BILL ANALYSIS �
Senate Appropriations Committee Fiscal Summary
Senator Christine Kehoe, Chair
SB 480 (Vargas)
Hearing Date: 05/16/2011 Amended: 05/02/2011
Consultant: Jolie Onodera Policy Vote: Human Services 7-0
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BILL SUMMARY: SB 480 would do the following with respect to the
California Work Opportunity and Responsibility to Kids
(CalWORKs) program:
Requires counties to proactively seek information at the
time of application or redetermination for aid to determine
whether or not the applicant or recipient is or has been a
victim of domestic violence;
Requires counties to waive for the purposes of CalWORKs,
conditions of eligibility, program requirements, or the
time limit for good cause for an applicant or recipient who
is a victim of abuse, under specified conditions;
Requires any month in which good cause exists for
excusing participants from welfare to work activities from
being counted as a month of aid towards the CalWORKs
48-month time limit;
Requires counties to disregard specified income and
resources for the purposes of determining eligibility of
aid for a victim of abuse;
Requires certain cases to be excluded in determining
whether a county has met work participation requirements
under the federal Temporary Assistance for Needy Families
(TANF) program.
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Fiscal Impact (in thousands)
Major Provisions 2011-12 2012-13 2013-14 Fund
Mandatory screening Unknown; potentially significant General
for domestic violence state-reimbursable costs in excess
of $2,800 to $5,600 annually
Income/asset disregard Unknown; potentially major
Federal/General/Local
for victims of abuse; waiver CalWORKs grant, services,
of eligibility conditions, and administration costs
program requirements, and
good cause time limits
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STAFF COMMENTS: This bill meets the criteria for referral to the
Suspense File.
SB 480 (Vargas)
Page 3
Existing law requires each county to provide cash assistance and
other social services to needy families through the CalWORKs
program using federal TANF block grant, state, and county funds.
This bill requires that counties shall proactively seek
information at the time of application or redetermination of aid
to determine whether or not the applicant/recipient is or has
been a victim of domestic violence. To the extent this
requirement results
in additional duties on county eligibility workers would result
in state-reimbursable costs of an unknown, but potentially
significant amount. The amount of additional time that may be
required is unknown and would vary on a case-by-case basis.
Screening applicants to ascertain whether they are victims of
domestic violence can be a very sensitive matter for victims,
and a discussion of confidentiality would be needed with an
explanation of the domestic violence waiver, its potential
benefits and the fact that the information is needed to
determine eligibility. An additional five to ten minutes per
case to proactively seek to obtain information would result in
significant reimbursable state costs of approximately $2.8
million to $5.6 million annually based on an estimated caseload
of 583,000 cases and a CalWORKs eligibility worker cost of
$57.57 per hour. While some counties may currently be screening
applicants for domestic violence, mandating that counties
proactively seek this information could be considered a higher
level of service than currently required under existing law.
Additionally, although counties currently have standards for
training curriculum for domestic abuse, counties have the
flexibility to determine who is to be trained, as well as when
and how that training shall occur. To the extent counties expand
training standards to cover more staff or revise existing
training programs to be more comprehensive or more frequent
could also result in unknown but potentially significant
state-reimbursable costs to comply with the provisions of this
bill.
Existing law requires a county to redetermine CalWORKs
eligibility and grant levels on a quarterly basis, and
recipients are required to report specified changes in income or
eligibility that could affect the amount of aid to which the
recipient is entitled. This bill would prohibit the
consideration of income and resources used to flee the abuser
SB 480 (Vargas)
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unless the county eligibility worker documents, in writing, an
independent, reasonable basis for believing that the income or
resources would not put the victim of abuse at further risk of
harm. This bill would also provide that sworn statements by a
victim of past or present abuse are sufficient to establish this
abuse. By disregarding income and resources for an unknown
number of cases would result in higher or additional months of
aid payments for those cases that would otherwise have been
ineligible or eligible for a lower CalWORKs grant payment had
their income and resources been considered. The number of cases
impacted is unknown, but could be substantial and would result
in CalWORKs grant, services, and administrative costs of an
unknown, but potentially significant amount.
This bill also requires a county to waive conditions of
eligibility, program requirements, or the time limit for good
cause for an applicant/recipient who has been identified as a
past or present victim of abuse, with any month in which good
cause exists for excusing participants from welfare to work
activities shall not be counted as a month of receipt of aid for
the purposes of the 48-month time limit. As a result, an unknown
number of applicants/recipients could qualify for additional
months on aid. For every one percent of CalWORKs cases (5,830
cases) who may be granted an additional six months of aid would
cost $4.5 million, assuming a CalWORKs grant cost for one adult
based on the difference in the 2-person vs. 3-person household
maximum aid payment as of June 2011. Additional costs
associated with services and administration provided during the
extended time on aid would also be incurred.
Existing law provides that if the state does not achieve
specified welfare-to-work outcomes required by federal law and
as a result is subject to a fiscal penalty, the penalty will be
shared equally by the state and the counties after exhaustion of
all available federal administrative remedies. Existing law
provides that only those counties that have failed to meet the
federal requirements are required to share in the fiscal penalty
imposed on the state. This bill would provide that in
determining whether a county has failed to meet federal work
requirements pursuant to state policy, the number of cases
subject to the federal work participation requirements is not to
include cases granted a waiver of work requirements pursuant to
good cause for domestic violence, cases granted a waiver of the
time limits pursuant to good cause for a victim of abuse, and
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cases where a waiver of welfare-to-work activities for victims
of abuse are not counted as a month of receipt of aid for the
purpose of the 48-month time limit. These provisions could
result in relieving some counties from sharing in the county
portion of the penalty, but should not result in any increased
General Fund costs to the state, as the assessed federal penalty
will still be shared equally by the state and counties that
failed to meet their respective work participation requirements.