Title 74, PUBLIC ASSISTANCE

The department shall disregard and not count as income any amount of current child support passed through to applicants or recipients pursuant to RCW 26.23.035 in determining eligibility for and the amount of temporary assistance for needy families or WorkFirst. [ 2024 c 174 s 2.…

In determining the income eligibility of an applicant or recipient for temporary assistance for needy families or WorkFirst, the department shall not count the federal supplemental security income received by a household member. [ 2011 1st sp.s. c 42 s 5.] Notes: Findings—Intent—…

The department shall (1) provide eligible Indian tribes ongoing, meaningful opportunities to participate in the development, oversight, and operation of the state temporary assistance for needy families program; (2) certify annually that it is providing equitable access to the st…

An eligible Indian tribe exercising its authority under P.L. 104-193 to operate a tribal temporary assistance for needy families program shall operate the program on a state fiscal year basis. If a tribe decides to cancel a tribal temporary assistance for needy families program, …

Single adults without dependents between eighteen and fifty years of age shall comply with federal food stamp work requirements as a condition of eligibility. The department may exempt any counties or subcounty areas from the federal food stamp work requirements in P.L. 104-193, …

The state shall exercise its option under P.L. 104-193 to continue services to legal immigrants under temporary assistance for needy families, medicaid to the extent allowed by federal law, the state's basic health plan as provided in chapter 70.47 RCW, and social services block …

(1) Except as provided in subsection (4) of this section, qualified aliens and aliens permanently residing under color of law shall have their eligibility for assistance redetermined. (2) In determining the eligibility and the amount of benefits of a qualified alien or an alien p…

(1) The department may establish a food assistance program for legal immigrants and victims of human trafficking as defined in RCW 74.04.005 who are ineligible for the federal food stamp program. (2) The rules for the state food assistance program shall follow exactly the rules o…

The department shall make an affirmative effort to identify and proactively contact legal immigrants receiving public assistance to facilitate their applications for naturalization. The department shall obtain a complete list of legal immigrants in Washington who are receiving co…

(1) In order to prevent some families from developing dependency on temporary assistance for needy families, the department shall make available to qualifying applicants a diversion program designed to provide brief, emergency assistance for families in crisis whose income and as…

The department shall carry out a program to fund individual development accounts established by recipients eligible for assistance under the temporary assistance for needy families program. (1) An individual development account may be established by or on behalf of a recipient el…

(1) In addition to their monthly benefit payment, a family may earn and keep the first $500 of the family's earnings in addition to one-half of the family's remaining earnings during every month it is eligible to receive assistance under this section. (2) In no event may a family…

The department may provide Washington WorkFirst activities or make cross-referrals to existing programs to qualifying noncustodial parents of children receiving temporary assistance for needy families who are unable to meet their child support obligations. Services authorized und…

Unless the context clearly requires otherwise, as used in this chapter, "work activity" means: (1) Unsubsidized paid employment in the private or public sector; (2) Subsidized paid employment in the private or public sector, including employment through the state or federal work-…

(1) Each recipient shall be assessed after determination of program eligibility and before referral to job search. Assessments shall be based upon factors that are critical to obtaining employment, including but not limited to education, availability of child care, history of fam…

(1) Annually by December 31st, the department must report to the governor and the appropriate policy and fiscal committees of the legislature disaggregated data identifying the race of individuals whose temporary assistance for needy families benefits were reduced or terminated d…

(1) Good cause reasons for failure to participate in WorkFirst program components include situations where: (a) The recipient is a parent or other relative personally providing care for a child under the age of six years, and formal or informal child care, or day care for an inca…

Each recipient approved to receive temporary assistance for needy families shall be subject to an employability screening under RCW 74.08A.260 after determination of program eligibility and before referral to job search. If the employability screening determines the recipient is …

(1) The legislature finds that moving those eligible for assistance to self-sustaining employment is a goal of the WorkFirst program. It is the intent of WorkFirst to aid a participant's progress to self-sufficiency by allowing flexibility within the statewide program to reflect …

The WorkFirst program operated by the department to meet the federal work requirements specified in P.L. 104-193 shall contain a job search component. The component shall consist of instruction on how to secure a job and assisted job search activities to locate and retain employm…

