporary cash assistance to the applicable regional workforce board for work registration and orientation. During orientation, the regional workforce board shall inform the applicant in writing of the TANF Pay-After-Performance program rules and guidelines and assign the number of hours of work required per month for the applicant to receive full benefits under the program. The number of hours of work required by family type under the TANF Pay-After-Performance program are the same as those required under the welfare transition program. (a)   An applicant who chooses to participate in the TANF Pay-After-Performance program must acknowledge his or her understanding of the program requirements in writing. (b)   An applicant who chooses not to participate in the TANF Pay-After-Performance program has the opportunity to withdraw his or her application for temporary cash assistance. Such withdrawal does not affect the applicant s eligibility to reapply for temporary cash assistance at any time. (4)   SUPPORT SERVICES. Each regional workforce board shall assess an applicant s need for immediate support services during orientation as provided in subsection (3). The provision of needed support services, as described in s. 445.025, to assist participants with work activity requirements may only be provided if such services are necessary for an applicant to participate during the period before the applicant earns his or her temporary cash assistance benefit. (5)   WORK ACTIVITIES AND WORK VERIFICATION. A participant in the TANF Pay-After-Performance program must be assigned to work activities in accordance with s. 445.024 and provided with program instructions for reporting excused absences and the number of completed work hours to his or her career advisor for verification on a weekly basis. (6)   PROPORTIONAL REDUCTION OF TEMPORARY CASH ASSISTANCE. A participant in the TANF Pay-After-Performance program is subject to a proportional reduction of temporary cash assistance for any month during which the participant fails to meet the program requirements without good cause. The amount of temporary cash assistance otherwise payable to the participant shall be prorated and proportional to the actual number of completed work hours. (7)   EXCUSED ABSENCES. A participant in the welfare transition program is permitted hours per month of excused work activity hours for good cause, but no more than hours of excused absences within a 12-month period. Such excused absences shall count as participation hours in the TANF Pay-After Performance program. A career advisor shall directly contact a participant to determine and verify whether good cause exists for such absences, and shall notify a participant if his or her public assistance case is subject to termination for noncompliance. (8)   DEFERRALS. If a person meets an exception under s. 414.065, the person may request a deferral from participation in the TANF Pay-After-Performance program and must provide evidence to verify his or her need for such deferral. A career advisor shall assist a participant who has received a deferral in developing an alternative responsibility plan and shall maintain contact with each participant to ensure the participant s compliance with the plan. The participant shall receive his or her full monthly temporary cash assistance benefit until the deferral has been reduced or eliminated or the participant has met his or her work requirements. (a)   A regional workforce board may refer a participant who is percent medically deferred to a physician for a second opinion. Such a participant must apply for vocational rehabilitation services and benefits under the Social Security Disability Insurance program. (b)   A participant who is not percent medically deferred shall be assigned work activities and hours as recommended by the physician. To receive a full temporary cash assistance payment, a participant must participate for the full number of assigned work hours, or the benefit shall be reduced proportional to the number of hours of nonparticipation. (9)   PROGRAM TERMINATION. A participant in the welfare transition program who does not participate in the TANF Pay After-Performance program for consecutive days, without good cause or without notifying his or her career advisor, unless medically unable to participate, must be terminated for noncompliance from the TANF Pay-After-Performance program and will no longer be eligible to receive his or her temporary cash assistance benefit. A participant may reapply for temporary cash assistance after termination as follows: (a)   First incident of noncompliance, only after days after the termination date. (b)   Second incident of noncompliance, only after days after the termination date. (c)   Third incident of noncompliance, only after days after the termination date. (10)   PAYMENT METHODOLOGY. Upon completion of up-front work registration and other eligibility requirements under the temporary cash assistance program, a participant s public assistance case shall be opened for $10 per month. A participant who meets his or her full participation requirement for the month shall receive his or her monthly temporary cash assistance payment. A participant who does not meet his or her full participation requirement for the month shall have his or her temporary cash assistance payment reduced proportional to the number of hours that the participant failed to participate. The methodology for calculating temporary cash assistance payments is as follows: (a)   Divide the monthly temporary cash assistance payment by the monthly scheduled work activity hours; (b)   Multiply the figure in paragraph (a) by the number of hours missed without good cause during the month; and (c)   Reduce the temporary cash assistance payment by the amount in paragraph (b), issuing payment for the amount in excess of the $10 for opening the participant s public assistance case. (11)   RULEMAKING. The department, in consultation with the Department of Economic Opportunity, may adopt rules to implement this section. Section 2. Section 414.0252, Florida Statutes, is amended to read: 414.0252 Definitions. As used in ss. 414.025-414.56 ss. 414.025-414.55,the term: (1) Alternative payee  means an individual who receives temporary assistance payments on behalf of a minor. (2) Applicant  means an individual who applies to participate in the temporary family assistance program and submits a signed and dated application. (3) Department  means the Department of Children and Families. (4) Domestic violence  means any assault, aggravated assault, battery, aggravated battery, sexual assault, sexual battery, stalking, aggravated stalking, kidnapping, false imprisonment, or any criminal offense that results in the physical injury or death of one family or household member by another. (5) Family  means the assistance group or the individuals whose needs, resources, and income are considered when determining eligibility for temporary assistance. The family for purposes of temporary assistance includes the minor child, a parent, or caretaker relative who resides in the same house or living unit. The family may also include individuals whose income and resources are considered in whole or in part in determining eligibility for temporary assistance but whose needs, due to federal or state restrictions, are not considered. These individuals include, but are not limited to, ineligible noncitizens or sanctioned individuals. (6) Family or household member  means spouses, former spouses, noncohabitating partners, persons related by blood or marriage, persons who are presently residing together as if a family or who have resided together in the past as if a family, and persons who have a child in common regardless of whether they have been married or have resided together at any time. (7) Homeless  means an individual who lacks a fixed, regular, and adequate nighttime residence or an individual who has a primary nighttime residence that is: (a) A supervised publicly or privately operated shelter designed to provide temporary living accommodations, including welfare hotels, congregate shelters, and transitional housing for the mentally ill; (b) An institution that provides a temporary residence for individuals intended to be institutionalized; or (c) A public or private place not designed for, or ordinarily used as, a regular sleeping accommodation for human beings. (8) Minor child  means a child under years of age, or under years of age if the child is a full-time student in a secondary school or at the equivalent level of career training, and does not include anyone who is married or divorced. (9) Participant  means an individual who has applied for or receives temporary cash assistance. (10) Public assistance  means benefits paid on the basis of the temporary cash assistance, food assistance, Medicaid, or optional state supplementation program. (11) Relative caretaker  or  caretaker relative  means an adult who has assumed the primary responsibility of caring for a child and who is related to the child by blood or marriage. (12) Temporary cash assistance  means cash assistance provided under the state program certified under Title IV-A of the Social Security Act, as amended. Section 3. This act shall take effect July 1, 2019.