California has been granted a waiver which counties to continue to combine the reminder notice and the notice of adverse action for failure to complete semi-annual reporting. This notice is sent to clients when they do not submit their semi-annual report on time or submit an incomplete semi-annual report. New federal regulations require separate notices reminding clients that they failed to submit a complete periodic report and terminating benefits for not submitting a complete periodic report. The California Department of Social Services (CDSS) issued instructions to implement the new federal regulation in ACL 18-18, summarized here.
Because of implementation challenges, CDSS requested a waiver of the federal regulation requiring separate reminder and termination notices. The federal government approved the waiver for two years, effective May 1, 2018. The waiver allows continuing the current practice of combining the reminder notice and the termination notice when the client does not timely complete their semi-annual report.
The waiver requires counties to send the combined reminder notice and termination notice no later than 10 days from the date the report should have been submitted, and, if the household files a complete report during the 10 day period following the combined notice, benefits shall be issued no later than 10 days after the normal issuance date.
As a result, CDSS will continue to use the existing NA 960 X (report not received) and NA 960 Y (report incomplete) notices and ACL 18-18 is no longer in effect. (ACL 18-74, June 22, 2018.)