BILL ANALYSIS �
AB 1516
Page 1
Date of Hearing: April 8, 2014
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON HUMAN SERVICES
Mark Stone, Chair
AB 1516 (Gonzalez) - As Amended: March 28, 2014
SUBJECT : Public social services: diapers.
SUMMARY : Provides a CalWORKs diaper supplement to children
under three years of age and establishes a fund to support
public-private partnerships to facilitate the distribution of
diapers to children in needy communities.
Specifically, this bill :
1)Declares a number of legislative findings pertaining to the
correlation between diapers and healthy and happy babies, as
well as the correlation between diapers, access to child care
and a parent's ability to go to work.
2)States the intent of the Legislature to enact legislation that
would empower beneficiaries of public assistance programs with
young children in diapers to return to the workforce by
removing unnecessary obstacles to obtaining diapers, to the
extent permitted by federal law, thereby ensuring the health
and welfare of diaper-wearing children and their families.
3)Gives CalWORKs participants the option to request supportive
services to help them comply with their welfare-to-work plans
through their county's Internet Web site if the county is
capable of accepting such requests. Requires a county not
capable of accepting such requests via the Internet to accept
the requests in the manner necessary to ensure participants'
needs are met.
4)Provides a young child special needs supplement of $80 per
month to any child under three years of age in a CalWORKs
recipient family and applies an annual cost of living
adjustment to the supplement.
5)Creates in the State Treasury the Unmet Diaper Need Financing
Fund, consisting of money accepted by the Department of Social
Services (DSS) from grants and donations from private entities
and of public moneys transferred to the fund, and requires DSS
to distribute moneys in the fund, upon appropriation by the
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Legislature, to entities that serve low-income children and
receive matching funds, as specified, for the purpose of
meeting the unmet diaper needs in the funding recipient's
community.
6)Establishes a January 1, 2019 sunset date for the Fund, as
specified.
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
U.S.C. 601 et seq., WIC 11200 et seq.)
2)Establishes income, asset and real property limits used to
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 11450, 11150 et seq.)
3)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 11454, 11322.85)
4)Requires necessary supportive services, including child care,
transportation, ancillary costs and personal counseling, as
specified, to be available to every CalWORKs participant in
order to facilitate his or her participation in the CalWORKs
program activity to which he or she is assigned or acceptance
of employment. (WIC 11323.2)
5)Makes paid child care available as a supportive service to
every CalWORKs participant with a dependent child in the
assistance unit who needs paid child care and is under 10
years of age or requires child care due to a physical, mental,
or developmental disability, or is under court supervision.
(WIC 11323.2 (a)(1)(A))
6)Requires payments for supportive services to be advanced to
CalWORKs participants, as specified, so that a participant
does not need to use his or her funds to pay for the
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supportive services. (WIC 11323.4)
7)Authorizes a county to continue to provide welfare-to-work
services for up to the first 12 months of employment to former
CalWORKs participants who are no longer eligible for CalWORKs
due to a subsidized employment position, to the extent the
services are necessary for the individual to retain the
subsidized employment and the services are not available
through any other source. (WIC 11323.25)
8)Requires counties to provide CalWORKs applicants and
recipients a written notice, as specified, of the availability
of child care for the purpose of allowing a recipient to be
employed or participate in welfare-to-work activities. (WIC
11323.3)
9)Exempts specified categories of recipients from participation
in welfare-to-work activities, including a pregnant woman who
has medical verification that her pregnancy impairs her
ability to be regularly employed or participate in
welfare-to-work activities or a pregnant woman for whom the
county has otherwise determined that, at that time,
participation in welfare-to-work activities would not lead to
employment or a training activity is not appropriate. (WIC
11320.3(b))
FISCAL EFFECT : Unknown.
COMMENTS : This bill seeks to provide a diaper supplement under
the CalWORKs program to ensure that a parent's lack of
sufficient resources to purchase diapers does not result in a
barrier to child care and, subsequently, a barrier to obtaining
and retaining employment.
Background : The California Work Opportunity and Responsibility
to Kids (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 on CalWORKs (one parent and two children) is
$463. 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
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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.
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.
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
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. 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. This
can reduce the family's maximum monthly grant by up to $122 per
month.
