Transitional Food Assistance

Clarifying Information - WAC 388-489-0005

1. Eligibility for Transitional Food Assistance (TFA):
   
   1. If a household stops receiving Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) or Tribal TANF benefits, they may qualify for TFA when:
      1. They were already receiving Basic Food when TANF terminated;
      2. No other member of the Basic Food assistance unit (AU) receives TANF;
      3. They reside in Washington;
      4. They weren’t in full family sanction at the time TANF terminated; and
      5. They aren’t disqualified from receiving Basic Food for not cooperating with the application or recertification process, or if all members are ineligible due to reasons described in WAC 388-489-0025.
   2. If a household receives Transitional Cash Assistance (WAC 388-394-0010) they will qualify for TFA.
2. Authorizing TFA:

When a household is eligible for TFA, the system opens TFA using the existing Basic Food AU, calculates transitional benefits as described under WAC 388-489-0010, and sends the AU letter 008-01 to tell them about their transitional benefits. TFA cases are automatically taken out of the mid-certification review cycle and won’t receive a MCR for Basic Food.

3. When a family leaving TANF/Tribal TANF isn’t eligible for TFA:
   • The system won't trickle to TFA.
   • Use the existing Basic Food AU's current circumstances to determine the impacts on eligibility.
   • If not eligible for TFA, the AU may be eligible for continued non-TFA Basic Food.

4. Basic Food applications during the last month of TANF:
   If a household doesn’t already receive Basic Food at the time we take action to close TANF or remove Tribal TANF income, they aren’t eligible for TFA. This includes Basic Food applications:
   • Pending at the time we take action to close TANF or remove Tribal TANF income; or
   • Approved after we took action to terminate TANF benefits or remove Tribal TANF income.
     

     EXAMPLE:

     A family receives TANF benefits in January. On January 4th, the family turns in an application for Basic Food. The worker has pended the application for necessary verification. On January 7th, the client requests termination of their TANF benefits. They have indicated that they still want food benefits. The worker immediately updates the case to terminate TANF effective January 31st.

     On January 9th, the client provides the necessary verification to open Basic Food benefits. The family is eligible for food benefits back to their date of application of January 4th.

     Even though the AU was eligible for Basic Food when we terminated TANF benefits, the TANF AU didn’t receive Basic Food on January 7th, the date we terminated TANF. The family isn’t eligible to receive TFA. Process the application for Basic Food.

     EXAMPLE:

     The Parker family receives Basic Food and Tribal TANF in March. They failed to recertify their Basic Food benefits in March; Basic Food terminates on March 31st.

     On April 10th, we hear from the Tribal TANF worker that Mr. Parker started working, terminating Tribal TANF benefits. On April 14th, Mr. Parker turns in an application requesting Basic Food benefits.

     The Parker family didn’t receive Basic Food at the time we removed the Tribal TANF income. They aren't eligible to receive TFA. We would process the application for Basic Food.

5. Pending clients in an active Basic Food AU:
   • If a person is pending on an active Basic Food AU when the TANF or Tribal TANF closure moves the AU into TFA, the pending AU member stays in pending status.
   • When we complete the add-a-person actions for the person in pending status, the system will automatically designate them as a non-member with ACES Reason Code 130.

6. TANF or Tribal TANF suspension and TFA:

   People on an active TANF or Tribal TANF case who are in suspense aren’t eligible for TFA, even though they don’t receive a cash benefit. These families may receive TFA when TANF/Tribal TANF benefits end.

7. Moving between TANF and Tribal TANF:

   If someone leaves TANF or Tribal TANF to apply for the other program, the family may be eligible for TFA while the other benefits are pending. When we approve TANF or we learn Tribal TANF is approved, the system automatically terminates TFA with advance notice.

8. Two or more TANF Assistance Units in a single AU for Basic Food:
   • No person in a TFA AU can receive TANF or Tribal TANF.
   • The system won’t allow someone to receive TFA if someone living in the home and in the Basic Food AU receives TANF or Tribal TANF.

