Clarifying Information - WAC 388-416-0005

How long is Basic Food Certified? Basic Food is certified for up to 12 months unless: The client is receiving WASHCAP or ESAP with 36 month certifications, or The certification period is extended to allow for Transitional Food Assistance (TFA).

Start date of a certification period : Certification periods begin according to WAC 388-406-0055 , even if initial benefits for the first month prorate to zero.

Certification period defaults: ACES sets certification periods based AU circumstances and other benefits the household receives. The table below shows the certification periods set by the system if not matching a review period to another program.

AU Circumstances / Other Programs Default Certification All non-WASHCAP or non-ESAP Basic Food AUs 12 months WASHCAP or ESAP 36 months Transitional Food Assistance 5 months

ESAP eligibility may only be determined at application and recertification . ACES is programmed with the ESAP requirements and will change a Basic Food Certification to ESAP when the assistance unit qualifies. See: Elderly Simplified Application Project (ESAP)

Matching cash review periods and Basic Food certification periods: When possible, ACES will automatically match the cash review periods and Basic Food certification periods to minimize the number of reviews as described below: Basic Food approved first: If there are at least six months left in the Basic Food certification period, ACES sets the mid-certification review and eligibility review end dates for the new cash benefit to match dates for Basic Food. If there are less than six months left in the Basic Food certification period, the system will not change the certification period end date for Basic Food. ACES sets a 12-month review period with the mid-certification review due at six months for the new cash benefit.

If we don't initiate a review to manually match the certification / review periods, these mid-certification reviews and eligibility review periods will not match and will result in the household receiving more than one mid-certification review.

The system initiates a review for associated cases at the next ER or recertification. When we complete the review, the end dates and mid-certification review due date will match.

Cash approved first: ACES extends the current cash / medical review periods to match the certification period end date for Basic Food. ACES sends the mid-certification review for all programs that require a report in month five of the certification/review period. This mid-certification review is due in month six.

For changes related to ESAP cases, See: Elderly Simplified Application Project (ESAP)