BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    




                   Senate Appropriations Committee Fiscal Summary
                           Senator Christine Kehoe, Chair

                                           510 (Evans)
          
          Hearing Date:  07/13/2009           Amended: 04/02/2009
          Consultant:  Jacqueline Wong-HernandezPolicy Vote: Human  
          Services 3-2
          _________________________________________________________________ 
          ____
          BILL SUMMARY: AB 510 provides that, as of January 1, 2009, any  
          month in which CalWORKs program participants are excused from  
          participation in welfare to work activities because the  
          necessary supportive services are unavailable due to  
          insufficient funding in the CalWORKs program will not be counted  
          as a month of receipt of aid, as specified.
          _________________________________________________________________ 
          ____
                            Fiscal Impact (in thousands)

           Major Provisions            2009-10      2010-11    2011-12     Fund
           Extends CalWORKs time limit               Unknown; likely  
          millions of dollars         General
          in certain circumstances
          _________________________________________________________________ 
          ____

          STAFF COMMENTS: This bill meets the criteria for referral to the  
          Suspense File.

          This bill stops the 60-month lifetime limit for an adult to  
          receive CalWORKs cash aid in any month when a county has granted  
          CalWORKs recipients a "good cause" exemption from participating  
          in CalWORKs activities, because the county cannot provide the  
          necessary job or child care service. This bill would increase  
          the length of time those adults could ultimately continue to  
          receive cash aid.

          CalWORKs provides cash grants and welfare-to-work services to  
          families whose incomes are not adequate to meet their basic  
          needs. A family is eligible for the one-parent component of the  
          program if it includes a child who is financially needy due to  
          the death, incapacity, or continued absence of one or both  
          parents. A family is eligible for the two-parent component if it  
          includes a child who is financially needy due to the  
          unemployment of one or both parents. In 2009-2010, it is  










          estimated that 1 million people per month, including children,  
          will be served by the CalWORKs program.

          CalWORKs was created by the state in response to the 1996  
          Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act  
          (PRWORA), which required states to develop new programs that  
          encouraged families to move toward self sufficiency through  
          education, training, and work experience. Additionally, the  
          federal law implemented a 60-month (lifetime) time limit for  
          families receiving aid. In California, the 60-month time limit  
          only applies to adults who are removed from the caseload. The  
          children remain in the safety-net program for as long as their  
          families are income-eligible.

          Adults in the CalWORKs caseload must meet an hourly  
          participation requirement each week. For single parents the  
          weekly participation requirement is 32 hours. For two-parent  
          families the requirement is 35 hours per week. The participation  
          hours can be met through unsubsidized employment, subsidized  
          employment, certain types of training and education related to  
          work, and job search (for a limited time period). 
          Page 2
          AB 510 (Evans)

          Existing law allows counties to exempt individual CalWORKs  
          recipients from meeting the participation requirements for "good  
          cause". Most commonly, this exemption is granted for illness,  
          disability, age, of some limitation on the individual to  
          participate.

          Under current law, the state provides a single allocation to  
          county welfare departments with funding to cover CalWORKs  
          employment services costs, child care costs, and the cost for  
          the counties to administer the program. Within that single  
          allocation, counties have the discretion to spend their money as  
          they deem necessary to best meet the needs of their CalWORKs  
          participants. Counties are not required to spend a set amount 
          of money for services, child care and administration. Cash aid  
          to families is not part of the single allocation. The counties'  
          single allocation funding has been cut in the state budget over  
          the past several years, and counties must provide services with  
          less money, or cut services. 

          In a January 2009 letter, the California State Association of  
          Counties and County Welfare Director's Association (CWDA)  
          advised DSS that counties will, on a case-by-case basis, be  










          granting voluntary "good cause" for non-participation to  
          recipients for whom the necessary supportive services cannot be  
          provided.  This authority is allowable under current law. By  
          suspending employment services, the counties will likely save  
          tens of millions of dollars over the course of a year. However,  
          the counties can suspend services and grant "good cause"  
          exemptions from participation under current law. The 60-month  
          time limit would still continue without this legislation.

          Because the savings can be achieved with existing county  
          authority absent this bill, this bill would uniquely incur  
          expenses to the state by allowing an adult an additional month  
          of CalWORKs eligibility for every months of "good cause"  
          exemption due to county services cuts. Most of these costs would  
          likely be incurred in future years, because these months are  
          added to the end of the time limits. This extension applies only  
          to the adult portion of a family's aid (since children are not  
          part of the 60 month time limit), and would likely cost the  
          state $139,000 per month (in the future) for every 1,000 cases  
          that fall into this exemption category. Currently, 830,000  
          families receive CalWORKs aid and services. If just 1% were  
          exempted for 3 months, the state could eventually pay more than  
          $3.5 million. This assumes that those adults would stay on the  
          caseload for the full 60-months and require additional months.

          The precarious budget situation and California economy may force  
          counties to suspend their employment services activities for  
          many months, and allow them to grant "good cause" exemptions for  
          the duration of the cuts they have sustained. Thus, the total  
          expense to the state for any exemptions pursuant to this  
          legislation is unknown, but will likely be substantial.