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West Virginia Income Maintenance Manual Chapter 14
West Virginia Income Maintenance Manual Page 18 Chapter 14 Work Requirements
14.5 SNAP WORK REQUIREMENT PENALTIES A Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) penalty is imposed when clients do not comply with a work requirement and do not have good cause. See Section 20.2 for the effect of penalties on eligibility for Emergency Assistance (EA). When determining the correct number of penalties, the Worker must look at the total number of penalties previously served, not just the number of penalties for each work requirement. The penalty must be served unless the client meets an exemption. The penalty is never applied to an entire assistance group (AG), only to the client who does not comply. When the reported exemption ends, the client is subject to the original penalty, unless he has complied or meets another exemption. Penalties are applied sequentially, regardless of the requirement not met. In addition, penalties are applied consecutively, and one penalty must end before another one is imposed. 14.5.1 SNAP CLIENT NOT RECEIVING WV WORKS When a SNAP client that does not receive WV Works fails to comply with the SNAP work requirements in Section 14.2, he is subject to the following penalties. 14.5.1.A Voluntary Quit and Voluntary Reduction of Hours Penalties A client who voluntarily quits employment of at least 30 hours a week or voluntarily reduces his hours to below 30 hours a week is subject to the following penalty periods or until he reports an exemption. See Section 14.2 for exemptions. The client must not be required to return to the same or comparable employment before eligibility is established. • First violation: The client is removed from the AG for three months or until he meets an exemption. If the client does not meet an exemption prior to the end of the penalty, he is added back into the active AG after three months. A one-person AG must reapply to establish eligibility. NOTE: If the effective begin date of a penalty occurs at the same time the client is determined to be ineligible or requests closure of his benefits, the penalty must still be applied.