Page 667

Volume III | Chapter 9

9066 MISSISSIPPI [ PROGRAM COMPONENTS: TANF WORK ACTIVITES DEFINED]

Revised 08 - 01 - 12 356A) to enter attendance data into JAWS. Participants who fail to participate satisfactorily will be conciliated and sanctioned if good cause cannot be substantiated. Job Search Activities - Actual time (minutes and hours) engaged in the job seeking process and the actual travel time between employment contacts may be reported as TWP participation. Only the travel time from one employment contact to the next is countable. Travel time from the participant’s residence, work site, etc. to the first employment site and from the last employment site back to the participant’s residence, work site, etc. is not countable. Case managers cannot allow a standard set of time for each job contact (application, interview, etc.), i.e., two hours cannot be allowed for each employer contact. Only the actual time a participant spends at an employment site (arrival to departure), completing online applications, or on the telephone with an employer, along with the actual travel time between employment sites, is countable as TWP participation. Each participant will be required to maintain MDHS-EA-395, TWP Job Search Record, daily to document all employment contacts (visited in person, by internet or by telephone) and travel time. The MDHS-EA-395 will provide the date and time of contact, type of contact, position of interest, the name of the employer, along with the contact information, and the travel departure and arrival times. The participant will submit completed MDHS-EA-395 forms to case management each Monday for the previous week or as requested. If the individual does not meet his/her minimum monthly participation requirement through time engaged in classroom instruction and job club activities, the case manager must complete the job search validation process before time engaged in job search activities can be reported as federal participation via the JRA/JRA component. If the individual has sufficient hours from classroom instruction and job club activities, it is not necessary for the case manager to validate the individual’s job search documentation. In this situation, all of the time engaged in job search activities will be tracked under the JRA/OTH component assignment. Participants who submit incomplete reports or report inaccurate or false data will be conciliated and sanctioned if good cause cannot be substantiated. Guidelines for Reporting Attendance In order to maximize the 120/180-hour limitation, two component assignments (JRA/JRA and JRA/OTH) will be used to enter and report/track job readiness/job search attendance data. The JRA/JRA component assignment will be used to enter and report the minimum number of hours needed for the individual to meet his/her monthly federal participation requirement. Attendance entered for this component will count in the participation rate calculation and will count against the individual’s 120/180 maximum allowed during any 12-month period. The JRA/OTH component assignment will be used to enter and track all participation hours that exceed the minimum number of hours needed to meet the individual’s monthly federal participation requirement. JRA/OTH can also be used to avoid reducing the 120/180 limit when the