105.26 Extended TANF Categorical Requirements

Temporary Assistance for Needy families (TANF) is limited to five years (60 months) for applicants/recipients to gain family economic independence from cash assistance. Applicants and recipients are encouraged to identify barriers and take an active role in developing an individualized plan, the Agreement of Mutual Responsibility (AMR) with steps to overcome the identified barriers to reach that goal.

Under federal law, states have the option to extend TANF beyond 5 years (60 months) to a limited number of families (up to 20% of the TANF caseload) based on hardship. DHS recognizes that some families have a mental or physical disability, a history of domestic violence, or other hardships outlined in Pennsylvania code. These families may not have achieved self-sufficiency within the 60-month time limit due to these hardships. Extended TANF (ETANF) gives families the ability to receive cash assistance contingent upon participation in employment or other activities designed to move them toward economic independence.

All ETANF adults must comply with the requirements associated with their hardship criteria as agreed to on their AMR and participate in taking steps to overcome the barriers that contribute to their hardship.

55 Pa. Code 141.51

Families with member(s) that have exhausted their 60-month TANF limit may receive Extended TANF benefits if the following requirements are met:

T he family must meet TANF non-financial, income and resource requirements.

55 Pa. Code § 141.51(a)

The CAO will consider Extended TANF for a family or a pregnant woman who would qualify for TANF except for the 60-month time limit.

55 Pa. Code § 141.51(b)

The ETANF family must include one or more adults reaching 1830 TANF days.

5 5 Pa. Code § 141.51(b)

The adult reaching 1830 TANF days must meet at least one of the four ETANF hardship criteria.

55 Pa. Code § 133.23(b)(1)(iii)

Any adult over 1830 TANF days must participate in RESET as exempt, mandatory, or mandatory with good cause for the number of hours to overcome the barriers that contribute to their hardship.

The CAO will develop an AMR with each adult recipient in the family with steps to overcome barriers and move toward the goal of financial independence regardless of whether they are exempt, mandatory, or mandatory with good cause. Individuals must comply with their AMR to be eligible for ETANF.

ETANF hardship criteria requires all adults over 1830 TANF days, including RESET exempt individuals, to take steps towards overcoming barriers contributing to their hardship.

The ETANF recipient(s) over 1830 days that do not comply with the hardship requirements and activities related to the hardship criteria will lose ETANF eligibility under that hardship criteria but may meet requirements of another hardship.

Exception: Recipients not complying with MPP will result in ineligibility and cannot continue under another hardship criteria.

55 Pa. Code 141.54 (c)

A family that includes one adult budget group member over 1830 TANF days and another adult budget group member under 1830 days will still be an ETANF household, but the individual under 1830 TANF days is not required to establish a hardship.

NOTE: The adult member with less than 1830 TANF days continues to accumulate TANF days towards their 60-month limit while in the ETANF household.

A family does not qualify for Extended TANF if any adult is not eligible due to non-compliance with the following program requirements :

1. Failed to s ign required forms, including the AMR. See Section 107.51 Penalty for Not Completing or Signing the AMR .

2. Failed to a pply for or provide social security numbers. See SHB 950.22 Providing or Applying for an SSN .

3. Failed to a pply for federal benefits. See Section 104.44 Applicant Cooperation .

4. Failed to comply with SAR. See Section 171.6 Failure to Submit a Semiannual Reporting Form or a Complete Late/Incomplete Notice by the Appropriate Due Dates.

5. Non-compliant with criminal history, outstanding fines/costs and/or warrant. See Section 104.48 Criminal History Requirements .

6. Non-cooperative with Quality Control (QC). See SHB 900.6 Client Cooperation Requirements .

55 Pa. Code § 141.21 (n)(1)(iii)

55 Pa. Code § 155.2

105.261 ETANF Hardship Criteria

To receive TANF without interruption in cash assistance benefits, an adult must complete a redetermination and meet an ETANF hardship criteria prior to exceeding 1830 TANF days . A new Agreement of Mutual Responsibility (AMR) must be completed . See Section 176.32 Determining Eligibility for Extended TANF .

