SR 03-39 Dated 09/03

STATE OF NEW HAMPSHIRE

INTER-DEPARTMENT COMMUNICATION

 

 

SIGNATURE DATE:

August 18, 2003

FROM:

OFFICE OF THE DIRECTOR Mary Anne Broshek

AT (OFFICE):

Division of Family Assistance

TO:

DFA Supervisors

NHEP Teams

SUBJECT:

Release of the New NHEP Non-Compliance Notification Period and Changes in the Time Periods for Progressive Sanctions for NHEP

EFFECTIVE DATE:

September 1, 2003

 

 

SUMMARY

 

This SR releases:

·   a change in the non-compliance notification period for New Hampshire Employment Program (NHEP) participants, from 15 days to 10 days; and

·   changes to the time periods for progressive sanctions, from 3 months to 2 months.

 

FORMER POLICY

NEW POLICY

 

Non-Compliance Notification Period

 

The client has 15 days from the date of notification to respond to the issue(s) of non-compliance, unless good cause is documented for response after the 15 days.

 

Time Periods for Progressive Sanctions

 

·   A sanction will be imposed if the client has failed to respond to the issue(s) of non-compliance within 15 days, unless good cause is documented for response after the 15 days.

 

·   After 3 months of non-compliance without good cause, the sanction progresses to the next sanction level.

 

Non-Compliance Notification Period

 

The client has 10 calendar days from the date of notification to respond to the issue(s) of non-compliance, unless good cause is shown for response after the 10 calendar days.

 

Time Periods for Progressive Sanctions

 

·   A sanction will be imposed if the client has failed to respond to the issue(s) of non-compliance within 10 calendar days, unless good cause is shown for response after the 10 calendar days.

 

·   After 2 months of non-compliance without good cause, the sanction progresses to the next sanction level.

 

 

POLICY

 

Effective September 1, 2003, DFA has implemented the following policy changes in order to engage clients more quickly in NHEP:

·   a reduction in the amount of time a client has to respond after being notified that they are in non-compliance. An NHEP client will have 10 calendar days to respond to notification of non-compliance in order to avoid implementation of a sanction, unless good cause is shown for response after the 10 calendar days; and

·   a reduction in the amount of time a client is allowed to be in non-compliance before a sanction progresses to the next level. After 2 months of non-compliance without good cause, the sanction progresses to level 2. If the client continues to be in non-compliance with NHEP for 2 months without coming into compliance, then the sanction progresses to level 3.

 

POLICY MANUAL REVISIONS

 

Changes to pertinent policy manual pages will be released at a later date under separate cover.

 

IMPLEMENTATION

 

The policy released in this SR is effective September 1, 2003. New HEIGHTS will begin generating Form WP0012, Notice of Non-Compliance, in accordance with the new time frames effective September 1, 2003.

 

CLIENT NOTIFICATION

 

A public hearing regarding this change was held on May 21, 2003. No additional client notification is planned.

 

TRAINING

 

No training is planned for this change.

 

DISPOSITION

 

This SR may be destroyed or deleted after its contents have been noted and the SR has been posted to the On-line manual.

 

DISTRIBUTION

 

This SR will be distributed according to the electronic distribution list for Division of Family Assistance policy releases. This SR will be available for agency staff in the On-Line Manual Library, and for public access on the Internet at http://www.dhhs.state.nh.us/DHHS/DFA/LIBRARY, effective October 1, 2003.

 

This SR will be distributed to all hard copy holders of the SR and Family Assistance Manuals.

 

DFA/DMS:s