BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SENATE COMMITTEE ON HUMAN SERVICES
Senator McGuire, Chair
2015 - 2016 Regular
Bill No: SB 306
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|Author: |Hertzberg |
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|Version: |April 6, 2015 |Hearing |April 28, 2015 |
| | |Date: | |
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|Urgency: |No |Fiscal: |Yes |
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|Consultant|Mareva Brown |
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Subject: CalFresh: eligibility: work requirements
SUMMARY
This bill would excuse all CalWORKs recipients from
welfare-to-work participation during any month for which the
National Bureau of Economic Research has declared the United
States to be in an economic recession or economic depression.
The bill would also prohibit any month for which the National
Bureau of Economic Research has made that declaration from being
counted toward that 48-month time limit. This bill additionally
would require all counties to participate in the CalFresh E&T
program, and would direct each county to provide a placement in
the program for every able-bodied adult without dependents
(ABAWD) that requests one. The bill would provide that federal
funds for serving all at-risk ABAWDs through a CalFresh E&T
program be used to support the cost to the county providing
these services using a specified formula. The bill would require
all eligible counties and subcounty areas to be included in the
federal waiver of the ABAWD time limitation. Additionally, the
bill would require a county, if the county is not eligible for
the waiver, to submit a CalFresh E&T plan, as specified, that
ensures a placement for all ABAWDs required to work and unable
to secure employment. The bill would require that federal
CalFresh E&T funds received to serve ABAWDs who are subject to
the time limitation be used to support the cost to the counties
of providing these services, as specified. The bill would
additionally require that if a county that is ineligible for a
waiver sends a notice of action to a subject of the ABAWD time
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limit that it include specified information to help the person
seek and receive assistance in securing employment or an
exemption.
ABSTRACT
Existing law:
1) Establishes the federal Temporary Assistance for Needy
Families (TANF) program, which permits states to implement
the program under a state plan. (42 USC § 601 et seq.)
2) Establishes in state law the CalWORKs program to provide
cash assistance and other social services for low-income
families through the TANF program. Under CalWORKs, each
county provides assistance through a combination of state,
county and federal TANF funds. (WIC 10530)
3) Requires CalWORKs recipients to participate in a
Welfare-to-Work plan, unless exempted and as defined, in
order to remain eligible for CalWORKs benefits. (WIC
11320.3.)
4) Requires that a CalWORKs participant be excused from
mandatory participation in work when the county has
determined there is a condition or other circumstance that
temporarily prevents or significantly impairs the
recipient's ability to be regularly employed or to
participate in welfare-to-work activities, as specified.
The county welfare department shall review the good cause
determination for its continuing appropriateness in
accordance with the projected length of the condition, or
circumstance, but not less than every three months. The
recipient shall cooperate with the county welfare
department and provide information, including written
documentation, as required to complete the review. (WIC
11320.3. (f) )
5) Establishes under federal law the Supplemental Nutrition
Assistance Program (SNAP) within the US Department of
Agriculture (USDA) to promote the general welfare and to
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safeguard the health and wellbeing of the nation's
population by raising the levels of nutrition among
low-income households. It establishes SNAP eligibility
requirements, including income that is at or below 130
percent of the federal poverty level and is determined to
be a substantial limiting factor in permitting a recipient
to obtain a more nutritious diet (7 CFR 271.1; 7 CFR 273.9)
6) Establishes in California statute the CalFresh program
to administer the provision of federal SNAP benefits to
families and individuals meeting specified criteria. (WIC
18900 et seq.)
7) Requires CDSS annually, to the extent permitted by
federal law, to seek a federal SNAP waiver to the
three-month limit in a three-year period of CalFresh
benefits for an ABAWD, unless that participant has met the
work participation requirement. (WIC 18926)
8) Establishes the CalFresh Employment and Training program
(CalFresh E&T), as authorized by the federal Food and
Nutrition Act of 2008, to assist members of CalFresh
households in gaining skills, training, work, or experience
that will increase their ability to obtain regular
employment. (WIC 18926.5. (a))
9) Requires that a California county that elects to
participate in CalFresh E&T screen CalFresh work
registrants to determine whether they will participate in,
or be deferred from, the program. Requires that an
individual be deferred from a mandatory placement in the
CalFresh E&T program for a number of specified reasons,
including residence in a federally determined work surplus
area. (WIC 18926)
This bill:
1) Prohibits a recipient of CalWORKs benefits from being
required to participate in welfare-to-work activities
during any month for which the National Bureau of Economic
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Research has declared the United States to be in an
economic recession or economic depression.
