New Information and Updates
Data Sets Available
Current Month February 2012
Preliminary Month December 2011
TANF Work Participation November 2011
Teen Parent December 2011
Current Month FSS Participants February 2012
Job Search Hours November 2011
Persistently Unaccounted For April thru June 2011
The November 2011 TANF Work Participation Rate reports (spreadsheets) by County and ES Provider are also available and posted below. The Tribal TANF WPRs posted have been updated through September 2011.
OTHER INFORMATION AND REMINDERS:
TANF Data set change
The TANF Work Participation Data set has had a minor change. Effective with the July TANF data set and forward, the last column of "FSFederalFoodAmt" has been replaced with "F_FederalFoodAmt". The purpose of this change is to limit the food amount to just those individuals in the 'TANF family' which can be used with the cash amount in calculating the total number of hours of participation. Prior to July, the food amounts in the previous listed column contained amounts for everyone who ate together in the household including non-TANF individuals. The TANF Data Dictionary has also been updated to reflect this change.
The Listing of Employment Services Providers has been updated as of 7-27-2011. All other tabs have been listed as outdated agency ids and locations so that look ups of previous WPR spreadsheets can still be accomplished with as much ease as possible.
COUNTY TANF WPR SPREADSHEETS:
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.
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.
(click here) to 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