BILL ANALYSIS �
AB 1502
Page 1
ASSEMBLY THIRD READING
AB 1502 (Mullin)
As Amended April 3, 2014
Majority vote
HUMAN SERVICES 5-1
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|Ayes:|Stone, Ammiano, Ian | | |
| |Calderon, Garcia, Hall | | |
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|Nays:|Grove | | |
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SUMMARY : Streamlines California Work Opportunity and
Responsibility to Kids (CalWORKs) eligibility standards for
two-parent families and caretaker relatives to promote family
maintenance. Specifically, this bill :
1)Deletes the prohibition on providing CalWORKs aid to an
otherwise eligible assistance unit with two parents if the
primary wage earner has worked more than 100 hours in a month.
2)Removes the deprivation standard used to determine CalWORKs
eligibility for needy two-parent families and continues to apply
all other income, resource and participation requirements to
determine eligibility.
3)Includes nonparent caretaker relatives among the individuals
exempt from meeting CalWORKs welfare-to-work requirements while
they are caring for non-natural, non-adoptive child relatives.
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, provides that
TANF funds for welfare-to-work services are administered through
the CalWORKs program. (42 United States Code (U.S.C.) 601 et
seq., Welfare and Institutions Code (WIC) Section 11200 et seq.)
2)Establishes income, asset and real property limits used to
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determine eligibility for the program, including net income
below the Maximum Aid Payment (MAP), based on family size and
county of residence, which is approximately 40% of the Federal
Poverty Level. (WIC Sections 11450 and 11150 et seq.)
3)Provides that a child for whom a parent is applying for CalWORKs
assistance shall be considered deprived of parental support or
care due to the unemployment of his or her parent(s) when the
parent has worked less than 100 hours in the preceding four
weeks, as specified. (WIC Section 11201)
4)Grants CalWORKs aid, services, or both to families with related
children under 18 years of age, except as specified, if they are
deemed needy and deprived of parental support or care due to the
death, physical or mental incapacity or incarceration of a
parent; the unemployment of a parent or parents; or the
continued absence of a parent from the home due to divorce,
separation, desertion, or any other reason, except occasional
absence due solely to the parent's active duty with the U.S.
armed services. (WIC Section 11250)
5)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 Sections 11454 and 11322.85)
6)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 Sections
11320.3 and 11322.6)
7)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 Section 11322.8)
8)Exempts specified categories of recipients from participation in
welfare-to-work activities, including a parent or other adult
CalWORKs recipient with primary responsibility for personally
providing care to one child from birth to 23 months, inclusive,
and requires this exemption to be available only once in
addition to any other young child exemption, as specified. (WIC
Section 11320.3(b))
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9)Provides an exemption from participation in welfare-to-work
activities for nonparent caretaker relatives with primary
responsibility for providing care for a child who is a dependent
or ward of the court, or at risk of placement in foster care,
and the county determines that the caretaking responsibilities
are beyond those considered normal day-to-day parenting
responsibilities such that they impair the caretaker relative's
ability to be regularly employed or to participate in
welfare-to-work activities. (WIC Section 11320.3(b)(4))
FISCAL EFFECT : Unknown. This bill is keyed non-fiscal by the
Legislative Counsel.
COMMENTS : This bill seeks to increase the likelihood that
low-income families in need of assistance remain intact by
eliminating barriers to assistance for two-parent families and
nonparent relatives temporarily caring for their relatives'
children.
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 TANF block grant. The average monthly
cash grant for a family of three on CalWORKs (one parent and two
children) is $463. According to recent data from the California
Department of Social Services, 554,292 families rely on CalWORKs,
including over one million children. Nearly 80% of the children
are under age twelve and 40% are under age five.
Average grants of $463 per month for a family of three means
$15.43 per day, per family, or $5.14 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. This grant
amount puts the annual household income at $5,556 per year.
Federal Poverty Guidelines show that 100% of poverty for a family
of three is over three and a half times that at $19,790 per year.
Welfare-to-Work requirements: Welfare-to-work activities within
the CalWORKs program include public or private sector subsidized
or unsubsidized employment; on-the-job training; community
service; secondary school, adult basic education and vocational
education and training when the education is needed for the
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recipient to become employed; specific mental health, substance
abuse, or domestic violence services if they are necessary to
obtain or retain employment; and a number of other activities
necessary to assist a recipient in obtaining unsubsidized
employment.
Unless they are exempt, single parent adults must participate for
at least 30 hours per week in welfare-to-work activities, whereas
the minimum participation requirement for two-parent families is
35 hours per week. After receiving aid for up to a maximum of 24
months, adults without an exemption must work in unsubsidized
employment or participate in community services activities for the
minimum number of hours listed above. If a CalWORKs recipient who
is not exempt from participation does not meet his or her
welfare-to-work requirements, the recipient is sanctioned for
noncompliance, and that recipient's portion of the family's grant
is removed, resulting in a reduction of the family's maximum
monthly grant of up to $122.