10) Prohibits the ticking of a clock on a CalWORKs
recipient's lifetime eligibility clock of 48 months for any
month in which the National Bureau of Economic Research has
declared the United States to be in an economic recession
or economic depression.
11) Adds to statutory language establishing the CalFresh
program the Legislative intent that the CalFresh program be
administered in a way that maximizes eligibility and
participation in the program, to the extent permitted by
federal law.
12) Modifies the requirement that CDSS annually seek a
federal waiver of the SNAP three-month aid limitation for
ABAWDs not meeting work participation requirements to
instead require CDSS to annually seek a waiver for all
qualifying areas of the state, to the extent permitted by
federal law.
13) Eliminates a county's option to decline participation in
an ABAWD waiver and instead binds all eligible counties and
subcounty areas to the waiver.
14) Requires that if a county is ineligible for a waiver,
the following occur:
a. CDSS issues annual guidance to the county
regarding the maximization of all federal exemptions
and waivers to the three-month time limit applied to
ABAWDs, as defined.
b. The county submits a CalFresh E&T program plan
for state and federal approval, as defined, and
ensures a placement for all ABAWDs required to work
and unable to secure employment.
c. Federal funds that are received to serve,
through a CalFresh E&T, ABAWDs who are subject to the
time limit shall be used to support the cost to
counties of providing these services using a formula
established by the department in consultation with
county human services agencies and the Food and
Nutrition Service of the USDA.
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15) Removes the ability of CDSS to notify counties of the
federal waiver via All County Letter.
16) Requires that a county issuing a notice of action to an
applicant or participant subject to the ABAWD time limit
shall include information to help the person, to the
maximum extent permitted by federal law, seek and receive
assistance in securing employment or in securing an
exemption to the time limit, including, but not limited to,
the name, address, telephone number, and Internet address
of a local legal services office and a statewide welfare
rights organization.
17) Requires that if an ABAWD who is subject to the
three-month federal time limit requests placement in the
CalFresh E&T program, the county shall provide a placement
for the person.
18) Prohibits payment to this program through a continuing
appropriation.
FISCAL IMPACT
This bill has not been analyzed by a fiscal committee.
BACKGROUND AND DISCUSSION
Purpose of the bill:
The author states that California's largest safety-net programs
(CalFresh and CalWORKs) require adult recipients to work to be
eligible for benefits - even if sometimes work is unattainable.
For this reason, the author notes, SB 306, the Work Opportunity
& Recession Relief Act of 2015, will prevent hunger and hardship
among childless, able-bodied adults by requiring that the state
and counties maximize flexibility to waive the three-month time
limit during any federally-declared recession.
It also guarantees that these able-bodied adults without
dependents (ABAWDs) who are subject to the three-month time
limit in a county where no waiver is available will receive a
placement in a CalFresh Employment and Training program. The
author writes that this bill protects families by establishing
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that, during a federally declared recession or depression,
months on aid should not be counted toward the 48-month lifetime
limit in CalWORKs, provided the adult has not exceeded 60 months
on CalWORKs, which is the maximum allowed by federal law.
California Work Opportunity and Responsibility to Kids program
(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) 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
provided cash assistance to approximately 540,000 families in
2014, including more than 1 million children. 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 approximately 42 percent of the federal
poverty level (FPL). In 1989, a similar 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.
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 perameters. Federal and state requirements may vary
slightly.
Food Insecurity
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Nationally, the USDA reported an estimated 14.3 percent of
American households were food insecure at least some time during
the year in 2013, meaning they lacked access to enough food for
an active, healthy life for all household members. During the
last decade, and especially during the Great Recession, the
number of families experiencing food insecurity has increased.
Since the Great Recession, according to researchers at the USDA,
inflation has kept the number of families who are not able to
afford sufficient food at approximately the same rate, even with
an increase in employment nationwide.<1>
According to data from the California Health Interview Survey
(CHIS), at least 4 million low-income Californians struggled
with food insecurity during 2011-12. A research brief published
in 2012 by UCLA's Center for Health Policy Research and the
California Food Policy Advocates noted that in 2009, at the
height the Recession, more than four in 10 Californian adults,
roughly 3.8 million people, who were at or below 200 percent of
the Federal Poverty Level suffered from food insecurity. Of
those, more than one third - 1.4 million people - reported very
low food security. This is defined as having to cut back on
food. Nationally, about 5.7 percent of Americans suffered from
very low food security.
