BILL ANALYSIS Ó
Senate Appropriations Committee Fiscal Summary
Senator Christine Kehoe, Chair
AB 959 (Jones)
Hearing Date: 08/15/2011 Amended: 08/15/2011
Consultant: Jolie Onodera Policy Vote: Human Services 7-0
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BILL SUMMARY: AB 959 would provide a one-month extension to
participants in the CalWORKs and CalFresh programs for filing
required reports in order to avoid re-application. This bill
provides that its provisions will not be implemented until the
Department of Social Services (DSS) obtains all necessary federal
approvals.
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Fiscal Impact (in thousands)
Major Provisions 2011-12 2012-13 2013-14 Fund
One-month reporting Unknown; potentially significant Fed/Gen/Loc
extension administrative cost savings in the
hundreds of thousands of dollars annually
CalWORKs benefit Unknown; one-time grant shift of up
toFed/General
impact $495 in the initial year of implementation;
no net impact to grant costs over time
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STAFF COMMENTS: This bill meets the criteria for referral to the
Suspense File.
Existing law requires CalWORKs and CalFresh recipients to report
current and prospective income, as well as any changes to personal
information on a quarterly basis in order for counties to
redetermine recipient eligibility and grant amounts. Under current
law, if a recipient fails to turn in his or her quarterly report
form by the 11th day of the third month of the reporting period,
the recipient receives notice that benefits will be terminated at
the end of the third month if the form is not received. If a
county receives a completed report by the first working day of the
next reporting period, the county must rescind the discontinuance
notice and benefits continue. Should a recipient fail to turn in
the form as specified, benefits are terminated, and a recipient
who wishes to continue benefits is required to reapply, a process
which includes an in-person interview, fingerprinting, and
submission of a new application.
This bill would extend the amount of time provided to a recipient
to submit his or her completed form by one month, providing that
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if a recipient submits a completed report form within the month
following the discontinuance of benefits, the county shall restore
benefits to the household without requiring a new application or
interview, and shall prorate benefits from the date that the
household provides the completed form. The provisions of this bill
would be contingent upon obtaining all necessary federal approvals
from the federal Food and Nutrition Service (FNS). Absent such a
waiver, reapplications to CalFresh and CalWORKs for late reporting
would continue as under existing law.
Providing an additional month to submit the form and alleviating
the requirement to re-apply and interview will result in county
administrative workload relief of an unknown but potentially
significant amount. Information from San Diego County indicates
approximately 90 re-applications per month (5 percent) are
received within 30 days of discontinuance. Extrapolating the five
percent statewide results in approximately 1,100 recipients
statewide per month who file late reports within 30 days of
discontinuance and who could potentially be impacted by the
provisions of this bill. The administrative cost to restore
benefits is unknown but would likely be significantly less than
intake cost of $198 per case for CalWORKs and $51 per case for
CalFresh ($274,000 per 1,100 cases).
Counties receive a single allocation to administer their CalWORKs
programs. Currently, this work is underfunded, and counties have
sustained hundreds of millions of dollars in cuts over the past
several years. While this bill will save time and reduce workload
for county eligibility workers, the state will only achieve actual
savings if a county's single allocation is further reduced. This
action is unlikely given the recent reductions county welfare
departments have sustained over the past several years, including
the $375 million reduction to the single allocation as approved by
the Legislature for 2011-12. However, the aggregate amount of time
saved by eligibility workers could reduce county workload
sufficiently to allow the redirection of resources to other
services.
In addition to the administrative efficiencies resulting from the
one-month grace period, this bill could result in a shift of
CalWORKs grant costs of up to one month sooner than under existing
law as the approval for restoration of benefits under the current
re-application process can take additional time. Although the
amount of time will vary by county, information from San Diego
County indicates the current re-application approval process can
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take up to 45 days. This would not necessarily result in a net
increase in grant costs over time but rather a shift in receipt of
the benefits sooner after reapplication/rentry to the program,
resulting in a shift of grant costs for the impacted cases sooner
in the initial year of implementation. Assuming 1,100 cases
statewide per month are impacted by the provisions of this bill,
restoration of benefits up to one month sooner could result in a
shift of up to $495,000 (TANF/GF), assuming an average CalWORKs
grant cost of $451.43, in the first year of implementation of the
process. The fiscal impact could be greater to the extent benefits
are restored after a longer period of time under current law, but
less to the extent benefits would be prorated based on the date of
receipt of the completed report. As CalFresh recipients would
otherwise have been in receipt of transitional CalFresh benefits
in the absence of the provisions of this bill, there will not be
an estimated increase in CalFresh benefits.
Under existing law, when a recipient is removed from CalFresh
eligibility, he or she is automatically enrolled in a five-month
transitional CalFresh benefit program. In order to avoid a
recipient from receiving both a transitional and pro-rated
CalFresh benefit in the same month, the bill specifies that a
recipient of pro-rated CalFresh benefits shall not receive
transitional CalFresh benefits during the same month.
Staff recommends a technical amendment to delete the word
'quarterly' from the provisions of this bill to be consistent with
a broader reference in the bill to the 'report form.'