New Information and Updates
Data Sets Available
Current Month March 2010
Preliminary Month January 2010
TANF Work Participation December 2009
Teen Parent January 2010
Current Month FSS Participants March 2010
Job Search Hours December 2009
The December 2009 TANF Work Participation Rate reports (spreadsheets) by County and ES Provider are also available and posted below. The County WPR reports beginning with October 2009 (and for future) have been revised to correspond with the start of the Work Benefit Program (WB). The new County WPR report format now includes a column shaded gray which displays the number of WB cases in the numerator and denominator. This report combines TANF/WB cases and will be used from this point forward to calculate county performance. We are maintaining the’ TANF only’ WPR for those who wish to measure the impact of WB cases against a TANF only WPR. You can view this report by scrolling to the right of the combined report. If you have questions please let us know.
The Listing of Employment Services Providers has also been updated.
Other Information and Reminders for this Month
DATA SETS:
A new field was added to the Current Month and Preliminary Month data sets in last months release. The field “MosDsrgd_SngPrntKidLT1” was added to provide up-to-date information on single parent cases that are approaching or have reached their TANF WPR disregard status due to a child under 1. Once this field has reached a count of 12 or greater, the case is no longer disregarded for this reason. Please read the definition in the updated corresponding data dictionaries at our main web page. Two parent cases, FSS cases and child only cases (0p) may have this field populated if at some point in the case history the case was a considered a single parent case by TANF definition. One may see this field populated with more and 12 months. The process of counting months began on 10/1/02 when Minnesota lost its TANF waiver. The case disposition regarding the months disregarded for a child under one has not been finalized in either the Current Month or Preliminary Month. Hence, neither data set contains information related to the disregard for the month the files were run.
The column “ContinueFSSInd” in the Current Month, TANF Work Participation, and Current Month FSS data sets, was changed to now read “ReturnFSSCrgvrToMFIPInd”. Please note that this field will not be used to derive who’s on FSS until its data quality is proven to improve the TANF WPR.
DATA DICTIONARIES:
We have attempted to draw attention to columns in the files which should be reviewed by providers and financial workers to be sure the data in these columns is correct. 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. Please note that those columns highlighted aren’t the only ones that need your review. Please take time to review the dictionaries and file layouts so that you re familiar with the changes and potential impact on your data.
Link to Secure Data Set Download page
Using The New Secure Data Set Download Page
Users that have filled out the new application for access form have been notified of their new user name and password via e-mail. If you have not yet filled out a form, please electronically fill out the MFIP-TANF DEED Access Request Form, obtain signatures and submit per instructions.
We are hoping that the new secure web page will be much more user friendly. Thank you for your patience in the midst of our transition.
Follow these steps:
1) Go to the Secure Data Set Download page. You will be requested to enter your user name and password separately. Once that is done, click "Log In".
2) On the next screen you will see you 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. Please click on one at a time.
3) From the 'Select Report' menu, you are only allowed to pick one data set at a time from this menu also. Click on and highlight the data set you'd like to access and then click on the "OK".
4) At this point, another pop up box will appear asking you 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. Please 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 please give it a little time.
Note that depending on the version date of your MS Excel, if you do 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 web page formatting and you will always be able to click "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 if you so desire. Note that the column headers have now been repositioned at 90 degrees to allow certain data sets to be printed in a more functional manner.
Other Information
If you have any questions with downloading the data from the current secure web page, or importing the data into an Excel workbook, email Kyle.Temme@state.mn.us.
We will archive all previously issued months data sets for two years on a rolling calendar month basis. If you have a need to access previous month data, please contact Steve.Erbes@state.mn.us.
You will be able to access your request via the "Other" selection from the 'Select Report' menu located on the secure data site when it is ready.
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