Utah TANF cash assistance: the Family Employment Program (2026)

What FEP pays, by household size

DWS’s Table 1 sets three figures for each household size. The gross limit is shown above. The net limit is the Standard Needs Budget (SNB). The third figure is the maximum FEP payment. The table has been effective since Oct. 1, 2022, and the copy captured on Oct. 5, 2026 had no newer version ⁠¹. The rule contains no automatic yearly increase. It says only that the payment is set by the department and that proposed changes are reported to the Legislature’s Social Services Appropriations Subcommittee ⁠³.

Scroll the table sideways to see every column.

Diversion amounts are three times the maximum payment as set by rule ⁠¹¹. DWS subtracts income you expect during those three months, so many families receive less.

How DWS turns your income into a payment

Utah tests income in three steps ⁠³:

1. Gross test

   Gross countable income has to be at or below 185% of the SNB, which is $1,050 for three people ⁠¹.

2. Net test

   DWS subtracts $100 for each working household member. If you received FEP in any of the four months before, it also subtracts half of the remaining earnings. Then it subtracts paid dependent care that DWS does not subsidize and child support you pay for a child outside the home. What remains must be below the SNB ($568 for three) ⁠³⁠¹.

3. Payment

   New applicants who pass now get the 50% earnings deduction. Earnings of children in school are also left out. What is left is subtracted from the maximum payment, and you receive the difference ⁠³.

Here is a worked example for a parent with two children who earns $600 a month and has not been on FEP recently. The parent passes the gross test. Subtracting $100 leaves $500, which is below $568, so the parent passes the net test. Half of $500 is $250 of countable income, and $662 minus $250 leaves a $412 FEP payment. A parent who already gets FEP and earns $900 is at $400 after both deductions and would receive $262. These examples are our calculations under R986-200-239, without dependent care ⁠³.

The $2,000 asset test and what it leaves out

Countable real and personal property cannot exceed $2,000 ⁠⁴. The home you live in and its usual contents are exempt. Any single item worth more than $1,000 counts. All motor vehicles are exempt, as are tools or property you need for work, student aid, and burial funds up to $1,500 per person ⁠⁴.

The employment plan and DWS’s 30-hour rule

DWS runs the work requirement itself. It is the employment plan you build with the employment counselor assigned to your FEP case ⁠². Within 30 days of applying, each parent who must participate has to attend a FEP orientation, sign a FEP Agreement and negotiate an employment plan. Until the parent attends the orientation, the application is incomplete ⁠⁸. The plan follows an assessment and has to be signed within 15 business days of it. It lists activities such as job search with weekly reports, high school or GED classes, job training, treatment, and solving child care or transportation problems ⁠⁷. The minimum is 30 hours a week, with 20 of them in “priority” activities. A parent with a child under 6 needs 20 hours, all of them priority. If your counselor documents barriers, a lower number can be approved ⁠⁷.

If you fall out of compliance, DWS uses a two-notice reconciliation process before it closes the case. If you still do not comply, the household loses cash for one full month. Then you have to reapply and finish a two-week trial participation period. A single parent of a child under 6 who cannot find suitable child care has reasonable cause not to meet the work requirement ⁠⁹.

Two-parent families (FEPTP). Both parents together must log 60 hours a week, with at least 50 of them in priority activities. DWS pays twice a month and only after you show proof of hours, prorating the FEP amount for fewer hours. A family can use FEPTP for 7 months in any 13-month period, and those months count toward the 36-month limit ⁠¹⁰. If either parent stops participating, the household’s assistance ends immediately ⁠¹⁰.

Utah’s 36-month clock and the ways past it

State law bars cash assistance once a family has received 36 months. Months from any state since Jan. 1, 1997 count, including months when a disqualified parent’s income was counted ⁠⁵. Months received as a minor child and months of Transitional Cash Assistance do not count ⁠⁵. There are three ways to get more time:

• Work extension. You can get up to 24 more months if the parent worked at least 20 hours a week in each of the previous two months ⁠⁵.
• Hardship or domestic violence. Help can continue past the limit for a family with a hardship or with a member who has been battered or subjected to extreme cruelty. These cases are capped at 20% of the average monthly FEP caseload ⁠⁵.
• Volunteer training. A parent can volunteer for a department-approved employment and training activity ⁠⁵.