9. Two Basic Food AUs associated with a single TANF/ Tribal TANF AU:

If TANF / Tribal TANF ends, and more than one Basic Food AU is associated with the TANF AU, only the Basic Food AU with the TANF Head of Household changes to TFA​.

10. Ineligible person in a Basic Food AU when TANF ends:

A person’s status as an ineligible member of a Basic Food AU doesn't prevent the eligible members of the AU from getting TFA​.

11. Refusing to cooperate with the application process:
    • Refusing to cooperate with the application process for Basic Food isn’t the same as failing to provide information necessary to determine eligibility for Basic Food.
    • Clients aren't refusing to cooperate with the application process if they simply fail to provide the requested information or verification.
    • We consider someone to be refusing to cooperate with the application process, only if the following conditions have been met:
       
      1. The AU is able to cooperate in taking the required action necessary to determine eligibility; and
      2. They clearly demonstrate that they won’t take the required action to complete the application process.

12. Non-recipient members of a TANF/SFA AU and TFA:

People who are non-recipients of a TANF/SFA Assistance Unit don't impact the household’s eligibility for TFA​.

Worker Responsibilities - WAC 388-489-0005

1.    When Basic Food is terminated before TANF:

• If you try to terminate a TANF AU, or remove Tribal TANF income from an AU that has a Basic Food case that is closed effective the end of the month, ACES provides a hard edit to reinstate Basic Food before terminating TANF.
• If the system terminates TANF in batch, and Basic Food is already closed effective the end of the month, Barcode tickle TFA1 – “TANF closed in batch, review HH for correct TFA elig” is generated.

    Reinstate Basic Food and take action to terminate TANF or remove the Tribal TANF income. The system will automatically open TFA benefits.

2.    People moving between TANF and Tribal TANF:
    

When people aren't eligible for TFA because they are transferring between TANF and Tribal TANF, enter the appropriate code to prevent TFA:
    a. If the family is leaving Tribal TANF to get TANF, approve the TANF benefits before removing the Tribal TANF income.
    b. If the family is leaving TANF to get Tribal TANF, enter the Tribal TANF income before closing the TANF grant.

3.    Basic Food issued with postponed verification:

To improve the process for expedited service and support TFA, the system now accepts future application dates when we have approved expedited service with postponed verification.

If you issued Basic Food benefits with postponed verification under WAC 388-406-0015 and now have the needed verification, take the following actions:
    
Re-screen the Basic Food AU with a future application date for the ongoing month. Do not screen in a new AU for Basic Food; and finalize the application with the new information.

4.    When a Basic Food household is eligibility for TCA but didn't convert to TFA due to a household composition change:

These circumstances will generate a TFA2 tickle:

a. ACES attempts to close a Basic Food AU with a Reason Code 320 in overnight batch;

b. The household meets the TCA eligibility requirements, and;

c. A recipient in the TFA calculation month was removed prior to the change and they aren't open on another food AU. 

Clarifying Information - WAC 388-489-0010

1. Calculating TFA at TANF closure:

To calculate TFA benefits, we use the Basic Food budget from the AU’s last month on TANF/Tribal TANF, minus the TANF/Tribal TANF income. We do not consider any other changes in income, expenses, or household composition to calculate TFA benefits.

2. Calculating TFA generated by Transitional Cash Assistance:

TFA benefit amount is calculated by using the household’s last Basic Food allotment at the time of original issuance. 

3. How mass changes affect TFA benefits:

The only change to Basic Food standards we use to adjust TFA benefits is the change to the Maximum Allotment under WAC 388-478-0060.

4. When a person on TFA is approved for Basic Food in a different AU:
   If someone in a TFA assistance unit is approved for Basic Food in another AU, the person can no longer be an active member on TFA.

