BILL ANALYSIS �
Senate Appropriations Committee Fiscal Summary
Senator Kevin de Le�n, Chair
SB 252 (Liu) - CalWORKs and unemployment and paid family leave.
Amended: April 15, 2013 Policy Vote: Human Services 6-0
Urgency: No Mandate: No (See Staff Comments)
Hearing Date: May 6, 2013 Consultant: Jolie Onodera
This bill meets the criteria for referral to the Suspense File.
Bill Summary: SB 252 would:
Require the Department of Social Services (DSS) to work
with the Employment Development Department (EDD) to ensure
each applicant and recipient of CalWORKs, Kin-GAP, and
Foster Care is provided with information about paid family
leave (PFL), unemployment insurance (UI), and pregnancy
disability leave benefits (SDI).
Require the EDD to permit employees of the DSS and county
human services agencies to participate in training and
informational sessions regarding PFL offered by EDD and
shall make training materials and information available to
them for use with applicants or recipients.
Clarify that a pregnant woman unable to secure medical
verification who is otherwise eligible for an exemption from
welfare-to-work requirements, including for good cause for
temporary illness related to the pregnancy, shall be exempt
from participation.
Require the DSS to apply hours that a pregnant woman
participates in an approved voluntary maternal, infant, and
early childhood home visiting program or another home
visiting program to her welfare-to-work participation hours
for a period no longer than one year, pending approval of a
federal waiver.
Fiscal Impact:
Minor and absorbable costs to the EDD to provide
information to the DSS, to the extent information from the
EDD website and utilization of existing publications and
fact sheets meet the DSS' needs.
Unknown, potentially significant ongoing costs for
training requirements not clearly outlined in the bill.
Costs would be dependent on the frequency, depth, and number
of participants requiring access to EDD training services
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and materials.
Potential ongoing state-reimbursable local costs in the
hundreds of thousands to low millions of dollars (General
Fund) to the extent county eligibility workers are required
to provide information to all applicants and recipients of
CalWORKs, Kin-GAP and Foster Care.
Potential one-time significant automation costs (General
Fund) to the extent enhancements are required for the
allowance of participation in a maternal home visiting
program as countable work participation hours.
Subject to waiver approval, increase in ongoing CalWORKs
grant costs potentially in excess of $150,000 (General Fund)
resulting from reduced sanctions to the extent the hours
spent participating in a maternal, infant, and early
childhood home visiting program are countable towards a
recipient's required monthly work participation hours.
Additional administrative costs to collect and verify
program participation hours could also be incurred.
Background: The CalWORKs program provides cash assistance to
nearly 600,000 needy families, including approximately 1.2
million children. Most of these families include adults who are
engaged in job training, education and other work preparation
activities. The overall average grant for a family of three is
$467 per month.
All CalWORKs recipients are required to participate in
welfare-to-work activities as a condition of aid, unless the
recipient is exempt. State law requires counties to sanction
individuals for noncompliance of welfare-to-work program
requirements. When a family, without good cause, does not comply
with program requirements, the family's grant is reduced to
remove support for the noncompliant adult (or adults). Adults in
a one-parent CalWORKs case are required to participate in
Welfare-to-Work activity or activities for at least 20 hours per
week, unless exempt. In general, CalWORKs recipients have a
24-month time limit for receiving assistance. Months the
recipient has been excused from participation for a specified
exemption or for good cause do not count toward the 24-month
time limit.
A specific exemption from welfare to work activities may be
applied for a woman who is pregnant and for whom it has been
medically verified that the pregnancy impairs her ability to be
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regularly employed or participate in welfare-to-work activities
or the county has determined that, at that time, participation
will not readily lead to employment or that a training activity
is not appropriate. A good cause exemption from welfare-to-work
activities may be applied when medical verification cannot be
obtained. A good cause exemption may be applied to exempt the
pregnant woman from welfare to work activities for any other
reason that temporarily prevents or significantly impairs a
recipient's ability to work regularly or go to welfare to work
activities.
According to DSS, the total number of pregnancy exemptions
during 2012 was 10,301 (out of a total 499,525 clients who were
on CalWORKs for at least one month in 2012), or roughly 2
percent of CalWORKs recipients. The 2012 monthly average number
of clients receiving a pregnancy exemption was 2,553.
According to the California Department of Public Health, which
administers the program, there were 50 clients receiving
CalWORKs out of 450 total MIECHV clients in the state of
California, as of February 1, 2013. The program funds
communities, not counties within Local Health Jurisdictions
(LHJs). Currently, 22 at-risk communities in 21 LHJs are awarded
funds. Sacramento has two communities, Los Angeles has three
and the counties of Del Norte, Humboldt, and Siskiyou comprise a
single LHJ.
Proposed Law: See Bill Summary.
Staff Comments: Although not keyed as a local mandate, to the
extent the DSS releases a notice requiring county eligibility
workers to provide information about the various EDD programs,
this could include not only the provision of information in the
form of written fact sheets and applications but additional time
to explain the programs to applicants and recipients as well as
respond to questions about the information provided. Given the
significant number of applicants and recipients of the CalWORKs,
Kin-GAP, and Foster Care programs, the potential workload could
be significant, as well as a state-mandated local cost subject
to reimbursement by the state.
The EDD regularly conducts outreach and marketing of its
programs and services, including its two large benefit programs,
Unemployment Insurance (UI) and State Disability Insurance
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(SDI), which includes Disability Insurance and Paid Family Leave
(PFL). The EDD has UI and SDI information on its website,
including online applications for UI and SDI benefits. A number
of publications and fact sheets that could be made available to
applicants/recipients are also available. Assuming these
existing resources are utilized to provide information, the
costs to EDD are likely minor.
The provision requiring the EDD to permit DSS employees and
county human services employees to participate in training and
informational sessions could result in costs to the EDD. It is
unclear if the intent is to provide a general overview of the
programs or more in-depth training similar to what is provided
for EDD employees. It is also unknown what the frequency of
training to be provided will be required. The depth and
frequency of training that DSS and the county human services
agencies request, which is unknown at this time, would drive the
EDD's costs. The EDD has indicated a high-level overview
provided once or on an infrequent basis would result in minor
and absorbable costs, as it is current practice for EDD staff to
provide general program overviews to various stakeholders upon
request.
It is unknown the extent to which an increase in UI and SDI
benefits will result from increased outreach of these programs.
It is estimated that over 25,000 applicants every month have
earnings. Each program has its own unique eligibility
requirements and benefit amounts. Both programs require a
certain amount of prior earnings in specified employment to
establish a valid claim, which would exclude some of the
applicants identified under the provisions of this bill. In
addition to monetary requirements, each program has certain
non-monetary eligibility requirements that must be met to
collect benefits. For these reasons, it is unknown how many of
the applicants would file for UI or SDI benefits, and of those,
how many would be eligible to collect benefits.
This bill requires the DSS to apply hours that a pregnant woman
participates in an approved voluntary maternal, infant, and
early childhood home visiting program or another home visiting
program to her welfare-to-work participation hours for a period
no longer than one year, pending approval of a federal waiver.
To the extent the hours participating in these types of programs
reduces the rate of sanction for eligible cases, increased
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ongoing CalWORKs grant costs potentially in excess of $150,000
(General Fund) per year could result. Additional administrative
costs to collect and verify program participation hours could
also be incurred.