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TANF POLICY MANUAL

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County Office Accommodations Procedures The Client Special Service Coordinator should have written procedures in place to ensure that all staff who directly serves clients is aware of how to arrange for accommodations and know who must be consulted to make these arrangements.

Accommodations Procedures Waiver of office interview for TANF applicants/recipients:

If the client has named an authorized representative, the representative can come to the office in lieu of the client. The authorized representative may answer basic questions and provide child support information needed for eligibility determination but may not negotiate a Family Plan. The Family Plan discussion must be with the A/R.

The office interview must be waived upon request by any A/R who is unable to appoint an authorized representative and:

A. has no BG members able to come to the county office because they are 60 years of age or older or are handicapped/disabled;

B. lives in an extremely remote location;

C. has no BG members able to come to the county office because of transportation difficulties or similar hardships which the county determines, on a case-by-case basis, warrants a waiver of the office interview

These hardship conditions include, but are not limited to:

1. illness 2. care of a household member 3. prolonged severe weather 4. hardship associated with living in a rural area 5. employment or training hours that prevent an applicant/recipient from participating in a face-to-face interview

NOTE: If needed, the county office should try to accommodate working/training hours by scheduling appointments outside of traditional business hours.

Telephone Interviews The county DSS office may offer a telephone interview in lieu of a face-to-face interview for an Applicant for whom the face-to-face interview has been waived.

Out-of-office interviews For those clients who are unable to come to the office or participate in a phone interview, interviews may be held in a mutually agreed-upon site (e.g. Community Mental Health Center, client’s workplace, DSS satellite offices, community agencies, or other locations).