The work extension stops at 60 total months. Only a hardship or domestic violence exception can go beyond that ⁠⁵.

One-time money: diversion, TCA and Emergency Assistance

Diversion is a single FEP payment that keeps you off monthly cash. To get it you must meet every FEP rule except ORS cooperation. You must also need money for housing, a sudden large expense or work costs, and expect to be working or otherwise self-supporting within three months ⁠¹¹. DWS considers your work history, your job prospects, how stable your housing is and your child care needs. You sign a diversion agreement and agree to have the FEP part of your application denied ⁠¹¹. Afterward you cannot get FEP for the three months the payment covers. You keep any child support paid during that period, and you can get diversion only once in 12 months ⁠¹¹. FEPTP families cannot use diversion ⁠¹¹.

Transitional Cash Assistance (TCA) is for parents whose FEP closed because their earnings went up, not because of a sanction. TCA pays the full FEP amount for your household size for two months, with all income ignored, and half of it for a third month. The three months can fall anywhere in a 12-month period, and you must stay employed and keep cooperating with ORS ⁠¹². For three people that is $662, $662 and $331. TCA months do not count toward the 36-month limit ⁠¹²⁠⁵.

Emergency Assistance (EA) prevents homelessness or a utility shutoff caused by a crisis outside your control. It requires only the 185% gross test, with no employment plan and no ORS referral. It pays up to $450 for one month’s rent, $700 for a mortgage payment and $300 for utilities. You can use it during one 30-day period in each 365 days, and only if one month’s help will solve the problem ⁠¹³.

Applying through myCase, step by step

1. Collect proof

   Gather recent pay records, bank balances and the value of anything that could count toward the $2,000 limit ⁠³⁠⁴.

2. Apply in myCase, in person, or by mail or fax

   Apply online through myCase or at a DWS employment center. You can also call 801-526-0950 or 1-866-435-7414 to have an application mailed to you. Completed paper applications go to Imaging Operations, P.O. Box 143245, Salt Lake City, UT 84114-3245, or by fax to 1-877-313-4717. Any benefits are figured from the date DWS receives your application ⁠⁶. If a crisis is the reason you are applying, ask about diversion or EA now.

3. Return verifications within 10 days

   DWS sends a list of the items it needs. Anything that arrives after 5 p.m. is date-stamped the next business day ⁠⁶. The eligibility worker checks your income and assets, and the employment counselor schedules your assessment ⁠².

4. Attend orientation and sign your plan within 30 days

   Attend the FEP orientation and sign the FEP Agreement and employment plan. Until you attend the orientation, the application is not complete ⁠⁸⁠⁷.

5. Open a child support case with ORS

   Fill out the ORS application online at ors.utah.gov or on paper at a DWS office. If seeking support would put you or your children at risk, tell your counselor ⁠²⁠¹⁴.

6. Read the decision letter

   DWS has to decide within 30 days of receiving your application and mails its decision ⁠⁶.

7. Appeal if you disagree

   You have 90 days from the date of a notice to ask for a fair hearing before an administrative law judge, either orally or in writing ⁠¹⁵.

Child support through the Office of Recovery Services

When you take FEP, your rights to child support and spousal support for the children on the grant are assigned to the state. You must help ORS find the other parent, establish paternity and enforce the order ⁠¹⁴. Only ORS decides whether you are cooperating, and DWS cannot overrule that finding. If you refuse without good cause, the case closes, and when you reapply you have to cooperate before any cash is paid ⁠¹⁴. Diversion is the one exception: during the diversion period, child support belongs to you ⁠¹¹.

For other help in this state, see all Utah assistance guides or compare cash assistance across states.