BILL ANALYSIS Ó
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|SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | AB 371|
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THIRD READING
Bill No: AB 371
Author: Mullin (D), et al.
Amended: 9/1/15 in Senate
Vote: 21
SENATE HUMAN SERVICES COMMITTEE: 5-0, 6/23/15
AYES: McGuire, Berryhill, Hancock, Liu, Nguyen
SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE: 7-0, 8/27/15
AYES: Lara, Bates, Beall, Hill, Leyva, Mendoza, Nielsen
ASSEMBLY FLOOR: 79-0, 6/2/15 - See last page for vote
SUBJECT: CalWORKs Family Unity Act of 2015
SOURCE: Coalition of California Welfare Rights Organizations
DIGEST: This bill deletes the statutory requirement that a
childs eligibility for the California Work Opportunity and
Responsibility to Kids (CalWORKs) program benefits in a
two-parent household be based upon the child's "deprivation,"
defined as a parent's unemployment or a parent working fewer
than 100 hours per month. This bill also prohibits an absent
parent from being included in the family's assistance unit for
purposes of determining eligibility or computing the amount of
aid to be paid.
ANALYSIS:
Existing law:
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1) Establishes the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families
(TANF) program to provide aid and welfare-to-work services to
eligible families and, in California, provides that TANF
funds for welfare-to-work services are administered through
the CalWORKs program. (42 U.S.C. 601 et seq., WIC 11200 et
seq.)
2) Establishes income, asset and real property limits used to
determine eligibility for the program, including net income
below the Maximum Aid Payment, based on family size and
county of residence, which is approximately 40 percent of the
federal poverty level (FPL). (WIC 11450, 11150 et seq.)
3) Establishes a 48-month lifetime limit of CalWORKs benefits
for eligible adults, including 24 months during which a
recipient must meet federal work requirements in order to
retain eligibility. (WIC 11454, 11322.85)
4) Establishes that a child is deprived of parental support for
the purposes of receiving CalWORKs benefits due to the
unemployment of his or her parent(s) when the parent has
worked less than 100 hours in the preceding four weeks, and
meets specified federal definitions of an unemployed parent.
(WIC 11201)
5) Establishes that a family receiving CalWORKs benefits with a
child who is considered to be deprived of parental support
due to unemployment may continue to receive assistance
regardless of the number of hours his or her parent works
provided the family does not exceed the applicable gross or
net income limits and is otherwise eligible for assistance.
(WIC 11201 (c))
6) Establishes that a family is eligible for CalWORKs benefits
and services if their related children under age 18, have
been deprived of parental support or care due to the death,
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Page 3
physical or mental incapacity or incarceration of a parent,
the unemployment of one or both parents or the continued
absence of a parent from the home due to divorce, separation,
desertion, or any other reason, except absence occasioned
solely by reason of the performance of active duty in the
uniformed services of the United States, as defined. (WIC
11250)
7) Defines "continued absence" to exist when the nature of the
absence is such as either to interrupt or to terminate the
parent's functioning as a provider of maintenance, physical
care, or guidance for the child, and the known or indefinite
duration of the absence precludes counting on the parent's
performance of the function of planning for the present
support or care of the child. If these conditions exist, the
parent may be absent for any reason, and may have left only
recently or some time previously. (WIC 11250 (c))
8) Requires that in a family eligible for CalWORKs aid due to
the unemployment of the principal wage earner, the exemption
criteria for an adult caring for a young child may be applied
only to one parent. (WIC 11320.3 (b)(6)(B))
9) Requires the payment of CalWORKs assistance to nonparent
caregivers who are caring for a foster child, ward of the
court, or child at risk of foster care placement, as defined.
(WIC 11401)
10) Specifies weekly number of hours required of
welfare-to-work participation for adults to remain eligible
for CalWORKs benefits in households of different sizes,
including for those households with "unemployed parents."
(WIC 11322.8)
This bill:
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1) Deletes the consideration of child deprivation as a factor
in determining eligibility, and enables eligibility without
regard to the employment status of a parent (current law
requires the principal earner to be unemployed or working
less than 100 hours per month) if the family meets all other
eligibility requirements.
2) Provides that the absence of a parent, as defined, is not a
condition of eligibility to receive CalWORKs benefits, and
expands the definition of "absent parent" to include parents
absent solely by reason of the performance of active duty in
the armed forces.
3) Reduces work requirements for pregnant women from 30 hours
to 20 hours per week during the welfare-to-work 24-month
clock, and aligns work requirements for two-parent assistance
units for all families including two adults, as specified.
Background
CalWORKs. California has the highest poverty rate in the nation
- just under one-quarter of residents are living at or below the
FPL according to the national Supplemental Poverty Measure.
These families earn no more than $20,090 per year for a family
of three. One of California's most essential anti-poverty
strategies is the CalWORKs program, which provides cash
assistance to approximately 540,000 families, including more
than one million children. Nearly 80 percent of the children are
under age 12 and almost 40 percent are under age five. Federal
funding for CalWORKs comes from the TANF block grant.
A grant to a family of three in a high-cost California county is
$704 per month, or $8,448 per year, which is approximately 42
percent of the FPL. This grant translates to $23.46 per day, per
family 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.
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In 1989, a similar CalWORKs grant was worth about 81 percent of
FPL, and 55 percent in 1997. Part of the reason for this decline
has been a series of changes over the past five years including
significant grant cuts, the elimination of a Cost of Living
Adjustment, and a major restructuring of the Welfare to Work
activities, requirements and time limits. Adults in the program
have gone from a 60-month lifetime limit on CalWORKs aid to a
48-month limit, with strict requirements on work participation
to remain in the program after 24 months.
