BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SENATE COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Senator Ricardo Lara, Chair
2015 - 2016 Regular Session
AB 492 (Gonzalez) - CalWORKs: welfare-to-work: supportive
services
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|Version: June 20, 2016 |Policy Vote: HUMAN S. 4 - 0 |
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|Urgency: No |Mandate: Yes |
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|Hearing Date: August 1, 2016 |Consultant: Debra Cooper |
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This bill meets the criteria for referral to the Suspense File.
Bill
Summary: AB 492 would provide a $50 per month diaper benefit
for every child 2 years of age or younger in California Work
Opportunity and Responsibility to Kids (CalWORKS) who is
enrolled in child care as a supportive service for a parent
participating in welfare-to-work. This bill requires that the
diaper benefit be issued to participants through the electronic
benefits transfer (EBT) system, and directs the California
Department of Social Services (DSS) to make the benefit
available at the earliest time possible. This bill also
specifies that the diaper benefit is not income for purposes of
determining CalWORKS eligibility or benefits.
Fiscal
Impact:
According to DSS estimates, this bill would impact
approximately 26,000 CalWORKS children under age 3 per month.
A $50 monthly voucher would cost approximately $7.8 million in
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FY 2016-17 and $15.6 million annually ongoing. (TANF/GF)
Minor one-time state costs for updating the existing EBT
system to deliver the diaper benefit.
Additional, potentially reimbursable, county costs for
administering the diaper benefit.
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 (one parent and two children) on CalWORKS is
$497 to meet basic needs such as rent, clothing, utility bills,
food, and other items. This grant amount puts the average annual
household income of a family on CalWORKS at $5,964 per year,
which is 30% of the federal poverty level (Federal Poverty
Guidelines for 2015 report that 100% of poverty for a family of
three is $20,090 per year).
According to DSS, nearly 497,000 families will rely on CalWORKS
in FY 2016-17, including over one million children. Nearly 60%
of cases include children 6 years old or younger and about 12%
of cases include children younger than one year old.
According to the National Diaper Bank Network, infants require
up to 12 diapers per day and toddlers require about 8 diapers
per day. This costs about $70 to $80 per month per baby. The
Network also reports that 1 in 3 American families report
experiencing diaper need. Currently, diapers are among a number
of items excluded for purchase under state and federal
assistance programs such as CalFresh, the Women Infant and
Children (WIC) program and Medi-Cal. The Diaper Bank reports
that the majority of licensed day care centers require parents
and caregivers to provide a steady supply of disposable diapers,
and low-income parents cannot take advantage of free or
subsidized childcare if they cannot afford to leave disposable
diapers at childcare centers.
The EBT system is an electronic system in California used for
the delivery of public assistance benefits through a card that
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can be used to access funds at point-of-sale terminals, ATMs,
and other electronic fund transfer devices. While California's
EBT system was designed to deliver CalFresh benefits, all 58
California counties also deliver either CalWORKS or General
Assistance benefits through EBT cards, and the Department of
Public Health is in the process of implementing EBT cards for
the federal WIC program.
Proposed Law:
This bill would add a diaper benefit of $50 per month for
every child 2 years of age or younger enrolled in child care as
a supportive service for a parent participating in
welfare-to-work with the following requirements, (1) the diaper
benefit may be used only to purchase diapers, (2) the diaper
benefit shall be issued through the EBT system, (3) the diaper
benefit shall not be considered income for purposes of
determining CalWORKS eligibility or benefits, (4) DSS makes the
diaper benefit available as soon as possible.
Related
Legislation: AB 1516 (Gonzalez, 2014) would have provided
CalWORKS recipients a monthly $80 young child special needs
assessment, for the purpose of purchasing diapers, for children
under age 3 in the assistance unit. This bill was held in the
Senate Appropriations Committee.
Staff
Comments: The proposal for the "Provision of Diaper Assistance
to Low-Income Families" which provided $16 million General Fund
to provide a $50 per month per child voucher for diaper
purchases for CalWORKs Welfare-to-Work participants with infant
and toddler children was not appropriated in the Budget Act of
2016. Approaches for consideration to be adopted, will include,
but are not limited to
Options for delivering the benefit by way of a paper voucher
system or other distribution approach for the larger CalWORKs
population.
Ways to provide this as a supportive service to the CalWORKs
Welfare to Work caseload, potentially using a voucher or
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ancillary expense benefit approach.
The feasibility of providing this as an automated benefit
long-term, to include a range of potential options based upon
functionality for the commodity-based delivery of a CalWORKs
benefit.
DSS, the Office of Systems Integration and the Department of
Public Health shall provide the Legislature with a summary of
the various approaches and automation options, and, to the
extent available, their initial estimated costs by February 1,
2017.
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