We reduce the TFA AU size for the person who will get Basic Food in the other AU, but we don't change the income or expenses used to calculate the TFA benefits.  We adjust the TFA benefits based on the new AU size and the removal of income and expenses clearly belonging to the person who left (such as any allowable medical expenses).

Worker Responsibilities - WAC 388-489-0010 

If someone in a TFA AU moves out and becomes eligible for Basic Food in another AU, take the following actions:

1. Remove the person leaving TFA from the TFA AU using reason code 549. The system removes the person from the AU and displays Reason Code 233 - Change in household size.   ACES will issue benefits based on the change in the household size.
2. Add the mandatory freeform text to inform the TFA assistance unit:
   • The name of the person we removed from the AU; and
   • That we removed this person from Transitional Food Assistance to get Basic Food in another AU under WAC 388-489-0010.

Clarifying Information - WAC 388-489-0015 

1. TFA Certification Periods:
    
   1. TFA is certified for up to five months from when your household leaves the TANF or Tribal TANF program or receives Transitional Cash Assistance (TCA), beginning the month after the TCA is available.
   2. Prior to the end of the five month certification, we will send you a notice to reapply for Basic Food. The notice will contain an Eligibility Review (ER) Form and we will treat it as follows:
       
      1. If the ER form is received prior to the last month of the TFA certification period, we will treat it as an application for Basic Food per WAC 388-489-0022.
         
         1. Worker should see if the client would like to treat the form as an ER or as an application using the Worker Responsibilities under WAC 388-489-0022.
      2. If the ER form is received in the last month of your TFA certification period, we will follow the processing procedures for recertifications. See WAC 388-434-0010.

2. When TFA starts based on the end of Tribal TANF:

Because we don't issue Tribal TANF benefits, the date we start TFA based on the end of Tribal TANF varies:

• If the Tribal TANF end date is the end of the current month or the end of a prior month, TFA begins with the next monthly issuance after the date we delete Tribal TANF from the system.
• If the Tribal TANF end date is the end of a future month, TFA begins on the first of the month following the Tribal TANF end date.

People leaving Tribal TANF are still eligible for up to 5 months of TFA benefits even if we remove the Tribal TANF benefits one or more months after they stopped getting Tribal TANF.

Example TFA start dates based on end of Tribal TANF and date income is deleted:

1. The worker will most likely need to issue a supplement for the Basic Food for the benefit month of August. Depending on when we learn about the end of Tribal TANF, the worker may need to supplement the Basic Food benefits for July.
2. The worker will most likely need to issue a supplement for Basic Food for the benefit month of August.

3. If necessary, we will extend or shorten your Basic Food AU's current certification period to match the five-month TFA period.
   

   EXAMPLE:

   Family receives TANF and Basic Food benefits with their next ER / Recertification is due in August. In early January, the head of household gets a job and requests termination of TANF.

   TANF closes effective January 31st and the Basic Food converts to TFA in February. The system automatically adjusts the certification end date to June 30th, for when the five months of TFA benefits end.

   EXAMPLE:

   Tom and his child receive Basic Food and TANF based on no income. They are certified for Basic Food from January through June.

   On May 10th, Tom reports a job that puts him over the income limit for TANF. TANF ends on May 31st; and the AU gets TFA from June 1st through October 31st based on zero income. The system extends the certification period beyond the original certification end date to provide 5 months of TFA.

   EXAMPLE:

   Lenny receives Basic Food for himself, his daughter, his girlfriend Linda, and Linda’s two sons. Basic Food is certified from November through October. Linda receives TANF for herself and her sons.

   On December 4th, Linda requests closure of her TANF because she now receives social security survivor’s benefits. TANF benefits close effective December 31st. The Basic Food AU switches to TFA effective January 1st with a certification period ending May 31st. To receive food benefits after May, the AU must recertify for Basic Food.

 Clarifying Information - WAC 388-489-0020

1. Reporting requirements - TFA and other benefits combined

   If a household receives TFA and has an associated case for other benefits, they receive information about the reporting requirements for the other program.

