About Welfare Data Tracking Implementation Project (WDTIP)

The Welfare Data Tracking Implementation Project (WDTIP) is a statewide welfare time-on-aid tracking and reporting system which is accessible to the county welfare eligibility workers through the Department of Health Care Services, Medi-Cal Eligibility Determination System (MEDS).  WDTIP eliminates the need for counties to manually contact other counties outside their respective consortia system and/or other states to obtain information relative to the 60-month time limitations for time-on-aid by providing eligibility workers an automated tool from which they can obtain up-to-date information for Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) and CalWORK’s applicants and recipients.  WDTIP is the interface system within the existing county consortia State Automated Welfare Systems (SAWS).

The scope of the WDTIP system was defined by CDSS and county staff in the fall of 1999 in two major planning sessions: a Joint Requirements Planning Session and a Joint Application Design Session. These sessions validated that the WDTIP system will include:

• Cumulative time-clock calculations of TANF 60-month, CalWORKs 60-month, and Welfare-To-Work 18/24-month clocks, including exemption and exception information
• Diversion information to identify payments received across counties and over time and their effect on time clocks
• Sanction information to provide appropriate CalWORKs sanction data to counties

The time-on-aid data in WDTIP was designed so that WDTIP would mirror a consortia’s time-on-aid information.  Following a one-time county conversion to WDTIP, time-on-aid data is downloaded by each consortium; via nightly batch runs, so that the data stays in sync.  The WDTIP system is housed by the Department of Technology Services in Sacramento, California, and the maintenance and operations is provided by the state staff that works closely with the Department of Social Services (CDSS) and the counties.

Background

The WDTIP succeeded the Statewide Automated Welfare System-Technical Architecture (SAWS-TA) project. The original intent of SAWS-TA was to ensure consistent and efficient communication between each of the four SAWS consortia systems and other welfare related systems (i.e., Child Support, Statewide Fingerprint Imaging System [SFIS] and Electronic Benefit Transfer [EBT]).

The delay of consortia implementations back in 1996, coupled with the immediate need for statewide data tracking as mandated by Welfare Reform, prompted WDTIP to move forward as a statewide solution. WDTIP provides counties with statewide time-on-aid data which is stored in the Tracking Recipients Across California (TRAC) database (formerly the SAWS Information System (SIS) database). This information enhances the counties' ability to determine one-time and ongoing TANF and CalWORKs eligibility for applicants and recipients. TRAC provides an applicant/recipient's program and county involvement history extending back to December 1996 and out of state aid back to August 1996, as required by Federal Welfare Reform.

The applicable time-on-aid welfare information contained in the SIS database was converted to the TRAC database in June 2000. The first county conversions to WDTIP occurred in October 2000. Stanislaus County was the last county to convert to WDTIP on August 25, 2005. Currently 57 of the 58 counties have converted to WDTIP. Modoc is the lone unconverted county, and it will convert to WDTIP when Modoc's consortium convert to the C-IV SAWS application.

Benefits

WDTIP application is a mission critical statewide automated system that provides a communication mechanism and central data repository accessed by all technology-enabled counties and other relevant agency systems. This system enables all 58 California counties to accurately track individual’s time on aid information to meeting the requirements of both state and federal Welfare Reform. WDTIP also provides online screens that give counties the ability to view data, and perform inquiry and online updates. In summary, WDTIP provides the following fundamental benefits to all 58 counties:

• Satisfaction of federal and state mandates for tracking time on aid in accordance with the federal Temporary Aid to Needy Families (TANF) Act;
• Providing a statewide view of a welfare recipient's time on aid information
• Prevention and early detection of welfare fraud by reducing or eliminating duplicate services to a single recipient across counties;
• Simplification of the inter-county exchange of welfare case information;
• Integration and centralization of statewide individual and program data;
• Correct delivery of welfare services and reduction or elimination of duplicate services to a single recipient across counties.