Background: Ohio Revised Code Section 5107.04 requires the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services (ODJFS) to increase Ohio Works First (OWF) payments each January 1 by the cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) announced the previous year by the Social Security Administration (SSA).
New Payment Standard: On October 30, 2013, the SSA announced a COLA increase of 1.5 percent. Beginning January 1, 2014, ODJFS will issue the following revised OWF and Refugee Cash Assistance payments, based on assistance group size and reflecting the COLA increase:
| Assistance Group Size | Payments as of January 1, 2014 |
|---|
| 1 | $277 |
| 2 | $380 |
| 3 | $465 |
| 4 | $572 |
| 5 | $671 |
| 6 | $746 |
| 7 | $834 |
| 8 | $924 |
| 9 | $1,017 |
| 10 | $1,108 |
| 11 | $1,198 |
| 12 | $1,290 |
| 13 | $1,382 |
| 14 | $1,471 |
| 15 | $1,564 |
| +15 ADD | $116 |
Implementation: A mass change ran in CRIS-E the weekend of November 29, 2013, to update the payments. Alerts were generated, and exception reports were created for all cases that CRIS-E could not update automatically. For those cases, eligibility workers must run ED/BC in order for the changes to be implemented. All assistance groups affected will receive notices stating their new benefit amounts. A CLVB was issued with the details of the system changes.