Title 43, Social Services

(A) To emphasize the reciprocal responsibility that exists between welfare recipients and the taxpayers who pay for welfare, an agreement must be signed by each adult AFDC recipient. If a minor mother is living in the home of her parents or guardian, the minor mother and her pare…

(A) To emphasize the necessity of each family achieving independence and self-sufficiency, if an AFDC recipient fails without good cause to comply with the employment and training requirements contained in the agreement entered into between the recipient and the State Department …

To emphasize the importance of education, training, and employment in restructuring the welfare system, the department shall establish goals for the placement and retention of AFDC recipients in employment programs for each county welfare office. These goals must be reflected in …

Each agency which is a member of the South Carolina Retirement System shall establish recruitment and hiring goals which shall target ten percent of all jobs requiring a high school diploma or less to be filled with family independence or food stamp recipients. A question concern…

The Department of Employment and Workforce shall provide the department up-to-date labor market information to assist department employment and training staff in the development of recipient employment goals and training plans to be outlined in individual agreements. The Departme…

To maximize employment opportunities for welfare recipients and to provide for additional job training and placement efforts, instead of making cash assistance payments to AFDC recipients, these payments or some portion of these payments may be paid as a wage subsidy or given as …

To expand available job training activities for AFDC recipients, the Governor may target future incentive funds under Title II-A of the Job Training and Partnership Act in such a way as to encourage the service delivery areas and local private industry councils to increase servic…

The Department of Social Services shall seek funds for entrepreneurial development so that AFDC clients can create jobs and provide incentives for AFDC clients in their efforts to attain self-sufficiency and independence. The department shall identify markets for entrepreneurial …

The department may provide, as appropriate, relocation assistance to families who live in communities where few job opportunities exist. Assistance may be provided to assist recipients in accessing jobs which maximize their skills and abilities.

The department, as part of the employment and training program, shall provide special educational and related services for teen parents to assist them in becoming economically independent and to provide health information. This teen parent initiative must be staffed by department…

To emphasize that welfare is temporary assistance in time of trouble, the department shall apply to the federal government for a waiver authorizing assistance in the Aid to Families with Dependent Children Program (AFDC) to be limited to no more than twenty-four months out of one…

To encourage parents to plan for security and assume responsibility for their children, there must be no incremental increase in AFDC benefits to a family as a result of a child born to that parent ten or more months after the family begins to receive AFDC. This section does not …

AFDC recipients must be encouraged to voluntarily participate in a work program when their youngest child reaches the age of six months, but in all cases the recipients must participate in a work program once their youngest child reaches age one.

As a condition of eligibility for Family Independence benefits, each adult recipient determined to be in need of family skills by his Family Independence case manager, and minor mother recipient must participate in a family skills training program which must include, but is not l…

A Family Independence recipient who, while receiving FI benefits, has been identified as requiring alcohol and other drug abuse treatment service or who has been convicted of an alcohol related offense or a controlled substance violation or gives birth to a child with evidence of…

To eliminate restrictions that break up families and to encourage the formation of new families, the department shall remove the requirement that a child be deprived of support from one or both parents to be eligible for assistance and shall remove the one hundred hour rule and t…

(a) The Department of Revenue shall provide the director or his designees an abstract of the income tax return requested, or provide information concerning any item of income or expense, including support claimed to have been provided to dependent children or stepchildren, contai…

One licensed vehicle per licensed driver is exempt from the asset limit for Family Independence participants in work or training. The asset limit for all other assets is two thousand five hundred dollars.

In order to assist AFDC families in gaining financial independence and in building for the future, the Department of Social Services shall apply to the federal government for a waiver allowing the State to exclude interest income and dividends up to four hundred dollars in determ…

To remove the disincentive to employment that occurs when a family's AFDC payment is reduced because of a minor child's earnings and to encourage children in AFDC families to develop positive work attitudes, the State shall apply to the federal government for a waiver to exclude …

Welfare recipients under the age of eighteen must be enrolled and maintain satisfactory attendance, as defined by the Department of Education, in school as a condition of eligibility for benefits.

