Wyoming Department of Workforce Services

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 EMPLOYMENT SERVICES

Federal Temporary Assistance for Needy Families

The Federal Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program is known as the Personal Opportunities With Employment Responsibilities (POWER) program in Wyoming. Goals for the program at the federal level are to:

• Provide assistance to needy families so children may be cared for in their own home or in the homes of relatives;
• End the dependence of needy parents on government benefits by promoting job preparation, work and marriage;
• Prevent and reduce the incidence of out-of-wedlock pregnancies and establish annual numerical goals for preventing and reducing the incidence of these pregnancies; and
• Encourage the formation and maintenance of two-parent families.

Goals for the program at the state level are to:

• Promote and support individual and family responsibility through the belief that parents, not government, should be responsible for themselves and their children; and
• Provide information and services within the program limits and restrictions, which will allow the parent(s) or caretaker(s) to make informed and responsible decisions concerning the family's progress toward self-sufficiency.

Job seekers in the work program are provided case management services and intensive job readiness, job search, job retention and job advancement services. Forty hours of participation is required of job seekers in at least one of the following countable activities: employment; work experience; on-the-job training; job readiness, job search, job retention and job advancement activities; vocational educational training for up to 12 months and high school or GED for teen parents only. High school or GED and very short term job skills training may be allowed for an adult if the adult first participates for 20 hours per week in one of the countable activities.

Job seekers work with the case manager to write an Individual Responsibility Plan (IRP) which must be followed in order to remain in compliance with the work program; case managers take into consideration the job seeker's strengths and challenges on an individual basis when negotiating the plan. Plans provide detailed steps the job seeker must achieve to reach self-sufficiency.

POWER is a pay-after-performance program. The performance period runs from the 15th of one month to the 14th of the following month. Failure to comply with any work program requirement results in the loss of a performance payment being authorized to the family. The month in which the job seeker is in a failure to comply situation does count toward the 60-month benefit limit.

As a condition of eligibility for cash assistance, mandatory individuals must be referred to and participating in the POWER work program.

Cash assistance under the POWER program is limited to 60 months (5 years) of benefits in a lifetime. Efforts by the POWER work program are focused on helping participants become self-sufficient and not dependent on cash assistance before the 60 months run out. Participants in the program are therefore known as "job seekers."

For more POWER program information and where to apply for assistance, please visit the Wyoming Department of Family Services Temporary Assistance for Needy Families website.