CalFresh
The USDA's SNAP funds 100 percent of food benefits to eligible
households nationwide. California, its 58 counties and the
federal government share the cost of administering the program,
which is known as CalFresh. Specific eligibility requirements
are set by the USDA, including gross- and net-income asset tests
for most recipients, work requirements and specific
documentation requirements. The maximum gross income allowed to
be eligible is 130 percent of the federal poverty level, or
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<1> Nord, Mark, et al, "Prevalence of U.S. Food Insecurity Is
Related to Changes in Unemployment, Inflation, and the Price of
Food," Economic Research Report No. (ERR-167) June 2014
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$26,117 for a family of four in 2015. The average monthly
benefit for a CalFresh recipient in 2014 was $141.99 per month,
or $4.73 per day, according to the USDA.
CalFresh currently serves approximately 4.4 million people,
according to USDA data. Nonetheless, California's participation
rate has been ranked last or near last in the country for years,
prompting concerns from the USDA, stories in the state's
newspapers and two Legislative hearings in 2014, including a
joint Senate and Assembly Human Services committee hearing on
March 11, In 2012, the most recent data. California's SNAP
participation rate was 63 percent of eligible individuals,
moving the state up into the second-lowest level in the country,
slightly above Wyoming. That rate compares to a national average
of 83 percent. Just 49 percent of California's eligible working
poor families received CalFresh benefits, the worst rate in the
country, compared to a national average of 72 percent.<2> CDSS
notes that low CalFresh participation significantly impacts
California's economy since every $5 of federal SNAP benefits are
calculated to generate $9 of local economic activity.
Work requirements
To qualify for SNAP benefits, some households must meet
specified work requirements. SNAP requires all recipients,
unless exempted by law, to register for work at the appropriate
employment office; participate in an employment and training
program. if assigned by a state or local administering agency;
and accept an offer of suitable employment. SNAP beneficiaries
do not have to work or participate in employment and training
activities if they are under age 16 or over age 59, are
physically or mentally unfit for employment, are caring for a
child under the age of six (or 12, in some cases), already
employed 30 hours a week, or, subject to and complying with work
requirements for other programs, such as those required by
CalWORKs, among other exemptions.
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<2> USDA, "Reaching Those in Need: Estimates of State
Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Participation Rates in
2012," February 2015
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CalFresh E&T program
The USDA provides annual funding for program administration for
the CalFresh E&T program, which is designed to help CalFresh
participants gain skills, training, work experience, and secure
work. There are two types of funding from USDA:
A 100-percent federal funding allocation is capped and
allocated to states based on a formula that takes into
account the number of work registrants in the state.
An uncapped 50 percent match, in which the federal
government reimburses states for half of every non-federal
dollar spent on allowable employment and training services
or activities. Non-federal dollars can come from state,
county or city revenue; foundation grants; employer paid
costs; private tuition payments and private funds raised by
community-based organizations and is subject to federal
approval.
In California, counties determine which individuals must
participate in the CalFresh E&T program. Federal law provides
for certain exemptions, but counties can additionally determine
exemptions. CalFresh E&T programs can include a variety
activities for training and employment activities, such as
employment search; general education development; high school
equivalency; job skills training; short-term vocational training
and, supportive services. Each county has discretion to
determine the range of services, as well as the rules governing
mandatory and voluntary placements and exemptions.
For federal fiscal year (FFY) 2015, 24 counties in California
participated in the CalFresh E&T program, which totaled nearly
$106 million. That figure is changed from 26 participating
counties and $101 million in FFY 2014. Of the FFY 2015 dollars,
100% federal funds accounted for $7 million and federally
matched funds accounted for the remainder. For FFY 2014, CDSS
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reported 1,252,859 work registrants. Of this population, about
77,427individuals were expected to participate in at least one
CalFresh E&T program component.
Able Bodied Adults Without Dependants (ABAWDs)
Federal law restricts the amount of time a childless,
able-bodied adult can receive SNAP beenfits to three months
during any three-year time period unless they are working at
least 20 hours per week. To address job shortage issues,
Congress offers waivers to eliminate time limits in areas with
high unemployment, known as Labor Surplus Areas. Under a
waiver, an ABAWD is still subject to the same work requirements
as other adults receiving food stamps, but they are no longer
cut off from food aid if they can't find a job by the end of
three months.
