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Child Care Assistance Program Policy Manual Issued 08/2021 Authorizing care - Employment plans 9.1.5 Employment Plan information The job counselor regularly determines if the participant is participating in the activities in the Employment Plan. They must take appropriate action when and if changes occur or an Employment Plan ends. Details about the status of Employment Plans: • If an MFIP/DWP participant has an Employment Plan, consider that person to be participating in the activities in the Employment Plan until the job counselor communicates otherwise or changes the Employment Plan. • All signed Employment Plans are considered to be “approved.” • The job counselor does not need to indicate a date that the Employment Plan or the Employment Plan activities will end if the job counselor believes that the family will continue to participate in the activities. • The review dates listed on the Employment Plan should not be interpreted as “end dates.” Child care assistance should not automatically end if an Employment Plan review date has passed and a new Employment Plan has not been completed. • Workforce One (WF1) assigns a “Plan Start Date” on the front page of the Employment Plan and does not allow that date to be adjusted. Individual activities within the Employment Plan can have earlier dates than the “Plan Start Date.” CCAP can be authorized and paid back to the earlier individual activities dates as long as the family was MFIP eligible and meets all CCAP eligibility requirements. • For information about when a participant is out of compliance with their Employment Plan, see Chapter 4.3.3.9 (MFIP sanctions) and Chapter 4.3.3.18 (DWP non-compliance). Employment Plans and overpayments The agency should implement safeguards to ensure that the appropriate amount of care is being provided to CCAP families. Safeguards might include Employment Plan/CCAP audits. Families may be charged with CCAP overpayments if: • The family does not provide timely reports of changes in income over 85% of SMI, family composition or other factors related to the family’s eligibility for child care assistance. • CCAP fraud is determined. See Chapter 13.6 (Disqualification for wrongfully obtaining assistance – Families). • MFIP fraud is determined, and that results in the family’s reduction or loss of CCAP eligibility or authorization. See Chapter 4.3.3.6 (MFIP Special Circumstances). A job counselor may determine that a participant has not been in compliance for a prior period of time with some or all of the activities identified in the Employment Plan. Do not assess a CCAP overpayment due to lack of or reduced participation in the Employment Plan activities, except in cases of MFIP and/or CCAP fraud. If a job counselor fails to notify the CCAP worker that an Employment Plan has changed or ended, this would not be an overpayment because the overpayment resulted solely from agency error. See Chapter 14 (Overpayments) to determine when to assess an overpayment.