Apply For Florida TANF Benefits

Learn how to apply for Florida TANF. The Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program, called Florida Temporary Cash Assistance (TCA), may help you become self-supportive while receiving monthly cash benefits to meet your everyday needs such as rent, utilities, clothes, transportation, or additional expenses.

Sometimes you may not be eligible to receive TANF for yourself, but a child or children in your household may. The TANF program is administered by the Department of Children and Families. In most cases, in order to qualify for TANF you must meet both types of eligibility, categorical and financial.

Additionally, to qualify for TANF there are work requirements. The FL TANF program requires most adults be employed or participate in certain work-related activities, which you will be assigned for a certain number of hours on a weekly basis in order to continue receiving TANF benefits.

The total number of hours needed to fulfill your work activity requirement depends on your family composition. Qualified state residents are required to produce information including household income, age, citizenship and resources.

Only household members who are eligible for Florida TANF can receive welfare benefits. For more information about applying for FL TANF benefits, view the information below. If you still have questions or issues, then contact TANF Florida.

The Florida TANF program helps families become self-supporting while allowing children to remain in their own homes. Pregnant women may also receive Florida TANF benefits, either in the third trimester of pregnancy if unable to work, or in the 9th month of pregnancy. Parents, children and minor siblings who live together must apply together. The name of the TANF program in Florida is Temporary Cash Assistance (TCA).

Florida TANF eligibility

A person must pass all eligibility rules to get Florida TCA benefits. Some eligibility rules are:

Work requirements

Regional Workforce Boards (RWB) provide work activities and services necessary for participants to obtain or retain employment. TCA recipients must participate in work activities unless they meet the following exemptions from work.

TANF time limits

List below explains the different time limits for the Florida TCA program:

• Individuals may receive cash assistance for a lifetime cumulative total of 48 months as an adult
  A family that receives cash for a child only has no time limit
• Pending SSI/SSDI applicants and individuals with RWB-approved hardships may receive extensions to the 48-month lifetime limit
• Caretaker relatives who do not request benefits for themselves may receive non-time limited TCA benefits for relative children
• An adult household member who provides care to a disabled family member in their home may receive non-time limited TCA benefits for the months they provide care

Residency and citizenship

Below are the requirements for Florida TANF with regards to state residency and citizenship:

• Individuals must be US citizens or qualified non-citizens
• Individuals must be residents of Florida. A resident is an individual who lives in the state for purposes other than vacation, and intends to remain

Social security number

Everyone applying for TCA must have a social security number or proof of application for one. Individuals who are not requesting benefits for themselves do not have to provide a number or proof of application for one.

Assets

Below are the details for assets with regards to the Florida TANF program:

• Assets are resources or items of value owned (solely or jointly) by an individual with access to the cash value of the assets. Households may have $2,000 in countable assets. Homestead property value does not count toward the asset limit
• Licensed vehicles for individuals with a TCA work requirement may not exceed a combined equity value of $8,500. Vehicle equity value in excess of $8,500 counts toward the $2,000 asset limit. Families without a work requirement may exclude one vehicle with an equity value of no more than $8,500. Eligibility rules exclude vehicles used to transport a physically disabled member of the assistance group from asset consideration

Relationship

A child must live in the home of a parent or a relative who is a blood relative of the child. The degree of relationship to the child can be no greater than first cousin once removed. Parents and children, including half-siblings, who live together must apply together.

Child support cooperation

The parent or the caretaker relative of the children must cooperate with child support enforcement to identify and locate the parent(s) who do not live in the child's home, to prove a child's legal relationship to their parent and to get the court to order child support payments.

Immunization

To receive TCA for children under age five, the applicant household must verify that each child has a complete record of all necessary immunizations or is current with immunizations.

Family cap

The program limits additional TCA benefits for a child born to a current TCA recipient. For the first child born more than 10 calendar months from the date of application for TCA, the family receives one half of the normal increase for an added person.

For any additional children born to a TCA recipient, the family receives no increase. This provision does not apply to a first-born child, when courts transfer legal custody of a child, when the children no longer live with their parents due to death or incapacitation, or when the mother is a recipient of SSI.

Learnfare

To remain eligible for TCA:

• School-age children (six to 18) must attend school and
• Parents or caretaker relatives must participate in school conferences

Families will lose benefits for any child who is habitually truant from school or who is a school dropout unless the child has good cause for nonattendance or a hardship exemption from the school.

Parents or caretaker relatives must have a conference with a school official each semester to discuss the child's school progress. A parent or caretaker relative will lose their portion of the benefits if they fail participate in a school conference without good cause.

Child Support Enforcement

Custodial parents or the caretaker relative applicants must cooperate with the state's child support enforcement program to identify and locate the non-custodial parent(s), establish the paternity of the child and obtain child support payments for the child.

Relocation Assistance

Eligible families that need resources to escape domestic violence, move to another area with greater employment opportunities, or to accept a job offer, may choose a lump sum relocation payment instead of a monthly TCA benefit.

Families that accept the relocation payment for employment related reasons may not reapply for TCA for six months, unless they have an emergency. If these families reapply within six-months they must repay a prorated amount of the relocation assistance payment. RWBs determine eligibility for relocation assistance.

Florida TANF income requirements

Eligibility for Florida TCA depends on household income. Net countable income (income minus allowable deductions) cannot exceed the maximum possible payment for the family size. The chart below shows the maximum payment of Temporary Cash Assistance available based upon the family size and the amount of the family's shelter obligation.

A household's actual TCA payment will vary based upon the household's countable income. The family size is the number of eligible household members in the family.

Temporary Cash Assistance Payment Monthly Maximums

Apply for Florida TANF benefits

You can apply online by going to myflorida.com/accessflorida. Or if you prefer, you can click here to download the application form, fill it out and submit it to a local Florida Customer Service Center.

Get TANF application status

If you want to check the status of your application, report a change, request additional benefits or need information about your current benefits, then use your online account, available 24 hours a day 7 days a week.

In addition to around the clock access to your case, you can also submit requested verification to the department using the document upload feature. Click here to log into your account. If you have not registered for an account, click here to register today.

You can also get information about your application or benefits by using our automated response system at 866-762-2237. Your ACCESS case number or Social Security Number and date of birth are required to get your case information. Please note, you may want to allow at least two weeks before calling to check the status of your application.

I was denied TANF benefits. What can I do?

State and local agencies are responsible for establishing the eligibility criteria and procedures that apply in their programs, not the Federal government. If you disagree with a decision regarding welfare benefits, you have the right to file an appeal. For more information about your state's appeals procedures, contact the FL TANF office.