Given this emphasis, in most offices, eligibility workers spent little, if any time, talking with applicants about the circumstances that led them to apply for assistance and whether there were other resources that they could access to alleviate their current situations. The shift to a more work-oriented, transitional assistance has started to alter this eligibility determination process. Workers are taking more responsibility for informing applicants about program expectations and work-related benefits such as child care, transportation or child support assistance. In contrast to other forms of formal diversion, there are generally no specific policies that guide the process of linking TANF applicants with alternative resources. Instead, this approach is implemented through changes in the interaction between workers and applicants.
Workers now ask questions in a different way and assume a different universe of potential solutions.
Cash assistance is viewed as one of many resources available to help a family rather than the only resource. Since efforts to link applicants with alternative resources are relatively new and not driven by a detailed set of policies we do not have sufficient information to describe and compare state approaches along a number of common dimensions. Thus, to examine how these programs work, we describe how several states have integrated efforts to link applicants with alternative resources into their eligibility determination process. JSP is primarily for people with a fairly stable source of income or the ability to find employment quickly. Time spent in JSP does not count towards the time limit on TANF benefits.