BILL ANALYSIS
SENATE HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES
COMMITTEE ANALYSIS
Senator Martha M. Escutia, Chair
BILL NO: AB 1039
A
AUTHOR: Aroner
B
AMENDED: July 8, 1999
HEARING DATE: July 14, 1999
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FISCAL: Appropriations
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CONSULTANT:
9
McCarthy / ak
SUBJECT
CalWORKs program
SUMMARY
Permits counties to provide subsidized employment
activities for California Work Opportunity and
Responsibility to Kids (CalWORKs) recipients; revises the
education component of the CalWORKs program; and revises
county notice requirements.
ABSTRACT
Existing law:
provides for the CalWORKs program through which indigent
families with children are provided with cash aid,
employment related services and other assistance;
establishes a community service work requirement for
certain parents receiving CalWORKs for whom unsubsidized
employment is not currently available;
requires that parents on aid receive specified
notification of program requirements;
permits parents on CalWORKs who are enrolled in self
initiated education programs to continue in those
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programs for a specified length of time if the program
meets established criteria;
establishes provisions pertaining to child support
assurance demonstration projects and to requirements for
cooperation with child support enforcement.
This bill:
authorizes counties to provide a wage-based subsidized
employment program for CalWORKs recipients in lieu of, or
in addition to, participating in community service;
requires counties to notify recipients of their right, as
provided in current law, to contest terms of a welfare to
work plan;
allows parents enrolled in self initiated education
program to count a specified amount of study time toward
their weekly required hours of work activity;
requires the district attorney to determine if certain
former recipients have good cause for noncooperation with
child support enforcement.
FISCAL IMPACT
According to the Assembly Appropriations Committee, the
bill's provisions allowing counties to implement subsidized
employment could have significant fiscal impact on counties
that choose the option. To the extent supported employment
programs are more expensive than community service, county
costs would increase. (However, the author argues these
costs could be paid through a county's CalWORKs single
allocation.) The bill's notice requirements regarding the
right to contest or seek an independent assessment of a
welfare-to-work plan would be state-reimbursable. In
addition, to the extent notice requirement increases the
number of CalWORKs state fair hearings or independent
assessments, the bill would result in costs to the state
and reimbursable county annual costs in the range of
$250,000 (General Fund/federal funds).
BACKGROUND AND DISCUSSION
1.Existing Law
The federal welfare reform enacted in 1996 (TANF)
initially was implemented in California as the CalWORKs
program in 1997 (AB 1542, Chapter 270, Statutes of 1997),
and amended by AB 2722 (Chapter 903, Statutes of 1998)
The CalWORKs program provides time-limited cash
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assistance and supportive services to eligible low-income
families. Under CalWORKs, recipients participate in
certain welfare-to-work activities for a specified number
of hours each week, unless otherwise exempt.
Existing law also contains the following provisions:
a) Community Service -- Existing law permits counties
to provide community service activities for CalWORKs
recipients who have not yet met time limits and are
not employed in unsubsidized employment sufficient to
meet the required hours of participation. It also
requires counties to provide community service
activities for CalWORKs recipients who have met their
18-24 month time limits and cannot find unsubsidized
employment sufficient to meet the required hours of
participation, when the county certifies that no job
is currently available to fulfill the required hours.
b) Welfare-to-work plan -- Existing law provides that
an applicant for, or a recipient of, CalWORKs benefits
who is dissatisfied with his or her welfare-to-work
plan may seek review through an independent assessment
process or a state or county hearing or grievance
process.
c) Program requirements -- Existing law requires that
the county provide a CalWORKs applicant or recipient
with a description of program requirements, in writing
or orally, as necessary.
d) Self initiated programs -- Existing law provides
that any CalWORKs recipient who, at the time he or she
is required to participate in welfare-to-work
activities, is enrolled in any undergraduate degree or
certificate program, may continue in that program if
the county determines the program is likely to lead to
employment. Existing law further requires that a
CalWORKs recipient who is participating in educational
or vocational training and whose weekly hours of
classroom, laboratory, or internship activities total
less than 32, must participate up to the required 32
hours in other work activities which are more narrowly
defined than for other CalWORKs recipients.
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e) Requires that CalWORKs recipients participate in
certain activities for a specified number of hours
each week, unless otherwise exempt.
f) Child support -- Existing law requires CalWORKs
applicants and recipients to cooperate with child
support services unless they have established good
cause for not doing so as determined by the county
welfare department. Existing law also requires the
district attorney to suspend child support enforcement
efforts if the county welfare department makes a
finding of good cause for a failure to cooperate.
1.This bill would make the following changes to current
law.
b) Subsidized employment -- AB 1039 permits counties
to establish a subsidized employment program as an
alternative, or in addition to, community service
activities, subject to the following conditions.
Participants in subsidized employment would
be entitled to a stipend of $90 per month for
mandatory payroll deductions and other work
expenses instead of the earned income disregard;
participation shall not exceed one year in
duration.
Specifies provisions for handling accrued sick
leave or vacation after the end of subsidized
employment.
Participants who fail to perform the required
number of hours in the first month would be entitled
to an assistance payment equal to the wages not
received for the hours not worked, but shall be
ineligible for the program if they fail to meet the
work requirement in the second month.
Employers or entities other than the county
shall pay participants' wages.
Counties may fund the wages for subsidized
employment through their single allocation or any
other funds.
Counties shall monitor the retention of
participants as permanent employees of employers
participating in subsidized employment and cancel
participation of employers who demonstrate an
unwillingness to permanently hire individuals who
have participated in subsidized employment.
