BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SENATE COMMITTEE ON HUMAN SERVICES
Senator McGuire, Chair
2015 - 2016 Regular
Bill No: AB 433
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|Author: |Chu |
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|Version: |March 26, 2015 |Hearing | July 14, 2015 |
| | |Date: | |
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|Urgency: |No |Fiscal: |Yes |
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|Consultant|Mareva Brown |
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Subject: Public social services: CalWORKs.
SUMMARY
This bill requires that CalWORKs benefits be continued for a
child who dies until the end of the month following the death,
and prohibits sanctions from being applied in that time period
for a grieving parent's failure to comply with program
requirements. The bill also requires a county to assist a
grieving parent in accessing appropriate services and to provide
information to the grieving parent about mental health services,
as specified.
ABSTRACT
Existing law:
1) Establishes under federal law the Temporary Assistance
for Needy Families (TANF) program to provide aid and
welfare-to-work services to eligible families and, in
California, administers TANF funds through the California
Work Opportunity and Responsibility to Kids (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 (MAP), based on family
size and county of residence, which is around 40 percent of
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the Federal Poverty Level. (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) Requires all individuals over 16 years of age, unless
they are otherwise exempt, to participate in
welfare-to-work activities as a condition of eligibility
for CalWORKs. (WIC 11320.3, 11322.6)
5) Establishes the number of weekly hours of
welfare-to-work participation necessary to remain eligible
for aid, including requirements for an unemployed parent in
a two-parent assistance unit, as specified. (WIC 11322.8)
6) Subjects an individual receiving CalWORKs benefits to a
financial sanction, as specified, when he or she does not
meet program requirements without good cause, and
establishes a corrective action process, which includes
communication between the county and the individual. (WIC
11327.4, 11327.5)
7) Requires a county to excuse a CalWORKs recipient from
welfare-to-work participation for good cause when the
county has determined the recipient has a condition or is
faced with a circumstance that temporarily prevents or
significantly impairs the recipient's ability to be
regularly employed or to participate in welfare-to-work
activities. Requires a county welfare department to review
a good cause determination to establish its continuing
appropriateness, as specified, no less than every three
months, and requires a recipient that has been granted good
cause to provide information to the county, including
written documentation, as required, to complete the review.
(WIC 11320.3(f))
8) Requires a family's aid be calculated based on the
number of needy of family members, as specified, including
aid for a pregnant, childless woman. (WIC 11450 et seq.)
This bill:
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1) Prohibits the levying of sanctions for a grieving
parent's failure or refusal to comply with program
requirements during the month in which a child in the
assistance unit died, or the following month.
2) Requires a county upon receiving notification of the
death of a child in a CalWORKs assistance unit to do the
following:
a. Assist a grieving parent in accessing services
for which the parent may be eligible. These services
may include, but are not limited to, nutrition
supplement programs, housing assistance, and other
cash aid programs.
b. Provide information to the grieving parent
about mental health services, including, but not
limited to, information about, and a referral to,
services provided by the county human services agency,
if appropriate.
3) Defines "grieving parent" to mean an aided adult who is
required to participate in welfare-to-work activities and
who experiences the death of a child in his or her
assistance unit.
4) Requires that, for purposes of determining a family's
maximum aid payment, the number of needy persons in the
same family shall not be decreased because of the death of
a child in the assistance unit for the month in which the
death occurred, or the following month.
5) Requires that any aid paid to a family experiencing a
death of a child shall not be deemed an overpayment unless
the county determines, as specified, that the assistance
unit would have been subject to overpayment recovery, and
the county would have sought recovery, even if the child
had not died.
6) Requires the state to reimburse local agencies if the
Commission on State Mandates determines this bill contains
state-mandated costs, as defined.
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FISCAL IMPACT
According to an Assembly Appropriations Committee analysis, this
bill will have ongoing costs of less than $70,000 (GF) annually
to provide grant aid to affected families in the month of the
child's death and the month after, that otherwise would not have
been provided. Additionally, the analysis projected unknown and
likely minor increased grant costs for sanctions not applied in
the month of the child's death and the month after, unknown
automation costs and unknown, likely minor, administrative and
other costs to counties which may require state reimbursement.
