On a configured day of the month, A&T executes a batch process that compares scheduled versus actual attended hours for Cash Assistance clients for all active outcome plans to determine whether the client has met the required participation. If a discrepancy exists, it is stored. So that the outcome worker knows which cases to review, the outcome worker is notified for each outcome plan where there might be an issue. Discrepancies are created and recorded for individual activities. The information captured on discrepancy records may include: client name, discrepancy date, activity, period, scheduled hours, actual hours (indicates if projected hours are used), and discrepancy month. The configured date to run the batch process is after all the attendance is in the system for the previous month. The initial date is the 15th. There are separate "paid" and "unpaid" activity checks that are set up as part of federal allowable components.
Paid Activity Check:
If projected hours have been recorded for a client's paid scheduled hours, no discrepancy exists as projected data is considered to be actual data.
If the client's scheduled hours of participation in paid activities does not match the actual hours of paid activities and a client does not have a Cash Assistance work non-participation reason which covers the period, a discrepancy record is stored.
Unpaid Activity Check:
If the client's scheduled hours of participation in unpaid activities does not match the actual hours of unpaid activities, the system validates for Cash Assistance clients the excused absence reason for not attending the activity and determines if a discrepancy situation exists and whether a discrepancy record should be created.
Part of discrepancy evaluation is checking for exceeding regulatory limits for excused absences and holidays. Limits for excused absences are 16 hours in a month and 80 hours in 12 months. Limits for holidays are 10 in a calendar year. Specific checks include: