Work Participation - MFIP and TANF

The Minnesota Family Investment Program (MFIP) and the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) Program offer employment-related services for clients making the transition from public assistance to work.

Overview

This section is for DEED staff, partner organizations and contractors who provide these services. It includes secure access to data that is important for program administration. Access to the data is not available to the general public.

Data Access
Data Sets
Data Dictionaries
Participation Reports
Updates
Contact

Data Access

Regular Users
- Link to the secure data set download page.
New Users

New users need to complete the Application for Access Form to be issued a user name and password to access the secure data.

Follow these steps to access data:
1. Go to the secure data set download page. Enter your user name and password separately. Then select "Log In."
2. On the next screen are two different drop-down menus to choose from, titled "Select Location" and "Select Report." Depending on your access request, you will see either one county or a list of counties in the "Select Location" menu. Select one at a time.
3. From the "Select Report" menu, pick one data set at a time from this menu also. Select and highlight the data set you'd like to access and then select "OK."
4. Another pop-up box will appear asking if you want to open, save, or cancel this file. The new files will all download into an individual new MS Excel spreadsheet for each of the files. Test these out at your own will: open, sort, filter, or save as an (.xls) MS Excel file and re-open it in MS Excel. Some of the larger counties will take longer to open, so give it a little time.
  Note that depending on the version date of your MS Excel, if you choose to 'open' the file directly from the web page download, you may get another side message pop-up that states, "The file you are trying to open is in a different format than specified by the file extension. Verify that the file is not corrupted and is from a trusted source before opening the file. Do you want to open the file now?" This message only appears because of the webpage formatting and you will always be able to select "Yes" to this. The secure site is a trusted source and the files will not be corrupted.
5. If you choose to open the file from the web page download, and you have completed your tasks with the data set, you may close out of it and you will be returned to the "Secure Data Set Download Page" where you may choose another data set to download. Data may be printed directly off the web page.

Data Sets

Monthly Listing of Availability

Current Month	November 2015
Preliminary Month	September 2015
TANF Work Participation	August 2015
Teen Parent	September 2015
Current Month FSS Participants	November 2015
Job Search Hours	August 2015
TANF WPR - By County	Updated thru August 2015
TANF WPR - By ES Provider	Updated thru July 2015
TANF WPR - Tribal	Updated thru August 2015
Listing of ES Providers	Updated as of September 2015

Definitions of Available Data Sets

Find definitions of available data sets here. These are the available data sets from the secure data set download page.

Data Dictionaries

To draw attention to columns in the files, we have assigned ‘yellow’ for financial workers and ‘green’ for providers. These are displayed on the file layout page in the data dictionaries for each file. These fields are highlighted as they represent some key elements for each of the data sets. If these data are not correct, it will cast a negative impact on the outcomes. Consider this a starting point for your review especially if you are overwhelmed by the magnitude of the data sets.

Note that those columns highlighted aren’t the only ones that need your review. Take time to review the dictionaries and file layouts so that you're familiar with the changes and potential impact on your data.

The following Excel spreadsheets are available for download:
TANF Work Participation Reports

County

Individual months are listed within each report. Reports are in Excel format.
Employment Services Provider

Individual months are listed within each report. Reports are in Excel format.
Tribal TANF Work Participation Reports

Individual months are listed within each report. Reports are in Excel format.
Job Search Hours Calendar

To facilitate a better understanding when Job Search hours are captured and used, we have included a Job Search monthly calendar. Note that Job Search monthly parameters differ from those of other activities.
- 2014 monthly calendar
There have been many questions regarding why job search hours are not counting towards the participation rate. This calendar spreadsheet may help providers understand when job search hours are captured. Remember, job search months are different than regular activities, which are counted from the first to the last day of each month. If there are any questions, contact Steve Erbes for clarification.
Contact Us

If you have any questions with downloading the data from the current secure webpage, or importing the data into an Excel workbook, email Steve.Erbes@state.mn.us.

We archive all previously issued months' data sets for two years on a rolling calendar month basis. If you need to access previous data, email Steve.Erbes@state.mn.us.

For questions or comments about the data, contact:

Steve Erbes
Voice: 651-259-7539
Fax: 651-215-3842
TTY: 651-296-3900
Email: Steve.Erbes@state.mn.us