November 29, 2012, Introduced by Senator CASWELL and referred to the Committee on Appropriations.
A bill to amend 1939 PA 280, entitled
"The social welfare act,"
by amending section 57a (MCL 400.57a), as amended by 2011 PA 131.
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF MICHIGAN ENACT:
Sec. 57a. (1) The department shall establish and administer
the family independence program to provide temporary assistance to
families who are making efforts to achieve independence. Family
independence program assistance is not an entitlement.
(2) The department shall administer the family independence
program to accomplish all of the following:
(a) Provide financial support to eligible families while they
pursue self-improvement activities and engage in efforts to become
financially independent.
(b) Ensure that recipients who are minor parents live in
adult-supervised households in order to reduce long-term dependency
on financial assistance.
(c) Assist families in determining and overcoming the barriers
preventing them from achieving financial independence.
(d) Ensure that families pursue other sources of support
available to them.
(3) The department shall establish income and asset levels for
eligibility, types of income and assets to be considered in making
eligibility determinations, payment standards, composition of the
program group and the family independence program assistance group,
program budgeting and accounting methods, and client reporting
requirements to meet the following goals:
(a) Efficient, fair, cost-effective administration of the
family independence program.
(b) Provision of family independence program assistance to
families willing to work toward eventual self-sufficiency.
(4) The department shall not provide family independence
program assistance to any program group that includes an adult who
has received assistance under any state program funded with
temporary assistance for needy families for more than 60 months,
whether or not consecutive, after October 1, 1996. This subsection
does not apply to a program group that includes an adult who is
exempt from participation in the JET program under section
57f(3)(c) or (d), if that adult also was exempt from participation
in the JET program under section 57f(3)(c) or (d) on the effective
date of the 2012 amendatory act that added this subsection. No
other provision of this act prohibits the department from
terminating family independence program assistance under this
subsection.