BILL ANALYSIS Ó AB 959 Page 1 ASSEMBLY THIRD READING AB 959 (Jones) As Amended May 27, 2011 Majority vote HUMAN SERVICES 6-0 APPROPRIATIONS 17-0 ----------------------------------------------------------------- |Ayes:|Beall, Jones, Ammiano, |Ayes:|Fuentes, Harkey, | | |Grove, Butler, Swanson | |Blumenfield, Bradford, | | | | |Charles Calderon, Campos, | | | | |Davis, Donnelly, Gatto, | | | | |Hall, Hill, Lara, | | | | |Mitchell, Nielsen, Norby, | | | | |Solorio, Wagner | ----------------------------------------------------------------- SUMMARY : Improves the administration of a discontinuance notice of benefits for recipients of the California Work Opportunity and Responsibility to Kids program (CalWORKs). Specifically this bill : 1)Extends, by a month, the time period for counties to rescind a discontinuance notice of benefits for non-submission of quarterly report for CalWORKs recipients. 2)Deletes the "good cause" explanation for non-submission of a quarterly report. EXISTING LAW states that: 1)A notice of discontinuance of CalWORKs benefits to a family will be rescinded if the completed quarterly report is submitted by the first working day of the first month following the quarterly reporting period. 2)CalWORKs benefits are re-determined for eligibility and cash grant amounts on a quarterly basis and sets forth a schedule of dates for recipients to submit their quarterly report in a timely manner. FISCAL EFFECT : According to the Assembly Appropriations Committee, to the extent this legislation allows counties to avoid requiring recipients to reapply for benefits, it would AB 959 Page 2 result in administrative savings in both the CalWORKs and CalFresh programs. COMMENTS : According to the sponsor of this bill, the County of San Diego (County), "This proposal can significantly reduce the number of applications processed: saving County staff workload and allowing staff to spend more time on case maintenance and other program issues." The author believes that this bill is necessary because the current rules governing the administration of a discontinuance notice of benefits negatively affects the county's efficiency and ability to improve services for CalWORKs families. Existing law : A discontinuance notice is a form used by county welfare departments to communicate with recipients that benefits may be terminated for any number of reasons, including for failure to submit a completed quarterly report, a household composition change, and lack of verifications such as a pay stub. This bill is specific to a discontinuance notice of benefits for failure to submit a quarterly report. CalWORKs recipients are required to report their income, address change, and other personal circumstances to the county through what is known as a quarterly report. The purpose of the report is to ensure that the recipient is still meeting eligibility guidelines to continue to receive assistance. Under existing law, rules governing the timely submission of the report are outlined in the following five steps: 1)Recipients should receive a quarterly report form from the county at the end of the second month of the quarterly reporting period. 2)Recipients must then return the completed quarterly report form by the 11th day of the following or third month of the quarterly reporting period. 3)If the form is not returned by the 11th day of the third month, the recipient receives a notice from the county stating that benefits will be terminated at the end of the third month. 4)Statute also mentions that prior to terminating benefits, the county must attempt contact again, this time to make personal AB 959 Page 3 contact to remind the recipient that the report is due. 5)If a completed report is received then the discontinuance notice is rescinded and benefits are not terminated. This bill extends, by one month, the amount of time a recipient has to correct any quarterly report problems. During this extra month aid is terminated; however, once the needed corrections are made to the report, aid may be restored without having to reapply or to interview. This is important for two main reasons: 1) the family does not have to go through the lengthy and cumbersome process of re-application and interrupting their workday to interview at the county welfare office; and, 2) the county does not have to waste the time or expense of re-processing the application, conducting an interview, and fingerprinting the recipient all over again. In fact, the County states that processing just a re-application can average three hours and take up to 45 days. The sponsor reports that the one month extension provided under this bill is a grace period and benefits during this time are not distributed. As soon as the recipient provides a completed report, the benefits will resume and be prorated to that date. Analysis Prepared by : Frances Chacon / HUM. S. / (916) 319-2089 FN: 0001023