3005-1      EXPEDITED APPLICATIONS

Expedited service is provided to households in crisis or in a life threatening crisis as defined in MSManual Section 3000-2 or the household includes one of the following:

• Elderly person(s)
• Disabled individual(s)
• Child(ren) under 6 years of age

All households must also meet the eligibility criteria listed in MSManual Section 3005-1A.

3005-1 A.      CRITERIA FOR EXPEDITED PROCESSING

Expedited service is provided to a household only if all of the following expedited service criteria are met:

• the applicant has requested expedited service;

• the applicant is experiencing a crisis, life threatening crisis, or meets the medically necessary criteria as defined in MSManual Section 3000-2;

• the applicant has submitted a complete, verified, and signed application, including a rent receipt or rental agreement if heat is included in the rent.
• the applicant must submit a copy of the shut-off notice or written notification from the vendor including the date of the proposed action and the past due amount. If this information is not provided, the caseworker must verbally attempt to obtain verification of the shut-off through the vendor. An attempt to contact the vendor must be written in the case note before the casework pends the application.

3005-1 B.      EXPEDITED TIME FRAMES

Expedited eligibility service is available from January 1 through September 30.

Applicants eligible for expedited service will be provided assistance no later than 18 hours for life threatening and 48 hours for non-life threatening crisis after they submit a completed application.

Applicants who request expedite services prior to January 1, should be directed to contact their vendor to setup a payment plan and to 211 who may be able to help them identify other community resources to assist them until their heating assistance application can be processed.