Declaration of Recession
A recession in the United States is officially declared by the
National Bureau of Economic Research, a private, nonprofit,
nonpartisan research organization committed to undertaking and
disseminating unbiased economic research in a scientific manner,
and without policy recommendations, among public policymakers,
business professionals, and the academic community. The NBER was
founded in 1920, according to its website, and counts among its
researchers 24 Nobel Prize winners in Economics and thirteen
past chairs of the President's Council of Economic Advisers.
The National Bureau of Economic Research has declared five
recessions since 1980:<3>
Dates Duration
--------------------------------------------
|January 1980 - July |13 months |
|1980 | |
|---------------------+----------------------|
|July 1981 - November |16 months |
|1982 | |
|---------------------+----------------------|
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<3> http://www.nber.org/cycles.html
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|July 1990 - March |8 months |
|1991 | |
|---------------------+----------------------|
|March 2001 - |8 months |
|November 2001 | |
|---------------------+----------------------|
|December 2007 - July |18 months |
|2009 | |
--------------------------------------------
Source: National Bureau of Economic Research
A 2014 report on economic patterns produced by the National
Bureau of Economic Research noted that anti-poverty programs
such as TANF and SNAP are critical to the well-being of poor
residents and that the inclusion of work requirements in such
programs has little effect:
Meanwhile, the 1996 welfare reform law replaced AFDC with
TANF and significantly strengthened work requirements in
the cash assistance program. The Personal Responsibility
and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 ended the
entitlement to cash assistance and beneficiaries were
generally required to work or participate in "work
activities" to receive assistance.? It should be noted that
researchers have found these reforms may have increased
hardship among groups with high barriers to employment,
highlighting the continued importance of programs that
serve the most disadvantaged (Blank 2007; Danziger, Turner,
and Seefeldt 2006). While today's safety net has been
reformed to promote work, it is important to note that
careful research has shown that most assistance programs
have only small, if any, disincentive effects on work.<4>
Related legislation:
SB 43 (Liu, Chapter 507, Statutes of 2011) permitted counties to
defer able-bodied working adults from required employment and
training participation in high unemployment areas, as specified.
SB 68 (Budget and Fiscal Review, Chapter 78, Statutes of 2005)
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<4> NBER, "2014 Economic Report of the President," to Congress,
Chapter 6, The War On Poverty 50 Years Later, pg 249-251.
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added WIC Section 18926, requiring the state to seek available
ABAWD waivers.
COMMENTS
1) This bill seeks to eliminate work requirements in two
anti-poverty programs during an officially declared
recession or depression. Within the CalWORKs program,
participants would be exempted from any work requirements
for the duration of the recession, and additionally would
not have their 48-month clock tick for any month declared a
recession. This is in contrast to the federal approach to
work requirements in the CalFresh program, which does not
relieve clients of the requirement to participate in job
finding, education, training and other eligible activities,
but does not penalize clients for not being able to find
work.
One concern in the wake of the recent recession was the
apparent disengagement of clients who were exempted from
work requirements if they had a child under the age of 2
years. When counties attempted to re-engage those adults,
they found a significant number were not re-engaging and
faced sanctions. Additionally, the exemption of these
individuals from work requirements could affect the state's
ability to achieve and/or maintain its federal
work-participation rate (WPR). The state faces substantial
sanctions if it does not elevate its participation rate to
50 percent by the end of federal fiscal year 2015. CDSS
estimates in 2015 that its rate will be between 48.9 and
52.6 percent.
Staff recommends removing Section 1 of the bill.
2) The bill's exemptions to the CalWORKs and E&T programs
hinge upon a declaration of recession or depression by the
National Bureau of Economic Research, a private, nonprofit,
nonpartisan research organization. The Bureau's declaration
of recession historically has lagged many months behind its
onset, and the declaration of its completion lags behind
the actual end of the recessionary period because data over
time is necessary to make a decision about when a recession
begins and ends. These lags could pose logistical problems
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for the exemptions proposed in this bill. In the case of a
CalWORKs client, for example, the delayed declaration of a
recession could result in additional months being
"unticked" retrospectively, but also could result in months
being retroactively "ticked" that were not anticipated.
Staff recommends that before this bill is heard in the next
committee, the author add language to clarify how to address
the lag time in an NBER declaration and its practical impact
on the proposals in this bill.
POSITIONS
Support:
Coalition of California Welfare Rights Organizations
(Co-sponsor)
Western Center on Law & Poverty (Co-sponsor)
Alameda County Food Bank
California Association of Food Banks
California Catholic Conference
California Hunger Action Coalition
National Association of Social Workers, California
Chapter
San Diego Hunger Coalition
Oppose:
None.
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