Transportation-Related Expenses (TRE) Rule

TRE Criteria

Transportation costs, including parking fees, may be paid for the following:

• CWES clients who travel to and from a CWES approved WTW activity.
• Children, between home, school and/or the child care provider if reasonable and necessary.
• Clients and/or children who participate in additional WTW programs and services, such as family conferences, etc.
• Post-aid clients.

Transportation services are not paid if:

• Provided by another source
• The self-employed client claims mileage as a business expense deduction
• Transportation expenses are a result of travel required on the job.

Example: A client is employed as a pizza delivery driver, and is required to drive his/her own vehicle and pay for his/her gas. Mileage reimbursement is approved ONLY for miles driven between home and place of employment (pizza parlor). The miles traveled during the day to make the deliveries are NOT covered by mileage reimbursement.

TRE for Children

Transportation costs may be paid to transport the child between home, school and/or the child care provider. Child care providers who charge for transporting a child between school and the provider, must be paid as long as the cost of child care, including transportation is at or below the RMR.

Note: TRE is available for children not in the assistance unit but related to the client by blood, marriage or court decree, and transportation is needed for the individual to participate in WTW activities.

Proration Eliminated

Effective immediately, adult and youth bus fare is no longer prorated. All clients approved for adult and youth bus fare receive the FULL amount for the month.

Required Form(s)

To request reimbursement for mileage, parking, or car pool fees, clients will be required to provide the “Reimbursement Request for Transportation-Related Expenses” SCD 1799-A.The SCD 1799-A is due by the 5th day of the month.

Advance Payments

Advance payments for TRE must be issued to the client when necessary and/or desired by the client so that the client need not use personal funds to pay for this expense.

Unclear TRE Requests

CWES workers must contact the client within 5-working days of receipt of the TRE request when clarification is needed to issue TRE. CWES Workers must document the contact and the outcome of the contact in Journal Detail page window in CalSAWS.

Distance to School

There is not a minimum distance requirement to a child’s school before issuing TRE on behalf of a child.

School Bus Availability

Clients are not required to provide verification that a school bus is not available to transport the child(ren) to issue TRE. The client's statement about school bus availability will satisfy the requirement to request TRE on behalf of a child(ren).

Transportation as a Self-Employed Deduction

TRE payments are not approved when a self-employed client claims mileage as a business expense deduction. If the client does not claim mileage as a business expense deduction, the client is eligible for TRE payments.

Example 1 Example 1 A client is a self-employed hairdresser who rents a chair at a business location. The client does not claim mileage as a business expense deduction. The client is eligible for TRE. The client can claim mileage from home to the hair salon and from the hair salon to home.

Example 2 Example 2 A client is a self-employed gardener. The client drives to various locations and claims mileage as a business expense deduction. The client is not eligible for TRE.

To verify if a client is claiming mileage as a business expense deduction, the EC must ask the client if they are claiming mileage as a business expense deduction and document the client’s response in CalSAWS Journal Detail page.