(a) The department may offer a lump-sum diversion payment in place of ongoing cash assistance to an adult applicant who applies under AS 47.27.020 if the adult applicant is job ready and is determined to need only short-term financial assistance and self-sufficiency services to meet critical needs in order to secure employment and support for the adult applicant's family. The department shall set standards and conditions for diversion payments and self-sufficiency services by regulation.

(b) The department may pay a diversion payment to an applicant's family only if that family appears to be eligible for cash assistance under AS 47.27.020 and to include a job-ready individual based on the information provided to the department in the application completed under AS 47.27.020. The department may offer to an applicant with the potential to participate in the diversion project a choice between

(1) having the Alaska temporary assistance program application processed under AS 47.27.020 and the regulations adopted by the department; or

(2) having the application referred to the diversion project of the Alaska temporary assistance program for a determination of eligibility for a diversion project payment and self-sufficiency services under this section.

(c) The amount of a diversion payment with self-sufficiency services must be sufficient to meet the family's immediate needs as determined by the department and the participant. A diversion payment may not exceed the amount the family would be eligible to receive as cash assistance in the first three months of eligibility under AS 47.27.025 if the family did not elect to receive a diversion payment.

(d) As a condition of a family receiving a diversion payment under this section, the participant must sign an agreement that

(1) specifies

(A) the amount of the diversion payment and the needs it is intended to cover;

(B) the self-sufficiency services required to meet the family's immediate needs;

(2) provides that, during the three-month period beginning with the month in which the diversion payment was received, child support collected on behalf of a child whose needs were considered in determining the diversion payment shall be paid to the family; and

(3) provides that if the family reapplies under AS 47.27.020 during the three months beginning with the month in which the family received a diversion payment, the diversion payment shall be treated as unearned income, prorated over the three-month period, and deducted from any cash assistance that the family may be eligible for under the new application.

(e) A family that receives a diversion payment may not receive another diversion payment before the 12th month following the month in which it last received a diversion payment. A family may not receive more than four diversion payments.

(f) To the extent that (d)(2) of this section is inconsistent with AS 25.27.120 or 25.27.130, or with another provision of this chapter, (d)(2) of this section governs.