How does the five year (sixty-month) time limit for TANF, SFA and GA-S apply to American Indians or Alaskan Natives living in Indian country?
WAC 388-484-0010
WAC 388-484-0010
Effective February 1, 2001
WAC 388-484-0010 How does the five year (sixty-month) time limit for TANF, SFA and GA-S apply to American Indians or Alaskan Natives living in Indian country?
If you are American Indian or Alaskan Native, time limits on temporary assistance for needy families (TANF), state family assistance (SFA) and general assistance for pregnant women (from May 1, 1999 to July 31, 1999) do not count under certain circumstances.
If you are an American Indian or Alaskan Native parent or other relative as defined by WAC 388-454-0010, months of cash assistance do not count against the sixty-month lifetime limit if you live in Indian country or an Alaskan Native village where at least fifty percent of Indian adults are not employed.
Do time limits on cash assistance apply if I am not an American Indian or Alaskan Native but I am the parent or other relative of an American Indian or Alaskan Native child?
If you are a non-American Indian or non-Alaskan Native parent or other relative, as defined by WAC 388-454-0010, of an American Indian or Alaskan Native child or children living in a qualifying area of Indian country, your months on assistance will count against your lifetime limit. You may, however, receive more than sixty months of assistance under hardship criteria to be developed by the department.
Where must I live to qualify for the Indian country exemption to time limits?
To qualify for this exemption to TANF time limits, you must live in "Indian country." The department uses the "Indian country" definition in federal law at 18 U.S.C. 1151. Indian country is defined as reservations, dependent Indian communities, and allotments. Dependent Indian communities must be set aside by the federal government for the use of Indians and be under federal superintendence. Near reservation areas (areas or communities adjacent or contiguous to reservations) are not considered Indian country for the purposes of this exemption.
Can I live on the reservation or Indian country belonging to a tribe other than my own to qualify for this time limit exemption?
Yes. You do not need to be an American Indian or Alaskan Native of the same tribe as the reservation or other area of Indian country on which you reside.
How does the department determine if at least fifty percent of adults living in Indian country are not employed?
The department uses the most current biennial Indian Service Population and Labor Force Estimates Report published by the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA), or any successor report, as the default data source to determine if the not employed rates for areas of Indian country are at least fifty percent.
What if a tribe disagrees with the not employed rate published in the BIA Indian Service Population and Labor Force Estimates Report?
A tribe may provide alternative data, based on similar periods to the Indian Service Population and Labor Force Estimates Report, to demonstrate that the not employed rate is at least fifty percent.
Federal welfare reform law requires states to exempt American Indians or Alaskan Natives who live in Indian country from the 60-month TANF time limit. This policy recognizes the ties American Indian and Alaskan Native families have to their land and culture and the difficulty in finding employment on their land. The policy also recognizes that these families should not have to leave their reservations or other areas of Indian Country in order to find employment once they have used 60-months of cash assistance.
This policy, however, does not exempt them from participation requirements. Qualifying recipients must still participate in WorkFirst activities even though a month of cash assistance does not count toward their 60-month clock.
All of the following conditions must be met for months not to count where cash assistance was received:
The parent, co-parent, spouse or adult relative caretaker is an American Indian or Alaskan Native;
The parent, co-parent, spouse or adult relative caretaker lives in “Indian Country.” "Indian Country" includes all lands within the limits of any reservation, allotment (also known as “trust” land), and dependent Indian communities. Living near reservation areas, or in areas next to reservations, are not considered Indian Country, unless they are also allotted land or within a dependent Indian community. There are no dependent Indian communities in Washington at this time.
The percentage of Indian adults in the area of Indian Country that are not employed is at least 50 percent or greater. (See 1997 Not Employed Rates, 1999 Not Employed Rates and 2001 Not Employed Rates tables.)
The following examples help to clarify this policy:
An adult non-American Indian/Alaskan Native is caring for American Indian/Alaskan Native children.
EXAMPLE
A non-American Indian mother, father or adult caretaker relative with an American Indian child or children lives in a qualifying area of Indian Country. Can the adult non-American Indian get the time limit exemption based on the Indian status of the child(ren)?
No. Time limits are linked only to adults in the family. The adult is the holder of the exemption to time limits. A child’s tribal affiliation or Indian status cannot be used to grant an exemption to an adult. However, the non-American Indian adult may be eligible for a hardship extension.
EXAMPLE
A non-Alaskan Native aunt is on the assistance unit with niece who is a teenage parent and her child. Niece is Alaskan Native. Can the adult non-Alaskan Native get the time limit exemption?
