The agencies tasked with providing support services such as TANF or SNAP take the following steps to ensure the applicant of their products and service who must be from a poor background get access to their services. The first step towards ensuring that their clients qualify for support services is ensuring the applicant has expressed his or her interest of support by applying online for the following services that include: family independence temporary assistance (FITAP), Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program (SNAP) previously known as food stamp program and kinship care subsidy. The applicant can alternatively download and print the application form and fill out the required information by use of hand rather than through online and after that send the filled-out form through the provided email address to the Document processing center. the following details should be filled out by the character; the application details of assistance needed in English, Spanish or in Vietnamese. Once the applicant has successfully complied with the requirements of the above-stated services then the support program vetting body can proceed to the next step. In the second step, the vetting team must ensure that for downloaded applications, the applicants have sent the completed application form through the email address provided to the document processing center. Alternatively, an eligible applicant may also fax the completed form to the provided fax number.
The third step that the support body follows in verifying the authenticity of qualification details of its applicants is conducting an in-person or telephone interview with the client especially for programs such as SNAP. During this step, the applicant is guided through a process where he or she is required to provide answers for some specific questions adequately to the satisfaction of the vetting body who may then determine the eligibility of the applicant to the type of support services he or she has applied for. Some of the basic eligibility requirements that the agencies require from the applicant is whether the families in need of the CalWORKs temporary assistance, for instance, have minor children at home who lack access to the basic support for essential needs such as food, clothing and shelter because of the absence of their parents, disability, death of their parents or guardians or due to unemployment status of one or both parents of the minor children. In addition to parents, other relatives including grandparents who are caring for the minor children may also be eligible to apply for the support services. A pregnant woman who currently has no other children may also qualify for CalWORKs benefits.
The support programs provide a variety of support services to the needy families or persons as discussed in the paragraph below. The SNAP also known as food stamps provides benefits for needy families on a monthly basis that assist the low-income house owners to purchase food required for good health as well as other social amenities. The program must first ensure that the applicant is eligible for SNAP benefits. Louisiana Combined application project (LA CAP) for instance is a food help program that provides food for needy residents who are over 60 years of age. The Kinship care subsidy program (KCSP) provides financial help to minor children living with their eligible relatives due to the absence of their biological parents for selected reasons. The service providing program must ensure that the applicant qualifies and adheres to the cash benefit restrictions set by the kinship care subsidy program (KCSP) and FITAP. FITAP provides cash help to those low-income households that require financial support. Some of the programs that provide cash assistance services include strategies to empower people program (STEP) which assists FITAP recipients with educational activities, training activities and other work-related activities that are intended for employment and self -reliance purposes. The agency providing cash assistance services must first ensure that eligible applicants must comply with the cash benefit restrictions for KCSP and FITAP. The temporary assistance for needy families (TANF) state plan is the one tasked with the responsibility of setting forth the operation of FITAP.
Once an eligible applicant has applied for any of the support services, he or she will be assigned a worker who will interview the recipient who may be applying for FITAP, SNAP or KCSP. The applicant is also provided with a list of authentication items required. The worker is also the person tasked with the responsibility of determining the eligibility of the applicant. After the worker has carried out a verdict on the eligibility of the applicant, the recipient will receive a letter of confirmation of declination. If the applicant is found to be eligible, the letter he or she receives will indicate the number of benefits that the recipient that the applicant is set to receive from the support program. It is important to note that this amount will be paid back to the date of application. If the applicant applied for the FITAP program, he or she may be required to participate in the STEP program that provides job -opportunities for FITAP families who are work-eligible to get training services for available jobs, employment services as well as support services.
The mission of the in-home support agencies (IHSS) program aims at assisting the elderly and people with disabilities to remain safely in their home. CalWORKs aims at providing financial aid to families that have children at home and serves people across all the 58 counties. CalWORKs requires that if a family has low income and lacks the basic needs such as food, medication, and shelter, then they can are qualified to acquire short-term assistance. Eligible families are entitled to receive a monthly stipend on a monthly basis to cater for their basic needs such as housing, food, utilities, clothing and medical attention. The amount of financial assistance granted to eligible applicants is reliant on the members present in a family in need as well as their special needs. The amount of income that is generated by the recipient family is also a determining factor in estimating the amount monthly assistance payment that the program will disburse to them.
Part III: Agency Summary Paper
The agencies that include TANF, SNAP and Cal WORKS can be categorized as early intervention community partnerships. This is because they provide short-term assistance to the needy families or persons that caters for the provision of basic needs of the family and ensuring the provision of jobs to the employable members of the applicant family or persons. This serves to intervene the immediate problems facing a certain family set up while at the same time providing viable alternatives to income generation within the household.
The support agencies usually share community partnerships with organizations and companies that provide business opportunities to successful applicants of the support programs. These agencies also collaborate with local academic institutions to facilitate access to good quality education for minority children who qualify for support by the agencies. Additionally, agencies have to make community partnerships with the local banking institutions that provide money that can be disbursed to the needy families or persons. Through the banks, the qualified beneficiaries can be able to access their money through the bank accounts which ensure safe and secure cash transfers. Agencies should adequately provide the needy families or persons in the case study with monthly cash assistance to cater for their basic needs. They should also provide job opportunity and employ family members or persons who are eligible to work as a way of ensuring self-sufficiency among the recipients of support services.
References
Miller, D. (2017, June 20). Riverside County Department of Public Social Services. Retrieved from http://dpss.co.riverside.ca.us/index
Sherman, A., Parrott, S., & Trisi, D. (2013, July 30). Various Supports for Low-Income Families Reduce Poverty and Have Long-Term Positive Effects on Families and Children. Retrieved from https://www.cbpp.org/research/various-supports-for-low-income-families-reduce-poverty-and-have-long-term-positive-effects
