Section 432.3. Failure to Comply with Employment and Work-Related Activity Requirements.--(a) An applicant or recipient who is not exempt from participation in the employment or work-related activity requirements set forth in section 405.1(a.2) and who without good cause: (i) voluntarily terminates employment or reduces earnings; (ii) fails to apply for work at such time and in such manner as the department may prescribe; or (iii) fails or refuses to accept referral to and participate in a work-related activity, or refuses to accept referral to and work in and retain employment in which the applicant or recipient is able to engage, provided such employment conforms to the standards established for a bona fide offer of employment, shall be disqualified from receiving assistance as follows:
(1) A minimum of thirty days for the first violation and continuing thereafter until such time as he or she is willing to comply with the requirements of section 405.1; a minimum of sixty days for the second violation and continuing thereafter until such time as he or she is willing to comply with the requirements of section 405.1; and permanently for a third violation.
(2) If the reason for the disqualification occurs during the first twenty-four months that cash assistance is received, whether those months are consecutive or interrupted, only the individual is disqualified. If the reason for the disqualification occurs after the individual has received assistance for more than twenty-four months, whether those months are consecutive or interrupted, the disqualification is imposed on the entire assistance group.
((a) amended June 30, 2012, P.L.668, No.80; amendment declared unconstitutional 2018)
(b) In addition to or in lieu of the sanctions set forth in subsection (a)(1) and (2), the cash assistance grant of an employed person who voluntarily, without good cause, reduces his or her earnings by not fulfilling the twenty-hour per week work requirement set forth in section 405.1(a.2) shall be reduced by the dollar value of the income that would have been earned if the recipient had fulfilled those employment responsibilities.
(432.3 amended May 16, 1996, P.L.175, No.35)
2018 Unconstitutionality: The amendment of section 432.3(a) by Act 80 of 2012 was declared unconstitutional on July 18, 2018, by the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania in Washington v. Commonwealth, Department of Public Welfare, 188 A.3d 1135 (Pa. 2018). The Legislative Reference Bureau effectuated the 2018 unconstitutionality.