What are FIP applicants required to do?
FIP applicants will not be denied FIP for failure to engage in employment- or self-sufficiency-related activities and are not referred to WF/JET. (PEM 230A) However, eligibility for FIP will be delayed if an applicant who is a WEI refuses employment without good cause either while the application is pending or within 30 days prior to the date of application. (See #8 below for a summary of policy on refusing employment and good cause). The FIP case cannot open until the pay period following the pay period in which the refusal of employment is 30 days old. (PEM 233A p. 5) For example: if the family applies for employment on January 10, 2008 and a parent who is a WEI refuses a job offer on January 31, 2008. The employment refusal is 30 days old on March 1, 2008 and the earliest benefits that will be paid to the family are for the second half of March. Note: Under DHS policy, the fact that a person is deferred from WF/JET is not necessarily “good cause.” However, list of good cause reasons