Welfare-to-Work exemptions: Under current law, CalWORKs
recipients over 16 years of age are required to participate in
county-approved welfare-to-work activities as a condition of
receiving aid while on the program unless they are eligible for a
welfare-to-work exemption. Included among the list of exempted
individuals are recipients with an enduring disability that
prevents them from being able to regularly participate in
welfare-to-work activities; recipients of advanced age; recipient
caretakers of disabled family members, or children at risk of
placement in foster care, whose care needs impair the CalWORKs
recipient's ability to be regularly employed or to participate in
welfare-to-work activities; and pregnant women who can provide
medical verification that their pregnancy impairs their ability to
participate in welfare-to-work activities or otherwise be
regularly employed. Exemptions from welfare-to-work requirements
can also be granted to parents or other relative caretakers with
personal responsibility to care for children from zero to six
months of age, the duration of which can be reduced to 12 weeks or
increased to 12 months at a county's discretion. As a result of
SB 1041 (Budget Committee), Chapter 47, Statutes of 2012, which
restricts the applicability of certain welfare-to-work activities
and support services to a 24-month period within a recipient's
lifetime limit of 48 months of aid, state law includes a young
child exemption from welfare-to-work requirements that can be
applied to a parent or relative caretaker caring for a child under
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two years of age. This exemption can only be used once during the
parent or relative caretaker's time on aid.
Counties can also excuse recipients from participation in
welfare-to-work activities for good cause if a county has
determined that a recipient's condition or other circumstances
temporarily prevent him or her from being able to participate in
welfare-to-work activities or to be regularly employed. Under
good cause, a victim of domestic violence must be excused if
participation in welfare-to-work would be detrimental to the
victim or his or her family. Pregnant women who experience
temporary illness due to their pregnancy but are not able to
provide medical verification can also be excused under good cause,
provided that the county determines that the pregnant woman is not
able to participate in welfare-to-work activities or engage in
regular employment. However, unlike the specific aforementioned
exemptions from welfare-to-work requirements, good cause is
granted at the county's discretion based on a county's
determination that a condition or circumstance meets specified
criteria.
Because recipients who are determined to be exempt or excused from
welfare-to-work activities have been deemed by the county to be
incapable of fully participating in available work activities or
other employment, these recipients cannot be sanctioned for
noncompliance and are eligible to continue to receive their grants
during the period of exemption. Additionally, state law
explicitly allows any recipient who is exempt from welfare-to-work
participation to voluntarily participate, and that recipient can
choose to end his or her voluntary participation without losing
eligibility for aid as long as he or she continues to meet the
exemption criteria. This allows new mothers who are exempt, for
example, to remain engaged in the workforce without penalizing
them for choosing to discontinue or lessen participation in their
work activity to spend time caring for their infants.
Need for the bill: The Personal Responsibility and Work
Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 (PRWORA), which was the
final piece of federal welfare reform legislation, repealed the
Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) program and created
the block-granted Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF)
program. The new approach emphasized integrating parents into the
workforce, and one of the resulting four core purposes of the
federal TANF program is to encourage the formation and maintenance
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of two-parent families. However, current state law prevents a
poor two-parent family from receiving aid if the primary wage
earner has worked more than 100 hours in a month. This policy
mirrors AFDC provisions included in the Code of Federal
Regulations which haven't been updated since before PRWORA was
implemented, making California one of only eight states that still
implements this standard. While the 100-hour policy is based on
the assumption that an average of 25 hours of work per week can
generate enough income for a parent to provide for his or her
family and set the family's income above the eligibility threshold
for CalWORKs, this is often not the case. In direct conflict with
the goal of two-parent family maintenance, this policy encourages
parents to split, as the same family would be eligible for aid if
the primary wage earner left the home. This bill repeals the
100-hour standard while maintaining all resource and income
eligibility requirements, all of which reveal a CalWORKs applicant
family's need for assistance.
In addition to facilitating the maintenance of two-parent
families, this bill seeks to further encourage nonparent caretaker
relatives to care for their relatives' children, which can help
stabilize a child's household and minimize or eliminate a child's
interaction with the state's child welfare system. Under current
law, a needy relative caregiver is exempt from welfare-to-work
requirements when caring for a relative's child who is a dependent
or ward of the court, or at risk for placement in foster care, and
the county determines that the caretaking responsibilities for
that child exceed what would be considered "normal day-to-day
parenting responsibilities" and therefore impair the relative's
ability to be regularly employed or participate in welfare-to-work
activities. Some caretaker relatives will be able to enter a
child's life and provide relief to the child's parent(s) before
true interaction with the child welfare system commences. At
times, a child's stay with the caretaker relative may be
prolonged, but many needy relatives care for their grandchildren,
nieces and nephews for short periods of time to help the child's
family stabilize. The author maintains that the current
requirement results in unnecessary state costs, as a CalWORKs
eligible caretaker relative's participation in welfare-to-work and
receipt of aid will be short-term in many instances, and the
relative's connection to CalWORKs, including the welfare-to-work
activity, may not continue once the child can be cared for by his
or her parent(s). This bill removes the requirement that
caretaking responsibilities be inordinate and simply exempts
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nonparent relatives from welfare-to-work requirements when caring
for needy children who are not their own.
Analysis Prepared by : Myesha Jackson / HUM. S. / (916) 319-2089
FN: 0003138