3.3 New Referrals

A new referral is generated when a FoodShare (FS) member is determined to be a non-exempt ABAWD or when a FS member who is an exempt ABAWD or a non-ABAWD requests a voluntary referral to be sent. Individuals that wish to be referred to FSET should contact their income maintenance (IM) agency and request a referral or ask their FSET worker to contact the IM agency on their behalf.

Timeliness of FSET service delivery impacts ABAWD FS eligibility for ABAWDs that do not have a verified exemption. New referrals should be monitored by regional FSET Referral Coordinators on a daily basis and assigned to the appropriate local office based on the referral’s address. FSET workers should also monitor new referrals and referral updates daily and take timely action on each based on the referral information received from the IM agency. See section 3.5 Contacting the Participant for referral processing and initial appointment scheduling time frames.

CARES Worker Web (CWW) is designed to send new FSET referrals to the FSET Tool when an IM worker confirms eligibility and processes the referral. As a result, a new referral may be sent to the FSET agency prior to or after the FS eligibility start date. For new referrals, the effective date of the referral is the date on which the individual can start participating in FSET. Only FS eligible individuals can participate in FSET. FSET agencies must carefully monitor referrals for the effective date of FS eligibility. FSET agencies must not enroll or begin providing FSET services to participants prior to the date in which the individual is eligible for FS as this is not allowable per federal regulation.

This page last updated in Release Number: 15-01

Release Date: 02/26/15

Effective Date: 02/26/15