55 Pa. Code § 133.23(b)(1)(iii)

The AMR must specify an ETANF hardship criteria and the reason the adult ETANF recipient with more than 1830 TANF days qualifies for that hardship. The AMR must give specific details about the adult’s circumstances. See Section 135.821 Extended TANF Tracks . A domestic violence service plan must include steps individuals take on their path to survivorship.

DHS recognizes that Family Violence impacts an individual’s or family’s ability to reach financial independence. The CAO will place families in the Domestic Violence hardship if current or past history of Domestic Violence is verified.

To qualify for Extended TANF the adult (s) over 1830 TANF days must meet one or more of the following hardship criteria:

Domestic violence – Supportive Services

It is not necessary for a family to be currently experiencing DV. Families that have a history of DV will be in DV hardship for ETANF regardless of their RESET status. Families meet this hardship criteria if:

They have a current good cause waiver of child support cooperation and/or RESET requirements or

Past good cause waiver of child support cooperation and/or RESET requirements.

Received TANF time-out benefits based on domestic violence.

Initiates a request for waiver of child support cooperation and/or RESET requirements and initiates a PA 1747 Domestic Violence Verification Form.

45 CFR 264.1(c)

ETANF individuals with DV hardship and current GC waiver for RESET and/or Child Support Cooperation still need to have the GC waiver reviewed every 6 months to determine if GC circumstances have changed.

NOTE: Individuals under the DV hardship criteria, who have not obtained a good cause waiver of the RESET requirements are not subject to RESET sanction for failure to meet these requirements. Should this situation occur, the CAO will explore whether the individual’s noncompliance is due to domestic violence barriers or similar factors. If good cause cannot be established, the family becomes ineligible for Extended TANF until the individual complies with RESET work requirements.

55 Pa. Code § 141.53(e)

ETANF individuals with DV hardship must comply with the ETANF hardship criteria requirement to participate in a Service Plan designed to lead to employment regardless of their GC status. See CAH 108.11, Completing the Domestic Violence Agreement of Responsibility and Referral to Services

The ETANF household is not eligible for ETANF if the adult(s) over 1830 days did not comply with the ETANF DV service plan and good cause for that non-compliance has not been established.

If domestic violence is not indicated or history of domestic violence is not in the record CAOs should review for other hardship criteria.

45 CFR 260.55

55 Pa. Code § 141.53

Maximizing participation project (MPP)

Exempt from participating in RESET because the individual is mentally or physically disabled.

Exempt from participation in RESET because the individual is the parent or specified relative who is providing care for a child under 6 and alternate child care arrangement is unavailable.

Not exempt from RESET but has good cause that will not be resolved in 90 days.

An individual with this hardship must cooperate with a Work Capacity Assessment (WCA) with a contracted program. The WCA is an independent evaluation of medical, vocational, and/or functional capacity assessing any factors which preclude or limit the adult’s ability to comply with RESET requirements. See Section 135.82 Extended TANF RESET Requirements.

The individual must comply with the steps to be taken in the MPP plan. An MPP plan that involves a step-by-step process may or may not have set hourly requirements. See CAH 135 Appendix H .

The individual found eligible under MPP must comply with the eligibility requirements criteria including:

Agree on an AMR to enroll in MPP

Cooperate in obtaining a WCA

Sign and comply with the MPP service plan.

Cooperate with the Multi-Disciplinary Team (MDT)

55 Pa. Code § 141.54(b)

Mandatory RESET participants

All individuals that have not met the hardship criteria for DV, MPP or Deferred Referral may be eligible for ETANF under this hardship. These individuals are underemployed or unemployed and are mandatory for RESET.

Employed 30 or more hours per week.

Employed and participating in an employment and training program for a combination of 30 hours a week

Participating in an employment and training program.

Employed 20-29 hours per week.

Employed less than 20 hours per week.

Not employed.

Established good cause for partial participation for less than 30 hours per week but still participating 20 hours a week.

55 Pa. Code § 141.55(a)

Deferred referral

A parent in a one-parent household is caring for a child under 12 months of age and is exempt from RESET.

