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West Virginia Income Maintenance Manual Chapter 18

West Virginia Income Maintenance Manual Page 4 Chapter 18 WV WORKS Activities/Requirements

18.2 LIFETIME LIMIT FOR RECEIPT OF CASH ASSISTANCE

There is a lifetime limit of 60 months that a family may receive cash assistance under Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) and/or WV WORKS. The presence of even one Assistance Group (AG) member who has reached the lifetime limit renders the entire AG ineligible. Children who continue to reside with an adult or emancipated minor who received TANF and/or WV WORKS for 60 months are not eligible. The amount of the payment received has no bearing on the time limit, so that a payment of $1 counts as one month toward the 60-month limit. Sixty-Month Time Limit Example 1: A divorced woman and her two children have received WV WORKS for 60 months. The woman marries the father of one of her children and together they apply for a check. Although her husband has never received WV WORKS, the family is not eligible, and the application is denied. Sixty-Month Time Limit Example 2: A married couple and their three children receive WV WORKS. In the 54th month, one parent is approved for Supplemental Security Income (SSI). The rest of the family is eligible to receive a check for an additional 6 months. In the 59th month the non-SSI parent dies. The case becomes a child-only case with no time limit. Sixty-Month Time Limit Example 3: A mother and children had received 30 months of WV WORKS when the father moves into household. The mother is approved for SSI at 32 months. At the time she is approved, the father has received two months of WV WORKS. He and the children may receive benefits for up to 58 additional months. Sixty-Month Time Limit Example 4: A man and his child receive WV WORKS for 60 months. The father cannot find employment and relinquishes custody of the child to a grandmother. The grandmother no longer has a dependent child of her own but received WV WORKS for 37 months before her youngest child NOTE: For cases that were active cash assistance recipients in January 1997, the first month of the lifetime limit is January 1997. NOTE: Work-Eligible adults and emancipated minors excluded from the AG are not subject to the 60-month time limit.