Temporary Assistance (TA) recipients referred to the Missouri Work Assistance (MWA) program as employment and training ready (mandatory participants) or those that are enrolled in MWA and participating as required occasionally can’t continue to participate in work activities for specified reasons. Under certain circumstances, these recipients may be temporarily waived from participation. With temporary waiver status, the MWA program gives the recipient “permission” to not participate for a specified length of time.
Temporary waiver status is granted only when the recipient meets very specific conditions. This policy describes these conditions with regard to who may be waived.
Do not attempt to engage the recipient in activities unless the temporary waiver status has ended. If the recipient is able to participate in any activity, he/she should not be granted temporary waiver status.
Example: If a TA recipient is required to participate in work activities 30 hours per week, but has a doctor’s statement that he cannot participate more than 20 hours per week for a set time period, DO NOT enter the individual in a waiver for the remaining 10 hours. Engage the participant in work activities for 20 hours per week, indicate in case notes that the doctor’s statement on file indicates the individual is unable to participate more than 20 hours per week for a limited time, and place the doctor’s statement in the file. Continue to check the participant’s status every 30 days and update the file regarding medical status.
While the recipient is in temporary waiver status, the months continue to count against his/her forty-five (45) TA lifetime limit. It is important that temporary waiver status be granted only after careful consideration and after all reasonable alternatives for participation have been explored.
NOTE: If a recipient is sanctioned when they become exempt or temporarily waived as stated below, the exemption or waiver status “satisfies” the sanction, because the recipient is no longer mandatory. If the recipient meets an exemption, the appropriate alert to notify the Family Support Division (FSD) of the exempt status causes FSD to lift the sanction. If the recipient meets a temporary waiver condition, the case manager must send the ‘Recommends Sanction Be Lifted’ alert to lift the sanction, based on the waiver status. A recipient is no longer mandatory while in temporary waiver status. Refer to the System User Guide, Alerts section for more information.