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Implementation of subsidized employment
projects would be contingent upon funding in the
annual Budget Act.
a) Sick leave, hours per week -- This bill would
require counties to count toward the participant's
weekly hours of participation requirement the hours of
sick leave authorized by the employer and hours a
participant cannot work because of employer-recognized
holidays. Also, this bill would require that
participants shall be considered employees for all
purposes, including the Fair Labor Standards Act, and
must be compensated at no less than the higher of the
state or federal minimum wage.
b) EITC -- This bill requires that counties shall
assist recipients in subsidized employment in applying
and qualifying for the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC)
c) Welfare to work plans --AB 1039 requires counties
to include, in their existing notice to CalWORKs
applicants and in the welfare-to-work plan, a
description of the right of the applicant or recipient
to contest the terms of his or her welfare-to-work
plan or seek changes in the plan.
d) Allowable work hours -- This bill conforms the
allowable work activities for students to the
allowable work activities for other CalWORKs
recipients.
e) Child support -- This bill permits a former
CalWORKs recipient to claim a good cause exemption
from the county welfare department for noncooperation
with child support services in the same manner as
CalWORKs applicants and recipients.
f) Study time -- This bill provides that CalWORKs
recipients enrolled in an educational or vocational
training program are entitled to count classroom
preparation time toward their 32 hour work
participation requirements and presumes that two hours
of study time are required for each hour of classroom
instruction. AB 1039 allows counties to require
participants to perform at least 24 hours of work per
week which may be increased, at the option of the
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county, to 32 hours per week.
3.Subsidized Employment
As part of California's welfare reform plan, a CalWORKs
recipient who is not employed after 18 or 24 months on
aid must go into community service employment. Community
service employment is work performed by recipients of
public assistance that otherwise would have gone undone
by employees in the public, private or non-profit sector.
There are two broad approaches to community service:
workfare and wage-based community service. Under
workfare, recipients are required to participate in
community service as a condition of receiving their
public assistance grant. Under wage-based community
service, the recipient's grant is used to fully or
partially offset wages that are paid to the recipient.
The Legislative Analyst's Office (LAO) recently completed
a report on CalWORKs community service, "CalWORKs
Community Service, What Does It Mean for California?"
(February 4, 1999). In that report, LAO found that
wage-based community service results in more income for
families by allowing them to access the EITC. A typical
family of three in wage-based community service would
receive an EITC of about $250 per month, or about $3,000
per year. The report also noted that wage-based
community service aids recipients in the transition to
work by giving participants actual work experience. The
author states that it is her intent to allow, but not
mandate, counties to create wage-based community service
programs for CalWORKs recipients that will give those
recipients real-life work opportunities and increase
their household income.
4.Self-initiated Education Programs
The author states that one purpose of this bill is to
correct discriminatory hourly requirements for CalWORKs
recipients who are self-initiated students. She states
that a recent oversight hearing by the Select Committee
on Welfare Reform Implementation on the role of community
colleges in welfare reform determined there are several
barriers to CalWORKs recipients receiving an education.
One of the major barriers identified was the current law
requirement that students may not count their study time
towards their work participation hours.
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5.Child Support Assurance
Current law authorizes child support assurances (CSA)
demonstration programs in up to three counties; this
bill instead authorizes three demonstration programs, in
two or more counties, if the appropriate operational
fiscal arrangements are achieved and if approved by the
California Department of Social Services. This bill also
revises the specific limits on the number of persons who
may participate in CSA and revises evaluation criteria
for the CSA pilot projects. Also, this bill specifies
that no funding source for CSA shall be used if it would
cause participants to be subject to the time limits
required under CalWORKs (CSA is intended to be an
alternative to CalWORKs).
Current law also required that one of the CSA pilot
programs had to replicate a model implemented in New York
state. This bill would delete that requirement.
6.Arguments of Supporters of AB 1039
Western Center on Law and Poverty, the bill's sponsor,
notes that current law puts student CalWORKs participants
at a distinct disadvantage by requiring more combined
hours of work activity than other participants. A single
parent recipient in a full time education program must
add 17-20 hours of employment or other work activities to
satisfy the CalWORKs requirement. If that student's study
time is two hours for each classroom hour and he or she
is taking 15 units, that student will have to devote 62
hours per week of education or work activities to meet
the participation requirement, since 30 hours are not
counted. This, the sponsor say, jeopardizes the
well-being and development of the student's children and
risks the educational success of the student.
7.Funding
In early July 1999, the Governor vetoed from the state
budget the $3.4 million CalWORKs "carve out" for the
subsidized employment program described in AB 1039.
However, anticipating that funding, the bill contains
language allowing the subsidized employment program to be
implemented only if funds are appropriated in the budget
act. As the subsidized employment program is optional on
the part of counties, and counties have a single block
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grant for CalWORKs employment services they could choose
to use to fund the program, should this bill be amended
to allow counties to implement the program in the absence
of a CalWORKs funding "carve out"? (On pages 21, lines
19 and 21, delete "and Section 11322.9 of WIC).
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PRIOR ACTIONS
Assembly Floor: 42-36Pass
Assembly Appropriations: 14-7Do Pass As Amended
Assembly Human Services: 6-2Do Pass
POSITIONS
Support: Western Center on Law and Poverty (sponsor)
American Federation of State, County and
Municipal Employees
California Church IMPACT
California Federation of Business and
Professional Women
California National Organization of Women
Children's Advocacy Institute
Community College League of California
Equal Rights Advocates
Housing California
Jericho
San Diego Community College District
Santa Barbara Family Care Center
23 Individuals
Oppose: None received
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