   EXAMPLE:

   A family receives TANF, Basic Food, and SSI-related medical.

   The family leaves TANF and begins to receive five months of TFA benefits. The letters they receive will tell them to report based on the requirements for SSI-related medical.

2. Changes reported when not recertifying to end TFA:

If someone reports a change in circumstances and they don't reapply for Basic Food benefits, TFA benefits remain the same even if we update the case information. However, the changes may impact other benefits.

3. Opting out of TFA based on new circumstances:

   Basic Food AUs who meet TFA eligibility requirements are automatically converted to TFA the month after their last month of TANF / Tribal TANF or receipt of Transitional Cash Assistance.

   This includes when we have made changes to the household composition in the ongoing month for Basic Food. – The start of TFA has priority over the change for Basic Food.

   If someone wants to opt out of TFA and get Basic Food, the household must reapply for Basic Food to end TFA.

   EXAMPLE:

   Denise and her son Timmy receive TANF and Basic Food benefits. Denise receives a partial TANF grant due to her $800 monthly earnings. On June 2nd, Denise requests to add her sister Sally to her Basic Food AU. Sally has no income, so the change results in Denise’s Basic Food increasing effective July 1st.

   On June 23rd, Denise asks us to terminate her TANF benefits and waives adverse action. Her TANF benefits close effective June 30th.

   The system will open TFA effective July 1st based on the budget and household composition for Basic Food in June. Because Sally wasn't in the Basic Food AU in June, she isn't included in the TFA benefits. The benefits for the two-person TFA assistance unit are lower than benefits the AU would have received by adding Sally effective July 1st. The AU doesn't receive advance notice of the change in this circumstance.

   If Denise wants to end TFA and add Sally to Basic Food again, she can reapply for Basic Food.

Worker Responsibilities - WAC 388-489-0020 

1. Updating the case record:

Update the case record to reflect changes in circumstances even if these changes don't result in a change to TFA benefits. This information is necessary to maintain the integrity of the case record.

2. Requests to add a someone to a TFA AU:

If someone receiving TFA reports that a person has moved into the household and asks to add them to their food benefits, we can't add the person to TFA. Take the following actions:

• Send the client letter 10-01 to inform them that the reported change had no impact on their TFA benefits.
• Inform them that to add the person(s) to their food benefits, they must reapply for Basic Food.

Clarifying Information - WAC 388-489-0022 

Basic Food certification period after people opt-out of TFA:

If a TFA AU applies for Basic Food and is eligible for benefits, Basic Food must start the first of the month after the date they applied for Basic Food.  If TFA benefits have already been issued for this month, we must determine the amount of Basic Food benefits the AU was eligible to receive and create a BEG for the difference.

Worker Responsibilities - WAC 388-489-0022 

When someone chooses to end TFA early:

People receiving TFA may opt out at any point by reapplying for Basic Food. If someone would lose benefits by leaving TFA, we must tell them of the difference in benefits and encourage them to withdraw the application for Basic Food and continue to get TFA.

If someone applies for Basic Food benefits while getting TFA, take the following actions:

1. Inform the client how many months they have left on TFA.
2. Provide them with the following information about ending TFA:
   1. To reapply for Basic Food, we must verify their income and expenses as we would for any Basic Food recertification.
   2. We use all of the AU's current circumstances to determine their eligibility for Basic Food and their monthly benefits.
   3. They may have to report more changes. The changes they do report are likely to impact their food benefits.
3. Screen the Basic Food AU:
   1. Do not close the TFA.
   2. If the client fails to follow through with the application process or is denied Basic Food for any other reason, TFA benefits continue.
4. Determine the Basic Food amount:
   1. Start the Interview, navigate to the Eligibility page, and click the Trial Eligibility link.
   2. The Eligibility details will display a dual participation message and the benefit amounts for both TFA and the pending Basic Food.
   3. Tell the client the amount of Basic Food the household is eligible to receive.
   4. Click End Test Eligibility to reset the page.
5. If the amount is less than the TFA amount, encourage the client to withdraw the Basic Food application and continue with TFA.
   1. If the client wants to withdraw, deny Basic Food as a voluntary withdrawal.
   2. If the client still wants Basic Food, close TFA and approve Basic Food.
   3. If the client already received TFA for the first month of the Basic Food certification period, process an overpayment for any over-issuance.
   4. When a client chooses to return to regular Basic Food with a lower benefit amount, they are not entitled to advanced notice rules. The next month of benefits is required to be the lower amount. If processing after ten-day notice, establish an overpayment if necessary. 