BACKGROUND AND DISCUSSION
Purpose of the bill:
When a child in a CalWORKs recipient family dies, an aided
parent may be eligible for a good cause exemption from
welfare-to-work requirements, but the exemption has to be
requested during what is a traumatic and stressful time,
according to the author. Under current law, there is no
requirement for counties to accommodate CalWORKs recipient
parents who have lost a child. While a good cause exemption for
a parent not meeting welfare-to-work requirements might apply
while a parent is grieving, the exemption can be applied at the
discretion of the county, meaning there's no automatic mechanism
in the program to allow the parent time to grieve, the author
states.
Additionally, the loss of a child while a family is receiving
CalWORKs benefits leads to a reduction in the family's grant
amount and results in the loss of CalWORKs eligibility
altogether, if there is no longer an aided child in the
household. The author states this bill will help ensure that a
CalWORKs recipient family does not endure further financial
hardship for a short period of time following the loss of a
child, regardless of whether an aided parent in the family meets
welfare-to-work requirements while he or she is grieving.
TANF and CalWORKs
California has the highest poverty rate in the nation - just
under one-quarter of residents are living at or below the
federal poverty level (FPL). These families earn no more than
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$20,090 per year for a family of three. One of California's most
essential anti-poverty strategies is the CalWORKs program, which
provided cash assistance to approximately 540,000 families in
2014, including more than 1 million children. Nearly 80 percent
of the children are under age twelve 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 federal poverty level (FPL). This grant
translates to $23.46 per day, per family, or $7.82 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.
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. At the same time the
value of the grant has decreased, the program has changed adult
eligibility from a 60-month lifetime limit to a 48-month limit,
with strict requirements on work participation to remain in the
program after 24 months.
Assistance calculation
Benefits for the CalWORKs program are established in statute,
and calculated based on the number of needy family members,
special needs of any family members, income and assets. Statute
requires that benefits be paid to a pregnant woman, who
qualifies for aid and prohibits benefits be paid for a child who
was born within 10 months of a family's commencement of
benefits, per the Maximum Family Grant, or MFG, rule.
Sanctions and Good cause exemptions
CalWORKs participants who fail to meet welfare-to-work
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requirements face financial sanctions. Specifically, sanctions
can be imposed if a participant fails or refuses to comply with
a CalWORKs requirement, to agree to a welfare-to-work plan, show
proof of satisfactory progress in an agreed-upon activity, or to
quit or refuse a job without a good reason for doing so. If
efforts at conciliation are unsuccessful, one or both parents
can be excluded from the assistance budget for a specified time.
Counties are required to excuse CalWORKs recipients from
participation in a welfare-to-work activity if the county
determines that a condition or other circumstance exists that
temporarily prevents or significantly impairs a recipient's
ability to be regularly employed or to participate in
welfare-to-work activities. Counties may grant good cause
exemption for a number of reasons, including a lack of necessary
supportive services, a lack of access to child care or that the
recipient is a victim of domestic violence. Because statute does
not limit the reasons for an exemption, counties could grant a
good cause exemption for a parent who has suffered the loss of a
child.
Child deaths
CDSS does not have data on the number of children who die each
year while participating in the CalWORKs program. However, the
Assembly Appropriations committee projected an estimate based on
California's child mortality rate of 14/100,000, and studies
that indicate that low-income children die at higher rates than
other children. Assuming a mortality rate of up to twice the
state rate, up to 280 children would die each year.
COMMENTS
Current statute requires a change in household composition for a
CalWORKs assistance unit that includes an adult to be reported
semi-annually, with no penalty for overpayment if there are
changes in the number of family members during that time. Should
this bill pass this committee, staff recommends the author
consider whether there are implications for the family's
eligibility in this or other programs related to the reporting
of a death in CalWORKs.
PRIOR VOTES
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|Assembly Floor: | |
| |74-0 |
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|Assembly Appropriations Committee: |17 - |
| |0 |
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|Assembly Human Services Committee: | 7 |
| |- 0 |
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POSITIONS
Support:
Western Center on Law and Poverty (Sponsor)
California Alternative Payment Program Association
California Black Health Network
California Catholic Conference of Bishops
California Communities United
California Immigrant Policy Center
Coalition of California Welfare Rights Organizations
Courage Campaign
Friends Committee on Legislation in California
March of Dimes Foundation
National Association of Social Workers, California Chapter
St. Anthony Foundation
Oppose:
None received.
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