Child care as a supportive service : Under current law, the
support services available to CalWORKs participants include
child care, transportation costs, ancillary expenses, and
personal counseling, all of which require specified information
to be reported to the county in order to verify necessity. In
order to receive child care, for example, a CalWORKs participant
must verify employment, child care costs, and hours and dates of
employment, educational or training activities. Title 22 within
the California Code of Regulations provides standards to which
licensed child care centers must adhere, including that a center
shall ensure each infant has sufficient changes of clothing and
diapers, and that each infant's clothing and diapers are to be
changed as often as necessary to ensure that each infant is kept
clean and dry at all times.
Whereas ancillary expenses include the cost of books for school,
tools, clothing specifically required for a job, fees and other
necessary costs related to employment or education, there are no
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such ancillary payments provided for children who live in
CalWORKs families. As children sometimes rapidly grow out of
clothes, there is no supplement provided to their parents for
increased clothing costs, and for infants and toddlers, there is
currently no supplement to pay for diapers. While child care is
provided within the CalWORKs program to facilitate a parent's
participation in employment or another required welfare-to-work
activity, not having enough money to purchase diapers can result
in the loss of access to child care, which impedes a parent's
ability to go to work or participate in a welfare-to-work
activity, resulting in a sanction for non-compliance with the
program requirements.
Need for this bill : By providing a supplement to CalWORKs
families for the purpose of purchasing diapers for young
children, and through creation of a fund to facilitate local
efforts to provide diapers to needy families, this bill seeks to
address the lack of resources available to low-income families
for diaper purchases, which also mitigates the health and safety
risks children face when they don't have clean diapers.
In expressing the need for this bill, the author states:
"Every child wears diapers. Every family raising children has
to purchase diapers, ensuring the child's comfort, hygiene and
health. The majority of families with diaper-aged children
must also manage a tight budget. Depending on where a family
lives; whether or not they have a car, whether or not they can
access a wholesale store, grocery store or are limited to just
a corner convenience store, diapers will range from 35 cents
to $1 each. In order to properly diaper a child, a family
must be able to supply anywhere from 7 to 14 diapers a day, or
more (depending on age and health complications). That means
diapers can range from $73 a month to several hundred dollars
a month. This is an exceptional cost for any family, but for
the low-income family, the cost of properly diapering their
child is impossible to accommodate. The only option is to
leave a child in a dirty diaper longer, with serious
consequences ranging from diaper rash to fever, severe
infections, and even developmental delays. By providing $80
per month per child to eligible children on public assistance,
[this bill] will ensure families are not deciding between food
on the table or paying rent and whether or not they can afford
to change their child's dirty diaper."
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The author goes on to state:
"While a central priority for [this bill] is removing barriers
to employment for low-income parents, it is important to note
the broad, negative impact of a parent's inability to properly
diaper their child. Leaving a child in a dirty diaper exposes
the child to a number of health complications that can range
from mild and temporary to severe and permanent. If a parent
can't change a child's diaper often enough then they will not
be able to utilize child education programs, resulting in an
oft studied and proven impact on their development. We must
also keep in mind the public health impact because dirty
diapers can spread hepatitis A, viral meningitis and bacterial
diarrheas.
"Finally, there is a plethora of charities and private
contributors across the State that are attempting to assist
our needy families with diapers. [This bill] creates a
public-private partnership fund to help facilitate the
distribution of financial donations and diaper contributions
to the neediest of families in California."
PROPOSED AMENDMENT : The provisions in this bill that provide a
diaper supplement under the CalWORKs program reference
applicability to any child under three years of age in an "aided
household." However, a recipient household for purposes of the
CalWORKs program is commonly referred to as the "assistance
unit," whereas "household" is common terminology for the
CalFresh nutrition supplement program, which this bill does not
address or change. For purposes of consistency in the
terminology used, and to clarify that these provisions apply to
CalWORKs, committee staff recommends the following amendment:
1)On page 12, line 28, strike out "aided household" and insert:
assistance unit
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REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
Support
Coalition of California Welfare Rights Organizations, Inc. -
sponsor
American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees
(AFSCME)
National Diaper Bank Network (NDBN)
Western Center on Law and Poverty
Opposition
None on file.
Analysis Prepared by : Myesha Jackson / HUM. S. / (916)
319-2089