Policy Effective: November 1, 2015

Financial assistance from the Family Employment Program is time limited to 36 months for most families.

A family is time limited to 36 months of financial assistance when a parent is residing in the household who:

Must be included in the family’s filing unit; and

Was authorized to receive financial assistance as a parent in Utah, or any other state for at least 36 months from January 1, 1997,

Has resided in a household for 36 months from January 1, 1997 as a parent, but was, or is currently disqualified from being included in the financial assistance payment . Reasons for disqualification include but are not limited to disqualification for fraud or failure to cooperate on an overpayment collection; and/or

Has resided in a household for 36 months from January 1, 1997 as a parent, but was, or is currently ineligible to be included in the financial assistance payment. Reasons for the ineligibility include but are not limited to the parent being an undocumented or ineligible legal non-citizen.

If one of the parents leaves the home where they received FEP, they carry with them the number of months they received case assistance.

Months the parent receives Adoption Assistance payment while receiving FEP for other children in the home will count toward the 36-month time limit.

Months the parent receives Adoption Assistance payment as a household of one because there is no other child in the home will not count toward the 36-month time limit.

Diversion assistance does not count toward the 36-month time limit.

The months a FEP household resides on certain Native American reservations are not countable toward the parent’s federal or state time limit. These reservations must have an unemployment rate of 50% or more and meet other economic criteria. Two reservations meet this criteria:

Navajo Nation Reservation

Skull Valley Goshute Reservation

This exemption applies to both tribal members and non-tribal members as long as the FEP household is currently residing on the specific reservation.

The exemption for these reservations is not permanent and may change based on the economic conditions of the area.

The 36-months do not need to be consecutive to count toward the time limit. Months where the financial assistance payment was authorized as a partial or reduced payment also count toward the 36-month time limit.

For a month where assistance was authorized, and a later determination is made that the household was not eligible to receive ANY assistance for that month, the month will still count toward the 36-month time limit unless the payment was not issued.

Transitional cash assistance months for March and April 2007, are the only months that count against the Utah 36-month time limit.