Job Readiness Participation Requirements

Federal WPR

To meet federal WPR, Job Search/Job Readiness activity types are limited to 4 consecutive weeks, not to exceed 6 weeks in the preceding 12 months. The 6 weeks are converted into hours as follows:

• 120 hours for AUs subject to 20 federal core hours per week

Note: Applies to only a single custodial parent with a child under 6 years old.

• 180 hours for AUs subject to 30 federal core hours per week (for two-parent AUs, each parent has his/her own 180-hour limit)

Note: For federal WPR, when California is considered a “Needy State”, 12 weeks of Job Search/Job Readiness is allowed in a preceding 12-month period.

Preceding 12-Month Period

When determining the participation time limits for federal WPR, all Job Readiness activities must be factored in when calculating the preceding 12 month period. The preceding 12-month period begins with the current month and includes the 11 previous months, or the month the client previously attended any Job Readiness activities 12 months prior to the current month. When evaluating the participant's preceding 12 month period, each parent’s time in a two-parent household is evaluated separately.

Example: To meet Federal WPR, the mother in a two-parent family reports to her EC in June that she was laid off. She previously completed 120 hours of Supervised Job Search in January. Since the preceding 12-month period includes July through June, she has 60 hours of Job Readiness time remaining to begin a Job Readiness activity in June.

Hours of Participation

[EAS 42-701.1(b) and (c)]

Clients who are required to participate in the CWES program, must engage in WTW activities for required hours each week. Clients should make substantial progress toward their activities while meeting the participation requirements. All WTW activities are assigned based on the total weekly hours of participation for all mandatory adults is:

• 30 hours/week for a single parent AU with no child less than 6 years of age
• 20 hours/week for a single parent AU with a child less than six years old
• 35 hours/week for a two parent AU (both parents may share the hours)

Unless exempt from participation, in order for adults in a two-parent AU to meet the Federal WPR Two-Parent and the All-Families WPR requirements, ALL of the following conditions must be met:

• To meet the Two-parent rate, the AU must have a combined total average of 35 hours per week, of which 30 hours must be in core activities. The 30 core hours may be split between both parents.
• To meet the All-Family rate, one of the two parents in the AU must participate an average of at least 30 hours, of which 20 must be in core activities.
• To meet both rates, the AU must have a combined total weekly average of 35 hours, of which 30 must be in core Activities and one of the two parents must participate a weekly average of 30 hours of which 20 must be core.