(A) Minor mothers with a child born out of wedlock must live in the home of their parent or guardian to be eligible to receive AFDC benefits unless: (1) the minor parent has no living parent or legal guardian whose whereabouts is known; (2) no living parent or legal guardian of t…

In order to assure that all families working toward self sufficiency have access to all potential supportive services that will help ensure their success, the department, within existing revenues, may develop outreach and information programs which provide information and assista…

To further strengthen the family unit and promote parental responsibility, emphasis must be placed on serving the family as a whole. Immunizations, school attendance, preventive health screenings, and pregnancy prevention programs as authorized by law for minor children must be m…

To assist AFDC families in directing their efforts to becoming economically stable and financially independent rather than diverting their resources to the care of children and family members with health and medical problems, the State, through coordination and cooperation among …

(A) Subject to federal waiver, the department shall provide transitional Medicaid and child care for a maximum of two years for AFDC clients who lose eligibility because of employment or who become employed after losing eligibility as a result of exceeding the twenty-four-month t…

All federal child care funds are needed to ensure that AFDC families can participate successfully in the AFDC program. The State should make every effort to obtain these funds.

The term "living with" means that the caretaker relative and the child maintain a common place of residence. The requirement shall be considered met if a home and family setting is maintained or is being established and the caretaker relative exercises responsibility for the care…

To promote independence and assist AFDC families in participating in the Department of Social Services employment and training program and in getting to their place of employment, reliable transportation services are needed. The department in conjunction with the Department of Pu…

The Department of Social Services in conjunction with the Department of Education shall: (1) ensure that existing continuing education and adult education programs are designed to advance AFDC clients in attaining self-sufficiency and that the location, scheduling, and other mech…

(A) The Department of Social Services in conjunction with the State Board for Technical and Comprehensive Education shall: (1) work closely with businesses and industries in South Carolina to design curriculums to produce students with skills needed by these businesses and indust…

The Department of Social Services, with existing resources and personnel, shall develop simplified AFDC, Medicaid, and food stamp application forms and instructions which are understandable. If necessary, for compliance with federal regulations, the department shall apply to the …

The State shall apply for a federal waiver to require AFDC and Medicaid applicants and recipients as an additional condition for receiving benefits to provide: (1) the first and last name of the absent parent and putative father and any known licenses as defined in Section 63-17-…

As applicable, all state agencies shall adopt Electronic Data Interchange Standards as set forth by the Division of Technology Operations so that exchanges and sharing of information concerning AFDC clients and revenue sources are freely available. However, in the exchange and sh…

The Department of Social Services and the Department of Health and Human Services Finance Commission shall review and, to the extent possible, ensure that federal and state procurement and purchasing regulations do not unnecessarily delay services to AFDC clients and child care a…

The department shall report annually to the General Assembly on the number of Family Independence families and individuals no longer receiving welfare, the number of individuals who have participated in educational, employment, or training programs under this act, the number of i…

(a) The department shall, in determining need, take into consideration any income or resources of any relative claiming aid to families with dependent children, whose needs the department determines would be considered in determining the need of a child or relative claiming such …

(a) It shall be the duty of the department to ensure that every applicant for or recipient of aid to families with dependent children be informed not less frequently than annually as to the provisions of eligibility and his responsibility for reporting all facts material to a cor…

Investigation of each application shall be made by the county departments as provided in Chapters 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 19, and 23 or as required by the state department.

Family Independence benefits shall begin on the date of application if the benefit group met all the eligibility conditions on that date. Payments for partial months must be prorated by the ratio of the days in the month to the date of application.

Applications for assistance under the provisions of this chapter shall be made as provided in this chapter and when no such provision has been made in accordance with the manner and form prescribed by the department.

In the event an application is denied or the amount or terms of a grant or of any withdrawal or modification thereof be deemed inadequate or unjust by the applicant or recipient, the applicant or recipient or anyone acting in his behalf may demand a review of his case before the …

If an application is not acted upon by the county department within the time limitations specified in Section 43-5-148 the applicant may appeal to the state department in the manner and form prescribed in Section 43-5-150.

The state department may also, upon its own motion or at the request of the applicant, review any decision of a county department and may consider any application upon which a decision has not been made by the county department within a reasonable time.

Upon any appeal under Section 43-5-150 or any review under Section 43-5-160, the state department may make such additional investigation as it may deem necessary and shall make such decision as to the granting of assistance and the amount of assistance to be granted the applicant…

The department may issue subpoenas for witnesses and compel their attendance and the production of papers and writings and the director and employees designated by him may administer oaths and examine witnesses under oath.