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You are here:Home →Reports & Publications →Other Reports →Job Access Planning - Challenges & Approaches →Appendix A Table of Contents → Minnesota's Welfare Reform Plan: MFIP Grant Levels
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Minnesota's Welfare Reform Plan: MFIP Grant Levels
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The goal of MFIP is to bring a family's income above the poverty level before eliminating cash grant assistance. Employed participants can continue to collect a partial cash grant along with wages until they reach a total income of at least 120 percent of the federal poverty level (or hit the five-year limit). The earnings needed to rise above 120 percent of the poverty level vary by family size. The following is a schedule of cash grant benefits (combined cash and food stamps) relative to family size and wages:
Family size of two:
- Earnings ($0.00) + MFIP grant ($609) = $609
- Earnings ($500) + MFIP grant ($350) = $850
- Earnings ($925) + MFIP grant ($78) = $1,003
- Maximum wage at 40 hrs/wk before losing benefits = $5.99
Family size of three:
- Earnings ($0.00) + MFIP grant ($763) = $763
- Earnings ($500) + MFIP grant ($519) = $1,019
- Earnings ($1,100) + MFIP grant ($135) = $1,235
- Maximum wage at 40 hrs/wk before losing benefits = $7.53
Family size of four:
- Earnings ($0.00) + MFIP grant ($903) = $903
- Earnings ($500) + MFIP grant ($673) = $1,173
- Earnings ($1,100) + MFIP grant ($289) = $1,389
- Maximum wage at 40 hrs/wk before losing benefits = $8.92
For families living in publicly subsidized housing, the food portion of their MFIP grant will be reduced by $30 (beginning January 1998) and $100 will be counted against their income portion of their grants (beginning July 1999).
Child-Care Assistance
State funding for childcare subsidies has significantly increased (by $93 million in the 1997/98 biennium) so that all families moving from welfare to work have access to affordable childcare. MFIP participants receive full child care subsidies while they remain eligible for a cash grant and will receive one year of additional child care subsidies based on a sliding fee scale after they no longer receive a cash grant. Co-payments begin at 75 percent of federal poverty level.
Minnesota now allows subsidies to be used for unlicensed as well as licensed home care.
Medical Assistance
Unlike some other states, Medical Assistance (MA) is packaged as part of a participant's MFIP assistance. MA will also be provided for one year after no longer qualifying for a cash grant.
If a family is no longer eligible for MA, Minnesota Care will provide health insurance to income eligible non-insured families on a sliding fee scale basis. It is estimated that Minnesota Care has reduced single-parent family welfare use by 6 percent and two-parent family use by 18 percent (Minnesota Planning, 1997). Moving families from welfare to work thus reduces not only cash grant and administrative costs, but costs associated with medical assistance.
Housing Assistance
Housing assistance is also linked to MFIP: $100 of any cash assistance is counted toward the incomes of families receiving public housing subsidies. (Implementation of this deduction has been delayed until July 1999.)
No major housing initiatives have been developed as a result of welfare reform.
Food Stamps
Food Stamp eligibility is also linked with MFIP. The average grant for eligible families is $65 a month per person. Adults not eligible for MFIP can only receive food stamps for three months within a three-year period unless working a minimum 20 hours a week.
A household's gross income must be at or below 130 percent of the federal poverty level to qualify for food assistance.
Exemptions
An MFIP participant may be exempt from work rules if he/she is:
- The parent of a new born (up to one year);
- 60 years or older;
- Ill or disabled;
- Experiencing crises such as domestic abuse.
Asset limits
A first time MFIP participant may own up to $2,000 in personal property and a current AFDC participant, converting to MFIP, may own up to $5,000 in personal property. A participant may own a vehicle worth $7,500.
Penalties and Sanctions
Sanctions begin within one month for failure to cooperate with work requirements (including initial orientations and job search activities).
The participant's grant is reduced 10 percent the first month of noncompliance and 30 percent beginning the second month. The participant's rent will also be paid directly beginning the second month.
Residency Requirements
There will be no benefits for new residents during their first 30 days in Minnesota, with some exceptions for hardship and for migrant workers who have worked in Minnesota in the previous 12 months. For the next 11 months, new residents receive their prior state's benefit levels (if lower than Minnesota's). Benefits are paid to vendors for rent and utilities.
Minnesota may adjust MFIP grant payments downward for all participants if the cost of providing assistance to new residents exceeds the amount previously projected.
Benefits for Legal Non-citizens
Federal welfare reform laws disallow TANF grants, food stamps, and other federal assistance to most legal non-citizens. Minnesota, however, is providing state funding to continue cash grants, food stamps and General Assistance to immigrants who no longer qualify for federal assistance. The provision of state assistance is available through July 1, 1999. The next legislative session will decide whether or not to continue assistance. The following assistance is currently available:
- Families with children are eligible for full MFIP grants, food assistance and Medical Assistance. Like other eligible families, they will also receive childcare and supportive services. MFIP grants and food assistance are funded by the state of Minnesota. There is one important caveat regarding the eligibility of this population who arrived in the country after December 19, 1997, the date sponsor deeming became effective. Sponsor deeming requires that new immigrants have "Affidavits of Support," a legal document that makes the sponsor's income count toward the income of an immigrant applying for financial assistance. This means that few applicants may actually qualify for assistance. For the moment, however, most immigrant families with children who are legally residing in Minnesota are continuing to receive and are eligible to receive assistance.
- Most immigrants receiving assistance will be encouraged to work as opposed to going to school even if they do not speak English well. English as a Second Language (ESL) however, is available for immigrants and may be included as part of one's employment plan. All immigrants receiving assistance will be strongly encouraged to gain citizenship status.
- As permitted by federal law, Cubans, Haitians, refugees and asylees are eligible for MFIP (including the federal portion of the grant) during their first five years in the country even if they have arrived before the enactment date August 22, 1996) of the federal welfare reform law. Beyond their first five years in the country, these groups will remain eligible for MFIP if they are subject to the five-year TANF eligibility. Minnesota must cover the cost of the extended eligibility.
- State-funded food stamps will be available to all legal immigrants who were cut off from the federal food stamp program. Low-income elderly, disabled and working poor immigrants began to receive food stamps on July 1, 1998.
- As permitted by state law, qualified non-citizens who are elderly, blind or disabled will continue to receive federally funded Supplemental Security Income (SSI) if they were receiving this assistance on August 22, 1996. Qualified non-citizens that have resided in the country before August 22, 1996, but not receiving SSI, are eligible to receive assistance without time limitations. Elderly and disabled legal non-citizens, who are ineligible for SSI because they arrived in the country after August 22, 1996, will be eligible to receive $203/month under Minnesota General Assistance. This aid totals to $3,480 per year, compared to $4,536 under SSI.
Child Support Collection Efforts
Families no longer receive the $50 pass-through they were receiving when an absent parent paid child support directly to the county. Child support payments go to reimburse the welfare system, unless the amount is sufficient to remove the family from welfare.
Like other states, Minnesota has significantly increased efforts to collect child support.
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