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1000.20 TANF MANUAL 10/18 PAGE 71

1000.20 SANCTIONS

A sanction is the suspension of the household’s entire TANF payment for program non-compliance. SNAP benefits may also be affected. Federal participation requirements differ in some respects from VIEW program requirements and are not considered in determining non-compliance.

All TANF and TANF-UP recipients who are determined eligible for the VIEW Program and have already signed an Agreement of Personal Responsibility are required to participate in VIEW. Recipients are subject to sanction if they fail to participate without good cause.

A. Good Cause for Failure to Participate

1) When a client is not in compliance with VIEW, the agency must attempt to contact the client by phone to encourage participation, explore good cause, and/or notify the client of a possible sanction. If the ESW determines from the contact that the participant did not have good cause for missing the appointment, or if the ESW is unable to contact the client verbally, the ESW must take action to begin the sanction process. The ESW will must take action to begin the sanction process. Based on agency procedures, the ESW will either send the client the VIEW Notice of Sanction/ Termination (032-02-0307) or the Advance Notice of Proposed Action within 3 business days of the missed appointment. Alternately, the ESW will immediately notify the EW who will send the ANPA within 3 business days of receipt of the notification.

2) A participant who has good cause for noncompliance will not be sanctioned. Good cause will exist if:

a) The participant's inability to fulfill program requirements is due to circumstances outside her control or is the result of a change in circumstances over which the participant had no control. This includes but is not limited to situations in which the reason for the participant’s non-compliance was that the participant had a disability or a family household member had a disability that was not identified or was identified but not addressed. The worker must allow the client 30 days to verify the disability prior to referring for sanction.

b) Acceptable child care is not available when necessary for an individual to accept employment or enter or continue in the program. To be acceptable, the child care must meet all of the following criteria:

1) The child care must be arranged: (a) by the participant, or (b) if the participant cannot arrange for the child's care, it must be arranged by the local department of social services with a legally operating provider;

2) The child care must be within a reasonable distance from the participant's home or work site. This means that the travel time from the child's home to the child care provider and the work site is generally no more than one hour, based on transportation available to the parent;

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