TO:	Commissioners, Employment Coordinators, TA Directors and WMS Coordinators

FROM:	Russell Sykes, Deputy Commissioner, Division of Employment & Transitional Supports

SUBJECT:	 Legislative Changes to Temporary Assistance Employment Requirements

EFFECTIVE DATE:	Immediately

CONTACT PERSON:	Welfare-To-Work Technical Advisor

This purpose of this GIS is to provide social services district staff with information about recent State legislative changes to the work participation rate requirements for Safety Net Assistance cases without dependent children and changes to the employment notices. 

Participation Rate for Safety Net Households without Dependent Children

Chapter 58 of the laws of 2006 amended section 335-b of the Social Services Law to change the work participation rate for SN households without children from 90% of all cases with a nonexempt individual to 50% of all adult headed cases without regard to employability status.  The participation count methodology remains the same as described in section eight of the WTW Employment Policy Manual and State regulations at 18 NYCRR 385.8.  Districts are reminded that the participation rate methodology for SN households without children provides full credit for work limited and exempt individuals participating in a countable activity to the extent their limitation allows, even if for fewer hours than the 35 hour weekly standard.  

Recent legislative action also repealed existing fiscal penalties that applied to districts that failed to meet the required participation rate for SN households without dependent children, so failure to achieve the newly established 50% rate will not result in a fiscal penalty.  Nonetheless, OTDA expects each district to engage Safety Net individuals in work activities to help them enter the workforce and to achieve the 50% rate. 

These changes are retroactively in effect on April 1, 2006.  

Required Changes to Employment Related Notices 

Chapter 61 of the laws of 2006 enacted April 20, 2006 requires the Office to revise the Conciliation Notice (LDSS-4230 or system generated from the Welfare-To-Work Caseload Management System) and the employment related language generated from the Client Notices System (CNS) or issued manually via the Notice of Intent to Change Public Assistance Grant and/or Food Stamp Benefits for Noncompliance with Employment Related Requirements (Timely and Adequate and Notice of Effect on Medicaid Benefits (LDSS-4004). The Office is directed to make these changes by June 19, 2006.  

Revisions to the Conciliation Notice

Section 341 of the Social Services Law was amended to require that the conciliation notice which is issued when a temporary assistance applicant or recipient refuses or fails to comply with a work requirement be revised so that the notice is written in plain language and include the following new information:

•	To indicate that the purpose of conciliation is to resolve the reasons for failure to comply with work requirement and to avoid a reduction in benefits;
•	The specific instance or instances of willful refusal or failure to comply without good cause and the action that must be taken to avoid a reduction in temporary assistance benefits (in the event of an “until compliance” sanction);
•	An explanation of what would constitute good cause for noncompliance; and, 
•	Examples of acceptable evidence which the individual may submit at the conciliation conference to support any claim of good cause or that may warrant an exemption from work requirement, including domestic violence, physical or mental health limitations that prevented compliance with work activities.

Employment Sanction Related Notices

Section 341 of the Social Services Law was also amended to require that when the district determines that failure or refusal to comply with work requirements was willful and without good cause, the timely notice must now be issued in plain language, be distinctly different from any previous notice, include the specific instance or instances of willful refusal or failure to comply without good cause and the action that must be taken to avoid a reduction in temporary assistance benefits.

The Office is revising the applicable employment-related notices including the Conciliation Notice (LDSS-4230), the Notice of Intent to Change Public Assistance Grant and/or Food Stamp Benefits for Non-Compliance with Employment Related Requirements (LDSS-4004), and the language on the Client Notices System and the Welfare To Work Caseload Management System) in order to comply with these legislative changes.  

The Office will notify districts when these revisions have been completed and will be migrated for district use. Once the State forms are amended, districts will be instructed to submit any local equivalent forms to the Office for approval.