BILL ANALYSIS Ó
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Date of Hearing: May 4, 2011
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Felipe Fuentes, Chair
AB 69 (Beall) - As Introduced: December 15, 2010
Policy Committee: Human
ServicesVote:6 - 0
Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program:
No Reimbursable:
SUMMARY
This bill requires the Department of Social Services (DSS) to
seek a federal waiver allowing them to establish a pilot project
to explore using existing Social Security Administration (SSA)
data to determine CalFresh eligibility for senior citizens.
Specifically, this bill requires DSS to do all of the following:
1)Seek a federal waiver, demonstration project, or other
authority to establish a two-county pilot project that would
create a streamlined enrollment process for eligible social
security recipients.
2)Identify two areas of the state in which to operate the
project.
3)Work with SSA to develop a method for targeting eligible
social security recipients.
4)Develop a streamlined application process for eligible
CalFresh recipients.
5)Consider other state's experiences when implementing the
project.
6)Explore additional strategies for increasing CalFresh
participation among California's seniors.
FISCAL EFFECT
1)Unknown one-time costs, (GF and federal funds) potentially in
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the millions of dollars, for the automation changes required
by this legislation.
2)Data suggest there are currently 440,000 CalFresh eligible
households with Social Security recipients. If this pilot
project allows 10,000 people who would otherwise not receive
CalFresh benefits to participate in the program it would
result in almost $1 million in additional federal CalFresh
benefits flowing into California.
3)Because this pilot creates a streamlined application and
eligibility process, on-going administrative costs for these
cases should be minimal because the required federal waiver
could include a request to eliminate the application interview
for these recipients and perhaps standardize deductions, thus
minimizing complex medical and shelter calculations.
4)Unknown one-time costs, potentially in excess of $100,000, for
DSS to develop a streamlined application process for SSA
recipients.
5)One-time costs potentially in excess of $75,000 for DSS to
establish a workgroup to explore additional strategies for
increasing CalFresh participation among seniors.
COMMENTS
1)Rationale . Currently, only 10% of eligible seniors participate
in the CalFresh program and only 5% of eligible Social
Security recipients in California participate. This bill is
intended to establish a pilot program which would allow
eligible Social Security recipients access to the CalFresh
program through a streamlined, automated application process.
The author hopes simplifying this process for senior citizens
will mean a vulnerable population in California receives the
assistance they are entitled to and that more federal SNAP
(Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program - the federal name
for CalFresh) benefits will flow into the state.
2)Committee Concern . As written, this bill contains none of the
traditional parameters established for a pilot project. There
is no sunset date and there are no evaluation requirements to
determine at the end of the pilot or whether or not it was
successful. In addition, the primary costs associated with
this project are driven by necessary automation changes. All
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counties use one of three available automation systems. If
the participating counties require that two of those systems
need to be modified in order for them to participate, it would
make sense that the program be implemented statewide, rather
than through a pilot, since the automation costs would be the
same whether one county using the system participates or all
of the counties on a particular system participate.
Analysis Prepared by : Julie Salley-Gray / APPR. / (916)
319-2081