BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 1584
Page 1
ASSEMBLY THIRD READING
AB
1584 (Brown)
As Amended April 6, 2016
2/3 vote
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|Committee |Votes|Ayes |Noes |
| | | | |
| | | | |
| | | | |
|----------------+-----+----------------------+--------------------|
|Human Services |6-0 |Bonilla, Calderon, | |
| | |Lopez, Maienschein, | |
| | |Mark Stone, Thurmond | |
| | | | |
|----------------+-----+----------------------+--------------------|
|Appropriations |16-0 |Gonzalez, Bigelow, | |
| | |Bloom, Bonilla, | |
| | |Bonta, Calderon, | |
| | |Chang, Daly, Eggman, | |
| | | | |
| | | | |
| | |Eduardo Garcia, | |
| | | | |
| | | | |
| | |Roger Hernández, | |
| | |Holden, Quirk, | |
| | |Santiago, Weber, Wood | |
| | | | |
| | | | |
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AB 1584
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SUMMARY: Reinstates the cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) for
the State Supplementary Program for the Aged, Blind and Disabled
and indexes the maximum Supplemental Security Income/State
Supplementary Payment (SSI/SSP) benefit to the federal poverty
level. Specifically, this bill:
1)Requires, as of January 1, 2017, annual COLAs, as measured by
the California Necessities Index (CNI), to be applied to
SSI/SSP payment schedules.
2)Requires, beginning January 1, 2017, maximum SSI/SSP aid
payments that fall below 96% of the 2016 federal poverty level
based on family size to be increased to an amount equal to 96%
of the 2016 federal poverty level based on family size.
Further requires, beginning January 1, 2018, maximum aid
payments that fall below 100% of the 2017 federal poverty
level based on family size to be increased to an amount equal
to 100% of the 2017 federal poverty level based on family
size.
3)States that the requirements to index the maximum aid payments
to the federal poverty level are not intended to reduce any
payments that already exceed 96% or 100% of the federal
poverty level, as specified.
4)Makes technical amendments.
EXISTING LAW:
1)Establishes the State Supplementary Program for Aged, Blind
and Disabled, which is intended to supplement SSI and provide
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persons whose need results from age, blindness or disability
with assistance and services that help them meet basic needs
and maintain or increase independence. (Welfare and
Institutions Code Section (WIC) 12000 et seq.)
2)Provides that eligibility requirements for SSP match federal
SSI criteria, and requires a minimum level of SSP benefits to
be provided in order to maintain federal Medicaid funding, as
specified. (WIC 12000 et seq.)
3)Defines the CNI to be the weighted average of changes for
food, clothing, fuel, utilities, rent, and transportation for
low-income consumers, and specifies the methods with which the
computation of annual adjustments to the CNI shall be made.
(WIC 12201)
4)Requires annual adjustments, based on the CNI, to SSI/SSP
payment schedules to reflect increases or decreases in the
cost of living, as specified, but further stipulates that such
adjustments shall not be made, unless otherwise required by
statute, for the 2011 calendar year and each calendar year
thereafter. (WIC 12201)
FISCAL EFFECT: According to the Assembly Appropriations
Committee, this bill may result in the following costs:
1)Projected costs of $292 million (General Fund) for six months
in Fiscal Year (FY) 2016-17, $749 million (General Fund) full
year cost in FY 2017-18 and $918 million (General Fund)
beginning in FY 2018-19, and on-going, to fund the grant
increases. These figures include the COLAs, federal poverty
level adjustments and the Cash Assistance Program for
Immigrants (CAPI) impacts as follows:
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a) COLAs to the SSP (2.96% CNI) and the SSI (1.39% CPI -
federally funded) which, combined, would increase the
maximum grant by $24.55 per month for individuals and by
$41.30 per month for couples. This brings the total
monthly grant amounts to $913.95 for individuals (92% of
the federal poverty level of $990) and $1,527.50 for
couples (115% of the federal poverty level of $1,335).
b) Required adjustments to reach 96% of the federal poverty
level by 2017 and 100% of the federal poverty level by 2018
would increase the SSP grant amount by $43.37 per month
beginning January 2017 and an additional $23.60 per month
beginning in 2018. Because the maximum monthly grant for
couples exceeds 100% of the federal poverty level, this
adjustment only applies to individuals, approximately one
million recipients.
c) CAPI provides benefits to aged, blind, and disabled
legal immigrants. The CAPI benefits are equivalent to
SSI/SSP program benefits, less $10 per individual and $20
per couple. The grant levels are statutorily tied to the
SSI/SSP grant levels so the grant increases for individuals
would have an equivalent effect for the CAPI grants.
Approximately 12,400 and 13,200 recipients will receive the
increased grant amounts in 2017 and 2018 respectively.
The Assembly Appropriations Committee notes that existing law
continuously appropriates funds for the implementation of SSP.
By reinstating the COLA and by increasing the amount of benefits
paid under the SSP, this bill would make an appropriation.