No. Since the aunt is not American Indian or Alaskan Native and is not the spouse or co-parent to an American Indian or Alaskan Native, she does not get the exemption. We would count the month the AU receives cash assistance against her 60-month time limit.
A two-parent family in which one adult is American Indian/Alaskan Native and the other is not.
EXAMPLE
If one parent is an American Indian/Alaskan Native and the other parent is not American Indian/Alaskan Native and they live with their children in a qualifying area of Indian Country, are all members of the assistance unit eligible for the exemption based on the Indian status of one parent?
Yes. Time limits and exemptions to time limits apply to a “family that includes an adult.” Thus, if one parent qualifies for the exemption, the exemption also applies to the other parent.
EXAMPLE
Same scenario as above but the American Indian/Alaskan Native parent moves out of the assistance unit. Can the exemption still apply to the other parent left?
No. Since the assistance unit no longer has an adult American Indian/Alaskan Native, they do not meet the conditions for the exemption.
Members of one Tribe living on lands of another Tribe.
EXAMPLE
An American Indian or Alaskan Native lives in a qualifying area of Indian Country that belongs to a Tribe different than their own Tribe. Can the adult still receive the Indian Country exemption?
Yes. The requirement is that American Indians or Alaskan Natives live in a qualifying area of Indian Country. The land does not have to belong to their own Tribe or Alaskan Native Village.
Mailing address different from where they are living.
EXAMPLE
An American Indian or Alaskan Native lives in a qualifying area of Indian Country but has a mailing address outside of Indian Country. Can the adult still receive the Indian Country exemption?
Yes. The requirement only applies to where they are living. The exemption is not affected by the mailing address. ACES will read the residential address only.
EXAMPLE
An American Indian or Alaskan Native lives outside of the qualifying area of Indian Country but has a mailing address on the reservation. Can the adult still receive the Indian Country exemption?
No. The American Indian or Alaskan Native must live in a qualifying area of Indian Country in order to get the exemption.
Automated tracking of American Indians/Alaskan Natives living in Indian Country:
Effective September 2001, the process of not counting the months of cash assistance for American Indians/Alaskan Natives living in qualifying Indian country will be automated.
When State and Tribe have different counts of months on assistance:
It is possible that a Tribal TANF program may have a different count of months on assistance for a family than DSHS. In this situation the State and the Tribal office are each obligated to accept the other's count. If a family has exhausted its months on assistance in a Tribal TANF program, and no extensions are available under that program, the family may still be eligible for a post-60 months extension under the State TANF program.
WORKER RESPONSIBILITIES
Ask clients if they are American Indians or Alaskan Natives. We do not require verification papers because each Tribe has different qualifications for membership or enrollment. If clients choose to report a change and now state that they are American Indians or Alaskan Natives, accept their declaration.
NOTE:
A client’s Indian heritage is totally self-reported.
Enter the Race and Native American Tribe fields on the ACES DEM1 screen,
Effective September 2001, the process of not counting the months of cash assistance on the ACES TICS screen for American Indians / Alaskan Natives living in qualifying Indian country will be automated.
This process of not counting months under the Indian country disregard includes adjusting the count of months from August 1, 1997 to the present.
For some clients, ACES will not be able to tell if the client was living in Indian country because the address was not standardized (could not be found), the client was homeless, used a post office box / rural route address and did not have a residential address, or was in the Address Confidentiality Program. For these clients either:
Ask the client whether they live in Indian country. This applies ONLY to Native American / Alaskan Native clients. Once the Indian country code is entered, the disregard of months will be automated for future months until the client moves.
Standardize the address. Once the address is standardized, the disregard of months will be automated for future months until the client moves.
The 70ZIP CodesWhich Contain Some Indian Country As Of June 30, 2001
98002
98003
98022
98092
98221
98223
98226
98232
98241
98244
98247
98248
98257
98264
98271
98284
98292
98331
98342
98346
98350
98354
98357
98363
98370
98371
98382
98390
98392
98404
98421
98422
98424
98443
98513
98526
98552
98568
98571
98579
98584
98587
98590
98619
98620
98635
98672
98812
98829
98840
98841
98903
98932
98933
98935
98948
98951
98952
99013
99040
99116
99119
99122
99124
99129
99138
99155
99156
99166
99356
NOTE:
These are the only zip codes which contain Indian Country.
If the zip code is not on the list, then it does not contain Indian Country.
Not all land in the listed zip codes is Indian Country. Many zip codes contain a mix of Indian and non-Indian Country.
