Page 604

Revised 11-01-17

Revised 07-01-19

Exclusions

States have the option of including in the participation rate, families in the State that are receiving assistance under an approved Tribal family assistance plan or under a tribal work program. MDHS has entered into an agreement with the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians which allows the Tribe to operate a separate TANF Work Program for their TANF eligible members in seven (7) Mississippi counties. Funding for this program is deducted from the State's Federal funding for the TANF Program. Therefore, it is essential that eligible Choctaw Indians residing in the seven (7) counties be served by the Tribal TANF Work Program rather than the MDHS TANF Work Program. The seven (7) counties providing work program services to eligible Choctaw Indians through the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians are:

Jones, Kemper, Leake, Neshoba, Newton, Scott, and Winston

However, child care services for Choctaw Indians are funded through MDHS. Choctaw Indians needing child care assistance will be verbally instructed by the tribal office to contact the MDHS local county office to apply for child care services (refer to Chapter 10, Arrangement of Child Care Services for Tribal TWP Participants and Child Only Cases). Choctaw Indians are subject to the TANF 60month lifetime maximum, but not the 24-month time limit. The 24-month counter for such cases will not increment.

TANF WORK PROGRAM REFERRALS

A referral to the TANF Work Program may be initiated by the intake eligibility worker as a condition of eligibility for TANF, or may be requested by the individual who would like to volunteer for TWP participation. Refer to Chapter 8, Volunteers, for additional information pertaining to volunteers. All referrals, with the exception of absent parents and spouse volunteers, are processed using the automated exchange of data between MAVERICS, the automated system which supports the TANF and SNAP programs, and JAWS, the automated system which supports the TANF Work Program. Each referral is classified by JAWS as either an initial referral, re-referral of a prior participant or a request for reinstatement. TWP referable codes are as follows:

NE - Nonexempt

EV - Exempt-volunteering

VR - Vocational rehabilitation

DV - Drug violator (for sanctioning purposes, not participation)