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North Carolina

34 Child-Only Cases

County departments/agencies are encouraged to provide family enrichment services to child only cases and to conduct home visits. Children in child-only cases are more likely to be “known” to the child welfare system. Often the child is with a relative, rather than in the foster care system. In terms of eligibility, child-only cases must be reviewed within six (6) months after application and at least every 12 months thereafter. All of these reviews must be through face-to-face contact. Counties should evaluate whether contact that is more frequent is desirable for individual families. In child-only cases, the county will carefully evaluate the provision with which the caretaker is out of compliance i.e., failure to have children who receive assistance appropriately immunized or failure to ensure children who receive assistance stay in school. If the caretaker is failing to provide appropriate care for the child, an evaluation of the appropriateness of the living arrangement is in order. The purpose of the evaluation is to help determine if there are additional services needed by the caretaker to ensure compliance in the future. The goal is to keep the child in a safe and stable environment.

Benefit Diversion (Optional in All Counties)

Under certain circumstances, a one-time, short-term benefit package is more appropriate in meeting the needs of Work First applicants than becoming a Work First recipient. Benefit Diversion may be provided when families are in need of short-term assistance to enable them to get or keep a job or access other financial assistance that will help meet their needs. Benefit Diversion may only be used when there is documentation of a family’s specific crisis or episode of need. Benefit Diversion cannot be used to meet ongoing or recurrent needs.

 Families that receive Benefit Diversion do not have to repay the benefit amount received.  Benefit Diversion can be received only once in a 12-month period and does not trigger the two-year Work First time limit or the five-year federal lifetime limit on benefits.  Recipients of Benefit Diversion are not required to participate in the Work First employment program.  These families are not considered Work First participants, and are not considered in calculating the State’s participation rate.  Families who have exhausted their 24 or 60-month time limit are eligible for Benefit Diversion, provided all other eligibility criteria are met.

In these circumstances, Benefit Diversion may provide:

1. A one-time payment. 2. Referrals to Child Support, Food and Nutrition Services, Medicaid and other potential resources.

In order to be eligible for Benefit Diversion, families must meet the following eligibility requirements that apply to Work First:

1. Who may apply and be included in the family unit; 2. Income guidelines; 3. Resource limit; 4. Minor parent rules; 5. State/county residence;