A Temporary Assistant (TA) recipient must engage in work activities for a minimum number of hours per week. Appendix H outlines the number of hours a TA recipient must engage in an activity or combination of activities.
The first 20 hours of engagement in an activity (per week) must come from participation in the following eight core activities:
Some TA recipients must engage in activities above 20 hours per week. The following three (3) non-core activities can only be used to satisfy the hours above 20 hours per week:
A federal month is based on the month in which the last Friday falls. A federal week begins on Saturday and ends on Friday. To determine when the federal week of a month begins, find the first Friday in the month. The federal work week starts on the Saturday preceding the first Friday. A Temporary Assistance (TA) recipient must engage in work activities according to the federal work week, and must meet the required work participation activity hours for the federal month.
Example: The federal month of August, 2010 began on July 31, 2010. The first Friday in August is August 6th. The federal week begins on a Saturday. The Saturday immediately preceeding the first Friday in August is July 31. Therefore the federal month for August begins July 31, 2010. The work participation hours for any activity must begin July 31, 2010 or later in order to be considered for the month of August, 2010.
The weeks in the federal month of August, 2010 are:
Week 1: 7/31/10-8/6/10
Week 2: 8/7/10-8/13/10
Week 3: 8/14/10-8/20/10
Week 4: 8/21/10-8/27/10
Refer to MWA Calendar for further examples.
Single parent Temporary Assistance (TA) households are required to engage in work activities an average of 30 hours per week if they have a child age 6 or over. The single parent household's participation hours can be fulfilled by engaging in one or a combination of work activities. (Refer to Appendix H HOURS OF PARTICIPATION and Section 0275.000.00 Work Activities)
Single parents of children under age six are required to engage in work activities a minimum of 20 hours of core work activities per week.
Single parent households with a child under age six who can’t participate in work activities because they can’t obtain needed child care cannot be sanctioned.
Reasons a single parent can’t obtain needed child care include:
Two-parent households are required to participate in work activities for a combination of 55 hours per week.
A two-parent household may only have to engage in work activities for a combination of 35 hours per week when:
The required activity hours can be achieved in any combination to meet the total hours required for the two-parent household. It is the family's choice how they participate in work activities.
Example: Parent 1 could work 30 core hours and Parent 2 could work 20 core and 5 non-core hours.)
Example: Only one parent can participate in work activities for a minimum of 30 core hours and 5 non-core hours per week.
Refer to Appendix H Hours of Participation for further information.
Family Support Division (FSD) refers teen parents to the Missouri Work Assistance (MWA) program. A teen parent is an individual receiving Temporary Assistance (TA) who is under age 18 (including the month the individual turns 18) and is the custodial caretaker of a child. The month after they turn 18, they are no longer considered a teen parent. An individual over the age of 18 attending high school does not meet the teen parent definition but may continue to attend high school.
NOTE: There is no minimum age limit for teen parents.
NOTE: In Missouri, only TA recipients under age 18 are referred to as teen parents. However, activities that are available to teen parents are available to TA recipients under age 20.
All teen parents without a high school diploma or the equivalent are required to participate in education as their required work activity.
Where appropriate, enroll the teen parent recipient in a regular high school program. In cases where enrollment in a regular high school is not possible because of the participant's age, inability to function effectively in a high school environment or other circumstance, enroll the participant in a high school equivalency or GED program. In extremely rare cases it may be more appropriate to enroll an individual in vocational education rather than high school or GED classes.
If it is determined that the teen parent is not willing or is unable to attend any educational activity, and is age 16 or over, place the teen parent in other activities, such as unsubsidized or subsidized employment. It is important that the teen parent work toward self-sufficiency, even if it is not in an educational activity. It remains the primary goal, however, to encourage the teen parent to complete high school or engage in other appropriate educational activities.
When the teen parent is enrolled in an educational activity, send the “Teen Parent in Educational Activity” alert to inform FSD the recipient is attending school. It is extremely important that this alert is sent immediately upon verification of the attendance at an educational activity. FSD changes the work requirement code in FAMIS and the teen’s months of receipt of Temporary Assistance do not count toward their 60-month lifetime limit while they are attending high school or another educational activity. See System User Guide, Alerts, for further information regarding the teen parent alert.
Consider attendance at high school as meeting the teen parent’s hourly participation rate, even if the actual attendance hours do not equal the required hours. If the teen is enrolled in GED classes or other educational activities, the actual hours of attendance must equal the required participation hours. If the teen parent is unable to meet the required hours attending GED classes or other education activities, enroll the teen in additional activities to meet the hourly rate.
Allowable educational activities include:
NOTE: This applies only when the teen parent is the student, not the teacher.
Planning to return to school in the fall does not meet the work requirement during the summer months. If not enrolled in summer school, teen parents need to participate in another activity. MWA case managers need to assist teen parents in finding a countable work activity during the summer months for those teen parents not enrolled in summer school.
If a suitable work activity cannot be found, the contractor should make thorough notes in the MWA system regarding the attempt to engage the teen parent during the summer and that the teen parent will not be referred for sanction.
Only the teen head-of-household is referred to the Missouri Work Assistance (MWA) program. Teen parents who are not the head-of-household are not included in work participation rate calculations.
When a teen parent is the custodial caretaker ofa child under 12 weeks of age, they may choose to be exempt from work participation activities if:
The teen parent may not choose the exemption if:
The teen parent may be waived/excluded as temporarily disabled during the 12 post-partum weeks. MWA contracted staff must obtain a statement from a medical professional supporting the need for the waiver. The statement must indicate the length of time the parent is allowed to not participate in employment or training activities. The months of participation continue to count. The teen parent only can be waived/excluded for the 12 post-partum weeks.
Missouri law indicates that children under the age of 17 must attend school, or be considered a truant.
Excused absences allow a Temporary Assistance (TA) recipient to “miss” participation in a work activity and have those absent hours included in their work participation requirement. A TA recipient is allowed a total of 80 hours per 12-month period and 16 hours in a month. The first 16 hours absent in a given federal month are excused. These excused hours are counted as meeting their work participation requirements.
Once the TA recipient misses 16 hours in a month or 80 hours per year, the absence is unexcused. Hours exceeding these amounts (16 hours in the month/80 hours in a year) do not count as meeting work participation requirements.
Record excused absences for unpaid work activities in the MWA System. Refer to the System User Guide for information on entering excused absences for unpaid work activities.
Excused absences for paid work activities are included in the TA recipient’s pay, and should not be recorded separately in the MWA System. They are recorded as part of the actual hours the TA recipient was engaged in the paid work activity. Refer to the System User Guide for information on entering actual hours.
Excused absences are allowed for the following activities:
Example:
Missouri Work Assistance (MWA) case managers must counsel the recipient on appropriate reasons for not attending work or other activities in standard soft skills or workplace training sessions.
NOTE: Do not tell TA recipients about excused absences. Encourage recipients to attend all scheduled work participation activity hours.
A Temporary Assistance (TA) recipient is considered participating in an activity on a holiday only when the employer/school is observing that holiday and the TA recipient would normally have been engaged in that activity on that date. The TA recipient is credited with the actual number of hours usually engaged in that activity, not to exceed 8 hours in a day.
Record holidays for unpaid work activities in the MWA System. Refer to the System User Guide for information on entering holidays for unpaid work activities.
Holidays for paid work activities are included in the TA recipient’s pay, and should not be recorded separately in the MWA System. They are recorded as part of the actual hours the TA recipient was engaged in the paid work activity. Refer to the System User Guide for information on entering actual hours.
These holidays are excused from work participation: