BILL ANALYSIS
SENATE HUMAN
SERVICES COMMITTEE
Senator Carol Liu, Chair
BILL NO: SB 718
S
AUTHOR: Leno
B
VERSION: As introduced
HEARING DATE: April 14, 2009
7
FISCAL: To Appropriations
1
8
CONSULTANT:
Hailey
SUBJECT
Public social services: CalWORKs and the Food Stamp Program
SUMMARY
Eliminates the requirement for submitting fingerprint
imaging for some applicants for food stamps.
ABSTRACT
Current law:
1. Establishes the California Work Opportunity and
Responsibility to Kids program (CalWORKs) to assist parents
who have children under 18 years of age to transition from
welfare to work. CalWORKs is the state version of the
federal program Temporary Assistance for Needy Families.
2. Establishes the food stamp program, which provides cash
assistance to low-income households to purchase food. It
is the state version of the federal Supplemental Nutrition
Program, or SNAP.
3. Requires applicants for CalWORKs and for food stamps to
provide fingerprint images as part of the eligibility
process.
Continued---
STAFF ANALYSIS OF SENATE BILL 718 (Leno) Page
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This bill:
1. Would waive the fingerprint imaging requirement for
food stamp applicants who are not also applying for
CalWORKs or for non-health benefits in the general
assistance program.
FISCAL IMPACT
Unknown
BACKGROUND AND DISCUSSION
According to the author, California is ranked last among
the states in its participation in the federal supplemental
nutrition program. Approximately two million families in
California are eligible for food stamps yet do not receive
them. The author estimates that these lost benefits are
valued at $2 billion -- $2 billion not spent on food in
low-income areas of the state.
The author believes that lack of participation in the food
stamp program is not just a fiscal blow to local grocers
and local economies. Millions of California residents face
hunger, food insecurity, obesity, and other health related
illnesses in part because they lack access to affordable
and nourishing foods, which can be purchased with food
stamps.
California requires all adult household members who obtain
food stamp benefits to submit an electronic fingerprint
images. The California's Statewide Finger Imaging System
(SFIS) was designed to detect "duplicate aid fraud." The
author believes that, by all measurable accounts, this is a
relatively rare occurrence whereby a beneficiary collects
food stamps for multiple names or in more than one county
at the same time.
On the other hand, the author believes that this
fingerprint-imaging requirement adds to the number of
eligible Californians who do not enroll in the food stamp
program. The author and advocates state that the SFIS adds
one more step to an already burdensome application
procedure. Nationally, it takes an average of five hours
STAFF ANALYSIS OF SENATE BILL 718 (Leno) Page
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and three trips to the food stamp office to apply for
benefits. Add SFIS, and the process becomes more
burdensome to the applicant. In addition, advocates point
out, prior to SFIS in California, only one adult had to go
to the food stamp office to apply for food stamps. Under
SFIS, all adults have to appear at the office.
A study by the United States Department of Agriculture
found that about four percent of eligible households do not
complete their application in those states that requires
all adult members of the household to submit a fingerprint
image.
Profile of food stamp households
Three quarters of all food stamp households are
headed by a female.
$259 is the average monthly food stamp benefit.
Between 40 and 45 percent of food stamp households
are also participating in the CalWORKs program.
About 40 percent of all food stamp households
consist of one person.
The average size of a food stamp household is 2.5.
Numbers effected by this bill
Applicants for food stamps have increased during the final
months of 2008 and the first month of 2009 when compared to
months earlier in 2008. For example, in December, 2008,
about 75,000 people applied for food stamps and no other
form of aid (they did not apply for CalWORKs or general
assistance).
Currently, each of these applicants must submit a
fingerprint image in order to prevent duplicate aid fraud,
whereby a person applies for food stamp benefits more than
once using different names or addresses. This imaging
process costs between $15 and $25 per person. That's a
range of $1 million to $1.5 million for a month such as
December of 2008. SB 718 would waive the requirement that
these individuals submit fingerprints during the food stamp
application process.
Denials for food stamp benefits
DSS reports the number of persons who apply for food stamps
and the number of persons whose applications are denied,
but DSS does not report the cause or causes of those
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denials. Slightly fewer than one of every three applicants
are denied food stamp benefits.
Bureau of State Audits report
In 2003, the Bureau of State Audits looked at the value of
fingerprint images in deterring fraud in the food stamps
program: part of its conclusion read, "most of the matches
that SFIS [the state fingerprint imaging system] identified
have turned out to be administrative errors made by county
staff, and the level of detected duplicate-aid fraud has
been small." The bureau recommends that the Legislature
weigh the cost and outcomes of the fingerprint requirement
with the number of eligible households it keeps from
completing their application.
QUESTIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
1. The committee may want to recommend to the author that
he seek a breakout - from DSS or from several large
counties -- of the characteristics of persons denied food
stamps to determine how many, on average during monthly or
quarterly intervals, are denied benefits because the
applicant is found to be the same person as another
applicant or recipient of benefits. The costs of this
fingerprint imaging requirement -- as well as its
presenting a bureaucratic hurdle that deters a measurable
percentage of eligible persons from applying - may well
exceed any benefit from the practice.
POSITIONS
Support: California Catholic Conference of Bishops
County Welfare Directors Association of
California
Western Center on Law and Poverty
Oppose: None received
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