Alternatives to Direct Money Payment

In the GA, OSIP, REF and TANF programs, the Department may use protective payments to ensure that the benefits are used to meet the client’s basic needs. A protective payment is the payment by check of some or all of a client’s grant to an authorized representative or creditor of the client. In the REF and TANF programs, protective payments may be made whenever a client demonstrates such an inability to manage funds that the Department determines the benefits are not being used in the client’s best interest. Protective payments are appropriate particularly if mismanagement of funds caused by repeated interruptions of the client’s grant poses a threat to the health or safety of children in the household.