Other changes were made regarding automated systems that are improvements over prior legislation. Significant features of the program include the following:
The Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (which replaces AFDC) was effective Oct. 1, 1996. Data collection and reporting requirements are effective July 1, 1997. There's a 15 percent cap on administrative expenses. This cap does not include IT expenses.
States must collect data monthly and report data quarterly on the families receiving assistance. This information includes county of residence, whether anyone in the family is disabled, number of family members, ages of family members, and the relationship of each member of the family to the youngest child. In addition, states must report employment status of family members, any income, marital status, race and educational status. Any public assistance the family receives, such as subsidized housing, Medicare, food stamps, etc., and the amount of assistance received, as well as the number of months the assistance was received, must also be reported.
Any work by the adults and the time spent working must be tracked and reported as well as information on whether and why the family may have left the program.
The states must impose a five-year time limit on benefits and cannot provide benefits to fugitive felons, probation and parole violators or anyone who has misrepresented his or her residence in order to receive benefits.
The legislation consolidates Title IV-A and Child Care Development Block Grants into one block grant with mandatory and discretionary funding elements. Administrative costs cannot exceed five percent of aggregate funds received. States must report quarterly on the recipients of child-care aid. This information must include the following items: family income, residence, gender, race and age of children receiving assistance, sources of family income, the length of time the family has received benefits, and type of child care used.
The state must report biannually on the number of child-care providers who receive funding, the monthly cost of child-care services and the subsidy portion of that, the number of payments made to providers and the total number of children and families served.
Child support changes include an extension of the deadline for certification of child-support information systems until Oct. 1, 1997. The deadline for enhanced (90 percent) funding was extended two years, but caps the amount a state may receive to what was included in its advanced planning documents as of Sept. 30, 1995.
Child-support IT funding was capped at $400 million and the date for implementing the computer systems requirements was extended to Oct. 1, 2000. Regulations for the new systems are due out in August 1998. As in the prior legislation passed, but not signed by the president, a state must have a single statewide automated data processing and information retrieval system. This system must be in effect by Oct. 1, 1997. As reported last month, the deadline for SACWIS enhanced funding was extended one year to Oct. 1, 1997.
Changes to the food stamp program make Electronic Benefits Transfer mandatory by Oct. 1, 2002. Benefits must be secured through the use of a photograph on the card, a Personal Identification Number or other method. The program is also exempted from Regulation E of the Electronic Funds Transfer Act.
Food-stamp recipients who are able-bodied, aged 18 to 50, have no dependents, and have received benefits for more than three months in the preceding 36 months, but have not participated in any work or work-related activity for 20 hours per week, are ineligible.
States that have received waivers of the existing regulations for their programs do not need to comply with new legislation for the length of the waiver.
Milford H. Sprecher is Vice President of State and Local Government Services, Federal Sources Inc.
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