BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    Ó




                   Senate Appropriations Committee Fiscal Summary
                           Senator Christine Kehoe, Chair

                                          AB 959 (Jones)
          
          Hearing Date: 08/25/2011        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       One-time grant shift of up to $495 in 
          theFed/General
          impact                 initial year of implementation
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          STAFF COMMENTS: SUSPENSE FILE. AS PROPOSED TO BE AMENDED.

          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 
          if a recipient submits a completed report form within the month 
          following the discontinuance of benefits, the county shall restore 








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          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 
          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 








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          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 CalWORKs 
          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.' 

          The proposed amendments delay implementation to July 1, 2012, and 
          make other technical changes.