(1) It is the intent of the legislature that the department is authorized to engage in competitive contracting using performance-based contracts to provide all work activities authorized in chapter 58, Laws of 1997, including the job search component authorized in *section 312 of…

In the case of service providers that are not public agencies, initial placement bonuses of no greater than five hundred dollars may be provided by the department for service entities responsible for placing recipients in an unsubsidized job for a minimum of twelve weeks, and the…

The department shall: (1) Notify recipients of temporary assistance for needy families that self-employment is one method of leaving state assistance. The department shall provide its regional offices, recipients of temporary assistance for needy families, and any contractors pro…

The department shall establish a wage subsidy program to be known as the community jobs program for recipients of temporary assistance for needy families who have barriers to employment, lack experience and attachment to the job force, or have been unsuccessful in securing employ…

The department shall establish the community service program to provide the experience of work for recipients of public assistance. The program is intended to promote a strong work ethic for participating public assistance recipients. Under this program, public assistance recipie…

The department of social and health services shall operate the Washington WorkFirst program authorized under RCW 74.08A.210 through 74.08A.330, 43.330.145, 43.216.710, and 74.25.040, and chapter 74.12 RCW within the following constraints: (1) The program shall be operated within …

The department of social and health services shall create a questionnaire, asking businesses for information regarding available and upcoming job opportunities for welfare recipients. The department of revenue shall include the questionnaire in a regular quarterly mailing. The de…

All applicants under the age of eighteen years who are approved for assistance and, within one hundred eighty days after the date of federal certification of the Washington temporary assistance for needy families program, all unmarried minor parents or pregnant minor applicants s…

It is the intent of the legislature that the Washington WorkFirst program focus on work and on personal responsibility for recipients. The program shall be evaluated among other evaluations, through a limited number of outcome measures designed to hold each community service offi…

(1) The WorkFirst program shall develop outcome measures for use in evaluating the WorkFirst program authorized in chapter 58, Laws of 1997, which may include but are not limited to: (a) Caseload reduction, including data for participants who exit: (i) Due to increased income; (i…

The department shall continue to implement WorkFirst program improvements that are designed to achieve progress against outcome measures specified in RCW 74.08A.410. Outcome data regarding job retention and wage progression shall be reported quarterly to the appropriate fiscal an…

Every WorkFirst office, region, contract, employee, and contractor shall be evaluated using the criteria in RCW 74.08A.410. The department shall award contracts to the highest performing entities according to the criteria in RCW 74.08A.410. The department may provide for bonuses …

Recipients exempted from active work search activities due to incapacity or a disability shall receive services for which they are eligible, including aged, blind, or disabled assistance benefits as they relate to the facilitation of enrollment in the federal supplemental securit…

The definitions in this section apply throughout chapter 126, Laws of 2018 unless the context clearly requires otherwise. (1) "Advisory committee" means the intergenerational poverty advisory committee. (2) "Cycle of poverty" or "poverty cycle" means the set of factors or events …

(1)(a) A legislative-executive WorkFirst poverty reduction oversight task force is established, with voting members as provided in this subsection. Task force membership shall include diverse, statewide representation and its membership shall reflect regional, racial, and cultura…

(1) To assist the task force established in RCW 74.08A.505, there is created the intergenerational poverty advisory committee. (2) The advisory committee must include diverse, statewide representation from public, nonprofit, and for-profit entities. The committee membership must …

This act may be known and cited as the Washington WorkFirst temporary assistance for needy families act. [ 1997 c 58 s 2.]

Part headings, captions, and the table of contents used in this act are not any part of the law. [ 1997 c 58 s 1008.]

The governor and the department of social and health services shall seek all necessary exemptions and waivers from and amendments to federal statutes, rules, and regulations and shall report to the appropriate committees in the house of representatives and senate quarterly on the…

If any part of this act is found to be in conflict with federal requirements that are a prescribed condition to the allocation of federal funds to the state, the conflicting part of this act is inoperative solely to the extent of the conflict and with respect to the agencies dire…

If any provision of this act or its application to any person or circumstance is held invalid, the remainder of the act or the application of the provision to other persons or circumstances is not affected. [ 1997 c 58 s 1012.]

For the purposes of this chapter, the terms spouse, marriage, marital, husband, wife, widow, widower, next of kin, and family shall be interpreted as applying equally to state registered domestic partnerships or individuals in state registered domestic partnerships as well as to …