1. (a) The Department of Social Services shall provide safety net services for certain families identified as having significant barriers to employment and families who are at risk of losing benefits under the temporary family assistance program or no longer receiving program benefits. To be eligible for safety net services, such families shall:

   1. (1) Have been identified as having significant barriers to employment during the initial assessment by the department's eligibility worker or during the first twelve months of employment services by an employment services case manager; (2) have made a good faith effort to seek and maintain employment but have not been able to do so or be at risk of failing to complete the employment services program; (3) have exhausted their eligibility for temporary family assistance program benefits; or (4) not be eligible for six-month extensions of temporary family assistance benefits due to:

      1. (A) The receipt of two sanctions from the department during the first thirty-five months of the thirty-six-month time limit of said temporary family assistance program; or (B) the determination by the department that such a family has not made a good faith effort to seek and maintain employment.

2. (b) Said safety net shall consist of services provided through the existing community service delivery network with additional resources provided by the Department of Social Services. Services shall be provided in-kind or through vendor or voucher payment. Services may include the following:

   1. (1) Food, shelter, clothing and employment assistance; (2) eviction prevention; (3) an in-depth family needs assessment; (4) intensive case management that includes visits to the family's home; (5) continuous monitoring for child abuse or neglect; and (6) for families at risk of losing benefits under the temporary family assistance program, individual performance contracts administered by the Labor Department that require job training, job searching, volunteer work, participation in parenting programs or counseling or any other requirements deemed necessary by the Labor Commissioner.
3. (c) Families successfully meeting the program requirements established by the individual performance contracts in subdivision (6) of subsection (b) of this section prior to the end of the thirty-six-month time limit shall be considered to have made a good faith effort to comply with the requirements of the program for the purposes of qualifying for a six-month extension, provided they have made a good faith effort to comply with the individual performance contract or have not incurred a sanction subsequent to completing the individual performance contract.
4. (d) The Commissioner of Social Services shall implement policies and procedures necessary for the purposes of this section while in the process of adopting such policies and procedures in regulation form, provided the commissioner prints notice of intention to adopt the regulations in the Connecticut Law Journal within twenty days of implementing such policies and procedures. Policies and procedures implemented pursuant to this subsection shall be valid until the time final regulations are effective.

(June 18 Sp. Sess. P.A. 97-2, S. 6, 165; June Sp. Sess. P.A. 01-2, S. 57, 69; June Sp. Sess. P.A. 01-9, S. 129, 131; P.A. 03-19, S. 39; P.A. 07-160, S. 2; P.A. 09-8, S. 16; P.A. 23-204, S. 269.)

History: June 18 Sp. Sess. P.A. 97-2 effective July 1, 1997; June Sp. Sess. P.A. 01-2 amended Subsec. (a)(1) to make a technical change, amended Subsec. (b)(5) to require that individual performance contracts be administered by the Labor Department and require job training, job searching, volunteer work, participation in parenting programs or counseling or any other requirements deemed necessary by the Labor Commissioner, in lieu of Commissioner of Social Services, and amended Subsec. (d) to delete requirement that final regulations be submitted to the legislative regulation review committee no later than November 15, 1997, effective July 1, 2001; June Sp. Sess. P.A. 01-9 revised effective date of June Sp. Sess. P.A. 01-2 but without affecting this section; P.A. 03-19 made a technical change in Subsec. (b), effective May 12, 2003; P.A. 07-160 amended Subsec. (a) by revising categories of families eligible for safety net services to include families identified as having significant barriers to employment, families who have made a good faith effort to seek and maintain employment but who have not been able to do so and families who have exhausted their eligibility for temporary family assistance program benefits and by making technical changes, amended Subsec. (b) by adding “an in-depth family needs assessment” as service provided, by specifying that intensive case management includes visits to the family's home and by making technical changes, and amended Subsec. (c) by changing internal reference from Subdiv. (5) to Subdiv. (6), effective July 1, 2007; P.A. 09-8 made technical changes in Subsec. (a), effective July 1, 2009; P.A. 23-204 increased benefit time limit throughout from 21 to 36 months, effective April 1, 2024.