Deprivation standard. The state's deprivation standards were
originally enacted to comply with federal Aid to Families with
Dependent Children (AFDC) rules, which required that two-parent
families take additional steps to prove deprivation in order to
receive aid. The AFDC statute was replaced in 1996 with the TANF
program, which emphasized work preparation in conjunction with
receipt of the grant. One of the four core purposes of the TANF
program is to encourage the formation and maintenance of
two-parent families. California's CalWORKs program is framed
around the TANF program and its block grant. With the TANF
program, the federal government gave states the ability to
modify program eligibility and requirements.
The deprivation test prohibits a two-parent family from
qualifying for CalWORKs if the primary wage earner is working
over 100 hours a month, regardless of their income. It also
requires a county human services agency to verify parental
absence in order to assist a family with two parents. The
100-hour work limit is a remnant of the prior AFDC law, which
was based on the assumption that an average of 25 hours per week
would put a family above the threshold to receive cash benefits.
Many states have modified or removed special requirements for
two-parent units, but California remains one of just six states
that maintains the 100-hour limit. [The Urban Institute's
Welfare Rules Database, 2012.] This bill modifies eligibility
criteria to simply require families meet income and asset tests,
regardless of how many hours they work or how many parents are
in the home.
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Welfare-to-Work requirements. Adult benefits in the CalWORKs
program are contingent upon participation in welfare-to-work
activities, which can include job finding, job training,
educational pursuits, subsidized employment or unsubsidized
employment, as defined and within specific parameters. Federal
and state requirements may vary slightly.
Single parent adults are required to participate for at least 30
hours per week in welfare-to-work activities, and two-parent
families are required to work a minimum of 35 hours per week,
unless participants are exempted. After receiving aid for up to
a maximum of 24 months, adults without an exemption must work in
unsubsidized employment or participate in community services
activities for the minimum number of hours listed above. If a
CalWORKs recipient who is not exempt from participation does not
meet his or her welfare-to-work requirements, the recipient is
sanctioned for noncompliance, and that recipient's portion of
the family's grant is subtracted from the amount provided to the
family to meet basic needs.
FISCAL EFFECT: Appropriation: No Fiscal
Com.:YesLocal: Yes
According to the Senate Appropriations Committee, this bill will
result in ongoing major increase in CalWORKs grant, services,
and administrative costs of $15.7 million to $18.5 million
(General Fund) per year to the extent removing the child
deprivation rule results in additional eligible cases and fewer
cases discontinued from the CalWORKs program. It also will incur
one-time costs potentially in excess of $150,000 (General Fund)
for automation changes and an unknown net increase/decrease in
CalWORKs program costs (General Fund) resulting from the changes
to hourly work requirements for assistance units with two
adults, which could result in increased employment services
costs, offset by grant cost savings resulting from increased
earnings or higher sanction rates.
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SUPPORT: (Verified8/31/15)
Coalition of California Welfare Rights Organizations (source)
Western Center on Law and Poverty
OPPOSITION: (Verified8/31/15)
None received
ARGUMENTS IN SUPPORT: The Western Center on Law and Poverty
writes that current law denies applications for CalWORKs
assistance from two-parent families when the primary wage earner
is working over 100 hours a month regardless of the family's
income. This is due to a rule that the current CalWORKs program
maintains, known as the child deprivation test, which requires a
family to show absence of parental support in addition to
proving that they have met income and asset tests in order to
receive assistance through the program. California is one of
only nine states that maintain the deprivation tests. Western
Center on Law and Poverty additionally writes that AB 371 will
remove the deprivation test in CalWORKs which will not only even
the rules for two-parent households but also simplify the
CalWORKs program eligibility requirements and align them with
CalFresh and Medi-Cal. "It is unfortunate that a family working
100 hours per week would still be poor enough to qualify for the
program, but with wage stagnation at its peak, it happens more
frequently now than it did in previous decades. What's worse is
that existing law not only punishes families who are working
hard to get ahead but receiving a low-wage, but it incentivizes
families to split. This is because the same family would be
eligible for aid if the primary wage earner left. AB 371 would
level the playing field for two-parent households whose primary
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wage earner is working for a low-wage by allowing them to
qualify for the program if their income and assets are below the
thresholds for their family size," according to Western Center
on Law and Poverty.
ASSEMBLY FLOOR: 79-0, 6/2/15
AYES: Achadjian, Alejo, Travis Allen, Baker, Bigelow, Bloom,
Bonilla, Bonta, Brough, Brown, Burke, Calderon, Campos, Chang,
Chau, Chiu, Chu, Cooley, Cooper, Dababneh, Dahle, Daly, Dodd,
Eggman, Frazier, Beth Gaines, Gallagher, Cristina Garcia,
Eduardo Garcia, Gatto, Gipson, Gomez, Gonzalez, Gordon, Gray,
Grove, Hadley, Harper, Roger Hernández, Holden, Irwin, Jones,
Jones-Sawyer, Kim, Lackey, Levine, Linder, Lopez, Low,
Maienschein, Mathis, Mayes, McCarty, Medina, Melendez, Mullin,
Nazarian, Obernolte, O'Donnell, Olsen, Patterson, Perea,
Quirk, Rendon, Ridley-Thomas, Rodriguez, Salas, Santiago,
Steinorth, Mark Stone, Thurmond, Ting, Wagner, Waldron, Weber,
Wilk, Williams, Wood, Atkins
NO VOTE RECORDED: Chávez
Prepared by:Mareva Brown / HUMAN S. / (916) 651-1524
9/1/15 21:30:39
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