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Self-Sufficiency, Employment and Public Assistance Division

Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) / Colorado Works

This federal program, implemented in Colorado as the Colorado Works Program, provides temporary monthly cash assistance to families.  The goal is to assist eligible heads of households in developing skills that will enable them to find and retain employment to support their children.  The program also provides support services, child care assistance, and limited training in order to help  participants regain self-sufficiency through employment.  Federal law requires that TANF clients be deemed job ready and in a work activity within 24 months. TANF benefits are limited to a cumulative lifetime total of 60-months.  TANF clients are encouraged to utilize the Broomfield Workforce Center to find employment as well as to obtain various types of training and other job services.  To visit the Colorado Department of Human Services website, please click here.

The four purposes of TANF are:

  • To assist needy families so that children can be cared for in their own homes.

  • To reduce the dependency of needy parents by promoting job preparation, work and marriage.

  • To prevent out-of-wedlock pregnancies.

  • To encourage the formation and maintenance of two-parent families.

Colorado Works statutes state that no individual is entitled to benefits or services under the Colorado Works Program.  Colorado Works provides fair and equitable treatment to all applicants and participants and does not discriminate based on age, disability, race, color, or national origin.

WORK REQUIREMENTS

  • Recipients (with few exceptions) must work as soon as they are job ready or no later than two years after coming on assistance.

  • Single parents are required to participate in work activities for at least 30 hours per week.  Two-parent families must participate in work activities for 35 or 55 hours a week, depending upon circumstances. 

  • Failure to participate in work requirements can result in a reduction or termination of benefits to the family.

  • Work activities include unsubsidized or subsidized employment, on-the-job training, work experience, community service, job search (not to exceed 6 total weeks and no more than 4 consecutive weeks), vocational training (not to exceed 12 months), job skills training related to work, satisfactory secondary school attendance, and providing child care services to individuals who are participating in community service.  (Some restrictions may apply.)

ELIGIBILITY REQUIREMENTS

Colorado Revised Statutes (CRS) 26-2-111, Eligibility for public assistance, sets the eligibility requirements for public assistance.  The following is a summary of those eligibility requirements.

  • Must be a resident of the state of Colorado or, if a dependent child, the parent or other relatives with whom the child is living must be a resident of the state of Colorado or the person must be a legal immigrant who would be otherwise eligible in all respects except for citizenship;

  • Must have insufficient income, property, or other resources to meet his or her needs as determined by rules and regulations of the CDHS;

  • Must not have transferred property without fair and valuable consideration for the purpose of rendering himself or herself eligible for public assistance at any time within thirty-six months immediately prior to the filing of the application for such assistance or during the time the person has received public assistance;

  • Must not be an inmate of a public institution, except as a patient in a public medical institution, or is not a patient in any institution for tuberculosis or mental diseases, or is not a patient in any medical institution as a result of having been diagnosed as having tuberculosis or psychosis.

The Colorado State Plan for TANF specify the following additional eligibility criteria.

  • Two-thirds of a participant's income get disregarded for the first twelve cumulative months of assistance;

  • Two parents are treated the same as single parent families;

  • One car is exempted from resources;

  • A family may have resources up to $2,000;

  • Colorado does not impose different eligibility criteria or benefits levels on families moving into Colorado from other states;

  • Colorado does not impose a family cap;

  • Colorado does require the assignment of child support rights as a condition of eligibility for Colorado Works;

  • Expectant parents in at least the sixth month of pregnancy are eligible; and

  • Families must sign an Individual Responsibility Contract (IRC). 

  • Sanctions (financial penalties) may be imposed on a family for failure to comply with this IRC, which may cover child support orders, work activities, and/or securing required immunizations for children or the family may be disqualified from Colorado Works/TANF for committing fraud or misrepresenting information to receive additional benefits.

TO APPLY: