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Page | 83 4640 EXPEDITED SERVICE REQUIRED APPLICATION INTERVIEW

If a household is determined to meet the expedited service criteria, an interview must be made available within 7 days following the application date. If the applicant doesn’t complete the interview within 7 days following the application date, or meet any of the other 2 criteria, the applicant loses his/her rights to expedited service and the application follows normal processing time frames and regulations.

4650 LATE EXPEDITED DETERMINATION

All expedited cases must have benefits available (in their EBT account) within 7 days following the application date to meet the application processing timeliness standard. In some circumstances, a case may not be identified as expedited until after the 7 day timeframe has passed. Failure to identify eligibility for expedited service may be due to:  Prescreening fails to identify a household which is entitled to expedited service and this entitlement is not discovered until a later date.  Information is not known until after the 7 day time frame to determine expedited service.

In these cases, the application does not meet the QC timeliness standard. Although the case does not meet the application processing timeliness standard of 7 days, it is still important to have benefits available to the household within 7 days of the date it was discovered as expedited. This is defined as the “Date of Discovery”. Once the EABS discovers the case is eligible for expedited service, benefits must be available to the household no later than 7 days after the date of discovery.

4660 POSTPONED VERIFICATION FOR EXPEDITED HOUSEHOLDS

Expedited households are the only households where the mandatory verifications (excluding identity) can be postponed. All mandatory verifications, including questionable information, must be postponed if unable to verify within the expedited time frames.

If required verifications (other than identity) were postponed to meet expedited time frames, the verifications must be completed prior to approving the next month's benefits for all applications taken before the 16th of the month. If the application is taken the 16th of the month or later, the verification may be postponed until the end of the second month.

The household must be notified of the requirement to submit the postponed verifications and the time frame for submitting them. The notice also must advise the household that if the verification process results in changes to the household’s eligibility or level of benefits, the changes will be acted on without advance notice of adverse action.  The DSS-EA-300 should be used to notify the household of the postponed verification requirement. The notice must be sent the same day the expedited benefits are approved.

If the verifications are not received by the end of the month (or second month for combined issuance cases), close the case for failure to provide required verifications. If the household provides the verifications after benefit termination and still wants to receive benefits for that month, a new application is required. The same DSS-EA-301 may be used if it the verifications are received within 60 days of the initial application submission. Example: The household has self-employment income but does not know the monthly income and did not submit the income tax forms or ledgers until the 10th day. If the household is eligible for expedited service after the self-employment income is determined, the benefits must be available to the household no later than 7 days after the information is received.