Temporary Financial Assistance from The American Legion in Arizona
Attention all Post Service Officers and Post leaders directly involved with investigating requests for Temporary Financial Assistance in your community.
If you receive this and do not process TFA applications for your Post, please pass this along to someone who does. Also consider any local Veterans Benefits Counselors with state or federal agencies that you know are helping local Veterans. I want to send another reminder about the recent changes.
I first want to describe to you that we were able to gain a member by a most recent application process. You will see below that an applicant who is not CURRENTLY on Title 10 ordered duty or, MUST be a current member of The American Legion in order to be eligible to apply when a need arises.
The Post who processed this most recent application, granted the requesting Veteran, a hardship enrollment to their Post American Legion Family. They did so online, using Post resources then proceeded as normal and submitted the TFA application per the normal channels to Department. When the packet arrives in National offices, they will be able to search myLegion and find that the Veteran is a CURRENT member and the TFA application can proceed for consideration.
We gained a member and their family! If your Post is able to do this, the easy way to gain the information for the online JOIN is to have the TFA applicant fill out the Member Data Form to provide to the officer helping in the Post. This will get all the information that will be needed to join them online.
Another way is to have them complete the online join process in your office while you standby for the CCard information entry that will be needed. Do not use paper joining or Post Online Processing in these URGENT situations, as the mail and myLegion processing hold delays will also delay the TFA application if not force a denial outright.
IF ANYTHING creates a problem during your review of a case, especially regarding the membership status, please call Department of Arizona Headquarters for guidance.
The RULES to review are:
• A single onetime non-repayable Temporary Financial Assistance grant of up to $1,500 will be permitted in accordance with the conditions set forth in Exhibit A for the minor child(ren) of a qualifying veteran
• A qualifying veteran is defined as a member of the United States Armed Forces serving on federal orders current under Title 10 of the United States Code, inclusive of all components, or any veteran possessing an up-to-date membership in The American Legion
• Formal documentation is required as part of the Temporary Financial Assistance investigation process and application packet for verification that all other forms of financial assistance available have been sought and applied for, or have already been denied
• Annual cumulative expenditure of Temporary Financial Assistance grants may not exceed $700,000 without prior approval of each chairman of the Americanism and Finance Commissions and the national commander
At the Fall meetings of the National Executive Committee on October 11-12, 2017, the NEC voted to approve Resolution No. 8 Restructure of Temporary Financial Assistance Policy. This reduces demand on resources and helps the funds to last going forward, especially while we are awaiting the enrollment of future members.
Please see the attached resolution for the restructure of the temporary financial assistance statement of policy and the updated temporary financial assistance application.
https://archive.legion.org/bitstream/handle/123456789/6966/2017F008.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y