6. If the amount is more than the TFA, close the TFA and approve Basic Food.  If the client already received TFA for the first month of the Basic Food certification period, process a supplement for any under-issuance.

 Clarifying information - WAC 388-489-0025

1. TFA will end early when a TFA member is approved for TANF.
   

   EXAMPLE:

   Chris receives TANF and Basic Food for her family. On November 12, Chris requests termination of TANF. The Basic Food AU switches to TFA with a certification period of December 1st through April 30th.

   On March 1st, Chris applies for and begins to receive TANF. TFA closes effective March 31st following advance notice requirements. The AU must reapply for Basic Food.

   EXAMPLE:

   Patti receives Basic Food for herself, her husband, her two minor children, and her 19-year old daughter. Everyone except the 19-year old receives TANF.

   In early December, Patti reports that she has a job and requests to end her TANF benefits. TANF closes effective December 31st. The Basic Food AU switches to TFA with a certification period of January through May.

   In February, Patti’s 19-year old daughter is approved for ABD. The TFA benefits continue unaffected through the end of May. We consider the daughter’s ABD benefits, as well as all other current circumstances, when the AU recertifies for Basic Food.

2. Moving into and out of TFA based on short-term TANF/SFA closure:

When TANF/SFA closes on an AU that is TFA-eligible, the case automatically transforms to TFA.

Sometimes TANF/SFA may be closed for a short period. Examples of when this may happen include when someone completes their six-month report late, or they fail to provide needed verification within the requested timeframe.

In the circumstances where we reinstate TANF or SFA, TFA terminates with advance notice when the worker completes the action to reinstate TANF/SFA.

For the AU to receive food benefits, we must re-open Basic Food benefits after reinstating TANF/SFA by re-screening an old AU or screening a new AU. This allows the AU to resume Basic Food and match the certification period end date to the TANF/SFA review date. Reopening Basic Food benefits in this manner isn’t considered a new application for Basic Food benefits, and we don't need clients to complete a new application.

3. When some TFA members become ineligible for Basic Food:

If the TFA AU contains some members who become ineligible under WAC 388-489-0025  (3) (c), and at least one member who remains eligible, they all stay as eligible members of the TFA unit until TFA benefits end.

We terminate TFA benefits early if:

• Someone in the TFA AU begins to receive TANF or Tribal TANF.
• We discover that all people in the TFA AU have left the state.
• All TFA members are ineligible for reasons under WAC 388-489-0025  (3).

4. TFA and EBT Out of State Reports:

When someone uses TFA benefits outside of the State of Washington, they will appear on the EBT out of state (OOS) report.

Because we don't consider this notification that all members of the TFA AU have moved out of state, we don't need to work this report for TFA households.

Normally, we won’t close TFA based on moving out of state unless a member of the AU or another state tells us that all AU members have moved out of Washington.

Worker Responsibilities - WAC 388-489-0025

When TFA member enters TANF / Tribal TANF:

When someone in a TFA AU is approved for TANF or Tribal TANF income is entered on the person’s Unearned Income page, the system terminates TFA benefits with ACES Reason Code 131 allowing for advance notice.

Complete a reapplication to determine eligibility for Basic Food based on the AU’s current circumstances and re-open food benefits.

ACES Procedures

• See ACES User Manual