Arkansas Administrative Code › Agency 016 - DEPARTMENT OF HUMAN SERVICES › Division 20 - Division of County Operations › Rule 016.20.98-017 - Title IV-A: State Plan Addendum - Welfare-to-Work Grant; TEA Policy 3600-3640; Forms DCO-1425 & DCO-1426

Current through Register Vol. 49, No. 6, June, 2024
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3600
Welfare-to-Work(WtW)Grant Program
3607
Background and General
			 Description of Program
On August 5.1997, the President signed the Balanced Budget Act
				Of 1997. This legislation amended certain Temporary Assistance for Needy
				Families Program (TANF) provisions of the Social Security Act and authorized
				the Secretary of Labor to provide Welfare-to-Work (WtW) grants to States and
				local communities for employment assistance to move the hard-to-employ TANF
				welfare recipients into unsubsidized jobs and economic self-sufficiency.
The objective of the WtW grant program is to provide additional
				resources to target hard-to-employ welfare clients and non-custodial parents
				within the State. The WtW legislation specifically includes certain
				non-custodial parents of TANF minor children. A non-custodial parent means a
				parent who is absent from the TEA child's household. (See TEA 3621 for more
				information regarding non-custodial parents.)
WtW activities must be coordinated with those undertaken
				through TANF. The WtW regulations provide the States and local governments with
				broad discretion to design and implement programs that meet the needs of the
				hard-to-employ clients in the individual States.
Although the WtW program is a part of the Arkansas TEA State
				Plan, the Employment Security Department (ESD) is the administrative agency for
				the WtW program. The State WtW grant funds are funneled through ESD from the
				Department of Labor to the local Service Delivery Area (SDA). At the local
				level, the Private Industry Council (PIC) administers the funds. However,
				because the WtW program is specifically for TANF families, close coordination
				and collaboration between the County DHS office and the local PIC is necessary
				for a successful program. The procedures described in the following sections
				are intended to be used as a basis on which to build an effective and
				coordinated WtW process at the local level.
3605
Welfare-to-Work
Eligibility Requirements
The federal law specifies certain criteria an individual must
				meet in order to participate in the WtW program. Not every TEA recipient will
				meet this criteria. Therefore, a WtW eligibility determination must be made on
				each individual. The County DHS Office will be responsible for determining WtW
				eligibility and will certify to the WtW agency that each Individual referred
				meets the WtW criteria.
The WtW legislation targets those TANF (TEA) recipients who
				will have the most difficulty transitioning into employment. It divides such
				individuals into two groups:
(1) The
			 hard-to-employ group; and
(2) The
			 long-term dependence characteristics group. It also states that the WtW agency
			 must spend at least 70% of its funds on the hard-to-employ group and not more
			 than 30% on the long-term dependence-group. As a result, the two groups are
			 commonly called the 70% group and the 30% group. The following sections
			 describe the two groups in detail.