COMMENTS:
SSI/SSP: The SSI/SSP program provides a monthly cash benefit to
needy aged, blind, and disabled individuals and couples to help
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them pay for basic living expenses, such as food, clothing and
shelter. In order to be eligible for SSI/SSP, an individual
must be 65 years of age or older, blind, or have disabilities
(children who are blind or have disabilities can qualify), and
must meet certain federal income and resource requirements. The
SSI portion of the benefit is federally-funded and only provided
through an approved application to the Social Security
Administration (SSA), while the SSP portion is paid for with
General Fund dollars, and a qualified SSI recipient is
automatically qualified for SSP. The SSI portion of the grant
is meant to provide an income floor for qualifying low-income
individuals and couples.
SSI/SSP grants are adjusted based on whether a recipient is
aged, blind or disabled, the individual's or couple's living
arrangement, a recipient's marital status, and a recipient's
status as a minor. The current SSI/SSP maximum grant levels are
$889.40 per month for an individual ($156.40 SSP) and $1,496 per
month for couples ($396.20 SSP), which places individuals at 90%
of poverty and couples at 112% of poverty based on federal
guidelines. The estimated SSI/SSP caseload for 2016-17 is 1.31
million cases (including 1.51 million people), which is
comprised of 28% aged persons, 1% blind persons and 71% persons
with disabilities. Over 81% of SSI/SSP cases are individual
cases.
The SSA applies an annual COLA to the SSI portion of the grant
pursuant to annual increases in the Consumer Price Index (CPI).
This federal COLA is passed through to SSI/SSP recipients in
California, which allows SSI/SSP grants to remain at the minimum
level allowed under federal law for individuals and couples,
thereby allowing the state to maintain its federal Medicaid
funding. During the state's economic downturn, the SSI/SSP
program was one of many safety net programs negatively impacted.
The COLA California once applied to the SSP amount was made
inoperative as part of the 2009-10 Budget Act.
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The Governor's 2016-17 proposed Budget includes a cost-of-living
increase to the SSP beginning January 1, 2017, that is equal to
the CNI, currently estimated to be 2.76%.
Need for this bill: In a March 2015 Joint Hearing of the
Assembly Committee on Aging and Long Term Care and the Assembly
Committee on Human Services titled Who Can Afford to Get Old?
Senior Poverty in the Golden State, numerous aged individuals
and individuals with disabilities provided public comment about
the financial hardship they and people they know were facing
due, in part, to the low SSI/SSP grant amount, which is the sole
source of income for many of them. In addition to pointing out
how the SSI/SSP grant amount has not kept up with inflation,
many members of the public spoke about how too many aged
individuals and individuals with disabilities had to make tough
decisions about which expenses they were going to be able to pay
each month, understanding that their SSI/SSP grant amounts
weren't high enough to meet even their most basic needs. More
specifically, a presentation prepared for the hearing by the
California Budget & Policy Center revealed that the current Fair
Market Rent for a studio apartment exceeds the maximum SSI/SSP
grant level for an individual in 15 counties, and exceeds 50% of
the maximum SSI/SSP grant for an individual in all 58 counties.
The California Elder Economic Security Index (EESI) is a
county-specific measure of the minimum income necessary to cover
basic expenses for people age 65 years and older. Factoring in
housing, food, health care, and transportation costs, the EESI
illustrates the shortcomings of the current SSI/SSP grant amount
for seniors. According to the EESI, a single renter living
alone in a one-bedroom apartment in Kern County needs $1,565
per month to pay for basic expenses, which increases to $2,193
needed for a couple renting that same apartment. In San Diego
County, the amount needed is $2,031 for a single elderly renter
and $2,629 for a couple. The minimum income is even higher in
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Alameda County at $2,170 for a single elderly renter and $2,888
for a couple. By reinstating the COLA in order to increase the
monthly SSI/SSP grant amount, the author of this bill seeks to
eventually better align the income of individuals who are unable
to work with the actual costs of their needs.
According to the author, "Aged, Blind and disabled Californians
need our help. Eye-watering recession-era cuts to the SSI/SSP
program plunged over 1 million Californians into poverty, and
their only way 'out' is through the actions of the Governor and
the Legislature. There is no 'Do-Over' for SSI/SSP recipients
whom due to age, blindness or disability are unable to enter the
work-force, or re-train to acquire new skills. They are at the
mercy of state policy. [This bill] advances a first-step toward
total restoration of recession era cuts. By increasing the
state portion of the SSI/SSP grant, California's eligible aged,
blind and disabled adults will have financial resources to
manage California's unusually high costs of living, while
stimulating needed economic activity in communities hit hardest
by the recession. The strategy embodied in [this bill] (as
amended) is two-fold: first: restore the
Cost-of-living-adjustment, or 'COLA,' a built-in 'inflator' to
compensate for ongoing cost of living increases that impact
everyone. Second: a two-year, initial restoration effort to
assure that no recipient finds their income below the federal
poverty level (FPL) by extending incremental restoration during
a two-year period to first raise all grants to a minimum of 96%
of the FPL, then to 100% of the FPL."
PRIOR LEGISLATION:
AB 474 (Brown) of 2015, would have, beginning with the 2015-16
fiscal year, required the state maximum SSP grant to be annually
adjusted such that the maximum SSI/SSP combined payment would
have equaled 112% of the federal poverty level. It died in the
Assembly Budget Committee pursuant to the Constitution Article
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IV, Section 10(c).
Analysis Prepared by:
Daphne Hunt / HUM. S. / (916) 319-2089 FN:
0003196