(a) The department may offer a lump-sum diversion payment in place of ongoing cash assistance to an adult applicant who applies under Alaska Stat. § 47.27.020 if the adult applicant is job ready and is determined to need only short-term financial assistance and self-sufficiency services to meet critical needs in order to secure employment and support for the adult applicant’s family. The department shall set standards and conditions for diversion payments and self-sufficiency services by regulation.
(b) The department may pay a diversion payment to an applicant’s family only if that family appears to be eligible for cash assistance under Alaska Stat. § 47.27.020 and to include a job-ready individual based on the information provided to the department in the application completed under Alaska Stat. § 47.27.020. The department may offer to an applicant with the potential to participate in the diversion project a choice between
(1) having the Alaska temporary assistance program application processed under Alaska Stat. § 47.27.020 and the regulations adopted by the department; or(2) having the application referred to the diversion project of the Alaska temporary assistance program for a determination of eligibility for a diversion project payment and self-sufficiency services under this section.(c) The amount of a diversion payment with self-sufficiency services must be sufficient to meet the family’s immediate needs as determined by the department and the participant. A diversion payment may not exceed the amount the family would be eligible to receive as cash assistance in the first three months of eligibility under Alaska Stat. § 47.27.025 if the family did not elect to receive a diversion payment.(d) As a condition of a family receiving a diversion payment under this section, the participant must sign an agreement that
(1) specifies
(A) the amount of the diversion payment and the needs it is intended to cover;(B) the self-sufficiency services required to meet the family’s immediate needs;(2) provides that, during the three-month period beginning with the month in which the diversion payment was received, child support collected on behalf of a child whose needs were considered in determining the diversion payment shall be paid to the family; and(3) provides that if the family reapplies under Alaska Stat. § 47.27.020 during the three months beginning with the month in which the family received a diversion payment, the diversion payment shall be treated as unearned income, prorated over the three-month period, and deducted from any cash assistance that the family may be eligible for under the new application.(e) A family that receives a diversion payment may not receive another diversion payment before the 12th month following the month in which it last received a diversion payment. A family may not receive more than four diversion payments.(f) To the extent that (d)(2) of this section is inconsistent with Alaska Stat. § 25.27.120 or 25.27.130, or with another provision of this chapter, (d)(2) of this section governs.