55 Pa. Code § 165.21(c)(4)

NOTE: The CAO should review the record for Newborn exemption time already used. The AMR must reflect the amount of time left of the one-year limit. The individual cannot receive a Newborn exemption if they have no time remaining. The CAO must set an alert to end the exemption when the newborn time has been exhausted or the child turns one, whichever occurs first.

The adult over 1830 TANF days is caring for a disabled child or adult for whom appropriate care is unavailable or not within a reasonable distance from home.

The adult over 1830 TANF days stablished good cause for not complying with RESET

The parent or specified relative who is providing care for a child under 6 and alternate childcare arrangement is unavailable.

The adult over 1830 TANF days is in process of a compliance review or receiving TANF assistance pending a timely appeal.

The CAO will determine eligibility under this section when circumstances change and no later than every 90 days. The newborn exemption review occurs no later than 6 months.

55 Pa. Code § 141.56

An adult in ETANF families may qualify under more than one of the above hardship criteria.

105.2611 The Contingency Period

When a recipient reaches 1801 - 1815 TANF days of TANF on a payment date, an alert (TEXT 193) is created. The budget automatically changes to a Program Status Code (PSC) 07, which indicates the case is now in the contingency period. The contingency period is intended to give CAOs time to complete a partial redetermination and to determine if the individual is eligible for ETANF.

The text alert prompts the CAO to send the individual in the contingency period a PA 1754 to schedule the ETANF determination interview. The appointment notice will advise the individual that they have received 60 months of TANF and must now be reviewed for eligibility in ETANF.

The PSC remains 07 on the Case Summary screen in eCIS until the TANF days advance to 1830 days and the CAO takes action on the budget. The CAO must determine eligibility for ETANF and, if eligible, change the PSC within 30 days of the receipt of the alert.

If the budget is determined eligible for ETANF, the CAO must change the PSC 07 to either:

PSC 08 which indicates eligibility for ETANF; or

PSC 09 which indicates eligibility for ETANF due to current or a history of domestic violence.

NOTE: PSC 09 will not build without an open DV screen in eCIS. The CAO will need to include a DV screen without a review date for recipients that have DV history but not currently experiencing DV. Narrate the DV screen is for ETANF eligibility.

The CAO must process the budget through the Extended TANF Tracking Exemption screen in eCIS. See Section 135.82 Extended TANF RESET Requirements .

105.2612 Converting TANF Cases to Extended TANF

T he method for determining ETANF eligibility for an individual already receiving TANF will follow the partial redetermination process. Individuals in the Contingency Period will be reviewed for conversion to ETANF using one of two methods:

Face-to-face interview

Telephone interview

NOTE: The CAO will utilize whichever method is most practical for the recipient.

When the ETANF interview is completed by telephone, the CAO will

Offer the recipient the opportunity to verbally sign and initial the AMR following procedures for narrative and AMR signature and initial entry (See Section 107.602 AMR Filing and Recording) or

Send the new or updated AMR to the adult for their signature/initials by mail, fax, or email.

Unless verbally signed, the adult must return the signed/initialed AMR to the CAO within 30 days by mail, fax, or email. If the AMR is not returned within the 30-day period, the case will be closed with advance notice.

The CAO will thoroughly review the case record and conduct the interview.

If the recipient within the contingency period fails to keep or reschedule their interview the CAO will send Advance Notice to close the case.

105.262 ETANF Redeterminations

If the adult’s or family’s circumstances change and the requirements or the current ETANF hardship criteria no longer apply, the CAO worker will explore eligibility for Extended TANF under another ETANF hardship criteria. Any change in hardship criteria requires a partial redetermination , including completion of a new or updated AMR and update to eCIS to reflect the change in the hardship criteria . See Section 176.32 Determining Eligibility for Extended TANF .

A partial redetermination interview requires:

A review to see if the family still meets all TANF non-financial, income and resource program requirements.

Completion of a new AMR or update of an existing AMR.

Updates reflected properly in eCIS.

5 5 Pa. Code § 133.23(b)(1)(iii)

Revised April 29, 2025, replacing June 21, 2024