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From Center for Law and Social Policy:
The Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 (DRA) increased work participation rate requirements and narrowed definitions of allowable work activities.
Administrators have two options: Focus on designing programs to meet the increased participation rates, regardless of the impact on families; or focus on increasing work participation rates through the creation and expansion of programs that improve longterm employment outcomes, such as Transitional Jobs (TJ) programs.
As before, states must ensure that 50 percent of families with an adult recipient---and 90 percent of two-parent households receiving assistance---are participating in a set of work activities (defined in the law) for a set number of hours.
Under TANF, there are 12 categories of work activities that count toward work participation rates; nine of these are considered "core" activities, while the other three are considered "non-core" and are countable only upon completion of at least 20 hours per week of core activities.iii Prior to the passage of the DRA, there were no standard definitions about what could be considered under each activity, giving states the ability to craft their own definitions.
However, the DRA directed the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to issue regulatory definitions.
The regulatory definition of on-the-job training (OJT), however, is much broader and can be thought of somewhat differently than traditional OJT programs; it captures the elements of TJ programs more fully.
Finally, the preamble to the interim final rule states that, in the case of subsidized employment and OJT, the employer is "expected to retain the participant as a regular employee without receiving a subsidy" at the conclusion of the subsidy or training period.
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Posted on December 12, 2006 07:16 PM
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