2005 Connecticut Code - Sec. 17b-112e. Safety net services. Regulations.

      Sec. 17b-112e. Safety net services. Regulations. (a) The Department of Social Services shall provide safety net services for certain families no longer receiving benefits or who are at risk of losing benefits under the temporary family assistance program. Such families include those who are not eligible for six-month extensions of benefits due to: (1) The receipt of two sanctions from the department during the first twenty months of the twenty-one-month time limit of said temporary family assistance program; or (2) the determination by the department that such a family has not made a good-faith effort to seek and maintain employment.

      (b) Said safety net shall consist of services provided through the existing community service delivery network with additional resources provided by the Department of Social Services. Services shall be provided in-kind or through vendor or voucher payment. Services may include the following: (1) Food, shelter, clothing and employment assistance; (2) eviction prevention; (3) intensive case management; (4) continuous monitoring for child abuse or neglect; and (5) for families at risk of losing benefits under the temporary family assistance program, individual performance contracts that shall be administered by the Labor Department and that require job training, job searching, volunteer work, participation in parenting programs or counseling or any other requirements deemed necessary by the Labor Commissioner.

      (c) Families successfully meeting the program requirements established by the individual performance contracts in subdivision (5) of subsection (b) of this section prior to the end of the twenty-one-month time limit shall be considered to have made a good faith effort to comply with the requirements of the program for the purposes of qualifying for a six-month extension, provided they have made a good faith effort to comply with the individual performance contract or have not incurred a sanction subsequent to completing the individual performance contract.

      (d) The Commissioner of Social Services shall implement policies and procedures necessary for the purposes of this section while in the process of adopting such policies and procedures in regulation form, provided the commissioner prints notice of intention to adopt the regulations in the Connecticut Law Journal within twenty days of implementing such policies and procedures. Policies and procedures implemented pursuant to this subsection shall be valid until the time final regulations are effective.

      (June 18 Sp. Sess. P.A. 97-2, S. 6, 165; June Sp. Sess. P.A. 01-2, S. 57, 69; June Sp. Sess. P.A. 01-9, S. 129, 131; P.A. 03-19, S. 39.)

      History: June 18 Sp. Sess. P.A. 97-2 effective July 1, 1997; June Sp. Sess. P.A. 01-2 amended Subsec. (a)(1) to make a technical change, amended Subsec. (b)(5) to require that individual performance contracts be administered by the Labor Department and require job training, job searching, volunteer work, participation in parenting programs or counseling or any other requirements deemed necessary by the Labor Commissioner, in lieu of Commissioner of Social Services, and amended Subsec. (d) to delete requirement that final regulations be submitted to the legislative regulation review committee no later than November 15, 1997, effective July 1, 2001; June Sp. Sess. P.A. 01-9 revised effective date of June Sp. Sess. P.A. 01-2 but without affecting this section; P.A. 03-19 made a technical change in Subsec. (b), effective May 12, 2003.