108              NOTICES

Clear communication with clients is an important part of our day-to-day business. Writing EIS Eligibility Information System ARIES Alaska's Resource for Integrated Eligibility Services and notices is DPA Division of Public Assistance ’s primary method of communicating to clients the actions taken on their application or case; ensuring due process requirements are met; and sharing information about rights and responsibilities. Sending notices to applicants and recipients to provide this information is a legal requirement.

Notices must be informative, meaningful, and clearly written. The message and tone of our notices must be consistent with other verbal communications we have with clients. To meet specific program requirements, notices must be “adequate” and in some circumstances “timely.” Refer to the program manuals for more information about adequate and timely notice requirements, and Administrative Procedures MS 104-4 for more information about adverse action dates.

Notices must meet due-process requirements. A due-process compliant notice informs the client of the following:

·         Agency’s action

·         Reason for the action

·         When the action will happen

·         What the client can do if they disagree with the action taken by the agency.

Staff Development and Training offers a web-based training course on due process and client notices. The training is available online.

All notices sent to clients become part of a client’s official case record. EIS Eligibility Information System and ARIES Alaska's Resource for Integrated Eligibility Services maintain a history of all notices sent to a client in EIS Eligibility Information System Notice History (NOHS) and ARIES Alaska's Resource for Integrated Eligibility Services Correspondence that can be viewed at any time.  It is unnecessary to print and retain copies of EIS Eligibility Information System and ARIES Alaska's Resource for Integrated Eligibility Services notices in the file folder. Refer to EIS Procedure 1998-11 for more information about notices on EIS Eligibility Information System . Refer to ARIES Help Guide  and ARIES Alaska's Resource for Integrated Eligibility Services Online User Guide for more information about ARIES Alaska's Resource for Integrated Eligibility Services correpondences.