Minnesota Minnesota

Combined Manual

Combined Manual


180 TO 60 DAYS BEFORE MFIP CLOSES

ISSUE DATE: 04/2013

MFIP:
The Department (DHS) recommends that counties take the following steps when setting up and conducting the case review and face-to-face meetings required 180 to 60 days prior to the end of the participant’s 60th month on MFIP.

1.

COUNTY ADMINISTRATIVE REVIEW

Prior to the face-to-face meeting, staff involved with the participant(s) should meet to review the family’s situation. DHS recommends using a team for the county administrative review and subsequent face-to-face meeting. The team may include the financial worker, job counselor, supervisory staff, social worker, child care worker, psychologist, vocational specialist, family violence advocate, or anyone else involved with the participant, provided that the participant has signed the necessary consent forms.

Consider the following:

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Is the participant in the Family Stabilization Services (FSS) service track? If so, does the participant still meet the eligibility criteria and is the documentation used to make the determination still up-to-date?

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What conditions exist that affect the participant’s progress toward self-sufficiency?

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Is the participant currently in compliance? What is the sanction history for this case?

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What services is the family currently receiving? Are there any other service options that should be considered, such as subsidized employment?

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Is the participant’s employment plan still appropriate?

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Does the participant meet an exemption to participation with Employment Services because the household includes a child under 12 months and they have not exhausted the 12-month lifetime limit?

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Is the participant aware of options for stopping the clock?

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Is there an extension for which the participant might qualify?

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What resources might be available to the family if MFIP ends?

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Has the number of TANF months been correctly counted?

NOTE: This list is NOT meant to be all-inclusive.

2.

APPOINTMENT LETTER

Send a letter to ask the participant to call for an appointment for the face-to-face meeting or to notify the participant that a meeting has been scheduled.

If you do not hear from the participant, make AT LEAST 2 more attempts to reach the participant, using other approaches, such as phone calls or home visits. Document these attempts in both case notes and person notes.

3.

FACE-TO-FACE MEETING

Meet and discuss the items on your county 60-Month Planning Checklist. The county is required to attempt to hold a face-to-face meeting for the benefit of the participant. Although “attempting to meet face-to-face” is a requirement for the county, it is not an eligibility requirement for MFIP participants.

The face-to-face meetings provide:

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A means to reach participants who may have missed important messages.

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Information on their sanction status.

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An opportunity for them to request an extension or develop an exit plan.

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Stress the importance to the participant of attending the face-to-face meeting, but do not sanction the participant for not attending the meeting.

4.

IF NO FACE-TO-FACE MEETING

If a face-to-face meeting does not occur, send a letter advising the participant that MFIP will soon close. Provide a list of the hardship extension categories and a copy of the extension request form. Enclose a list of community resources that are available to the participant if MFIP ends and any other information that would have been covered at the face-to-face meeting. If the participant responds to this letter, encourage the participant to come to a face-to-face meeting even if it is after the 58th month.

5.

SUPERVISORY OR TEAM REVIEW

Before MFIP closes due to the time limit, the job counselor’s supervisor or the review team designated by the county must review the case to determine if the criteria for a hardship extension, if requested, were applied appropriately and an attempt was made to meet with the participant face-to-face. If the review indicates that the criteria to close the case were met, send a 10-day notice of adverse action to terminate MFIP at the end of 60th month.


If you discover that a case was closed after the 60th month without the required case review, you must contact the participant and offer to do a case review to determine if the assistance unit was eligible for a hardship extension. If the participant is determined to be eligible for a hardship extension and meets all other MFIP eligibility criteria, the county agency must issue retroactive benefits for all months of MFIP eligibility up to and including the current month.

For more information, see 0011.30.03 (MFIP Transition Period), 0011.33 (MFIP Hardship Extensions), 0011.33.02 (MFIP Hardship Extensions - Removing 1 Parent), 0011.33.03 (MFIP Employed Extension Category), 0011.33.03.03 (Limited Work Due to Illness/Disability), 0011.33.06 (MFIP Hard to Employ Extension Category), 0011.33.09 (MFIP Ill/Incapacitated Extension Category).


WB, DWP, SNAP, MSA, GA, GRH:
No provisions.

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