BILL ANALYSIS �
SB 252
Page 1
Date of Hearing: August 14, 2013
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Mike Gatto, Chair
SB 252 (Liu) - As Amended: August 5, 2013
Policy Committee: Human
ServicesVote:5 - 2
Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program:
No Reimbursable:
SUMMARY
This bill clarifies that pregnant women who are CalWORKs
recipients and who do not have medical verification of a
pregnancy-related illness shall be considered for other
welfare-to-work exemptions that are applied under current law
for non-pregnant CalWORKs recipients and includes home visit
program participation within welfare-to-work activities, as
specified. Specifically, this bill:
1)Exempts a pregnant woman from CalWORKs welfare-to-work
requirements if she is unable to secure medical verification
of a pregnancy-related illness but is otherwise eligible for
another welfare-to-work exemption, including good cause for
temporary illness related to her pregnancy.
2)Allows a pregnant woman to satisfy CalWORKs work requirements
through participation in a voluntary maternal, infant, and
early childhood home visiting program or another voluntary
home visiting program for low-income Californians, and allows
the hours spent in the home visiting program to be applied to
her required work participation hours for no more than a
10-month period.
3)Provides that the authorization for voluntary home visiting
program hours to count toward work participation hours shall
only be granted if a waiver of compliance is received from the
US Department of Health and Human Services, as specified.
4)Restates current law allowing a woman to breastfeed in a
public area where the mother and child are authorized to be
present and explicitly includes in that description of public
SB 252
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area a county welfare department or other county office.
FISCAL EFFECT
This bill is largely declarative of existing law and practice,
including the home visit portion which is already an allowable
welfare to work activity. Therefore, any additional costs
should be minor and absorbable within existing resources.
COMMENTS
1)Purpose . This bill seeks to assist pregnant women on CalWORKs
by helping them engage in welfare-to-work activities while
improving long term outcomes for themselves and their
children. By screening pregnant women in the CalWORKs program
for the same welfare-to-work exemptions as other applicants
and recipients who are not pregnant, the author hopes to
ensure a greater degree of fairness in the application of work
requirements and sanction policies. Currently, the author
argues, a pregnant women who cannot obtain medical
verification of a condition that makes her unable to work can
be sanctioned, but the moment her child is born, she is
eligible for the 24-month young child exemption from
welfare-to-work.
2)Background . The CalWORKs program provides monthly income
assistance and employment-related services aimed at moving
children out of poverty and helping families meet basic needs.
Federal funding for CalWORKs comes from the Temporary
Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) block grant. The average
monthly cash grant for a family of three on CalWORKs (one
parent and two children) is $464. According to data from
the California Department of Social Services, 562,570 families
rely on CalWORKs, including over one million children. Nearly
half of the children are under age six.
Average grants of $464 per month for a family of three means
$15.46 per day, per family, or $5.15 per family member, per
day to meet basic needs, including rent, clothing, utility
bills, food, and anything else a family needs to ensure
children can be cared for at home and safely remain with their
families. This grant amount puts the annual household income
at $5,568 per year. Federal Poverty Guidelines show that 100%
of poverty for 2013 is three and a half times that at $19,530
per year. In addition to the grant, CalWORKs families receive
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assistance in the form of CalFresh and often Women Infants,
and Children (WIC) nutrition benefits, Medi Cal health
benefits, earned income disregards if they are employed and
other supports and services.
In addition to aiding eligible needy families with children,
CalWORKs provides assistance to eligible pregnant women,
without other children in the household qualified to receive
aid, who are in their third trimester of pregnancy and have
provided verification of pregnancy to the county office. The
maximum monthly grant for a pregnant woman on CalWORKs who is
the sole recipient in the household is $317.
3)Welfare-to-Work activities . Welfare-to-work activities within
the CalWORKs program include public or private sector
subsidized or unsubsidized employment; on-the-job training;
community service; secondary school, adult basic education and
vocational education and training when the education is needed
for the recipient to become employed; specific mental health,
substance abuse, domestic violence services if they are
necessary to obtain or retain employment; and a number of
other activities necessary to assist a recipient in obtaining
unsubsidized employment. If a CalWORKs recipient who is not
exempt from participation does not meet his or her
welfare-to-work requirements or refuses to participate fully
in the program, the recipient may be sanctioned for
noncompliance, and that recipient's portion of the family's
grant is removed. This means that in a typical family of
three with one parent and two children, the parent's sanction
would reduce the family's average monthly grant from $464 to
$322.
Analysis Prepared by : Julie Salley-Gray / APPR. / (916)
319-2081