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
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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.
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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
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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.