CalFresh / SNAP

COVID-19 county welfare department office access

Posted on by

The California Department of Social Services (CDSS) reminds counties of their legal requirements to ensure applicants and recipients have access to public social services benefits and services during an emergency or disaster.  Absent an order from federal, state or local officials to close counties to the public, counties must continue to offer in-person assistance to applicants and recipients in addition to telephone and internet assistance.

If a county closes during regular business hours, the county must: 1) provide the opportunity to file an application for and receive benefits within mandated timeframes by making applications available and providing a drop-box, mail slot or other reasonable means for filing applications; 2) provide the opportunity to file an application for and receive expedited CalFresh, immediate need CalWORKs, and homeless assistance by maintaining sufficient staff to accept and act on all such applications, and/or maintain a local telephone service with sufficient staff to accept and act upon all applications as if the requests has been made in person at the county office; 3) have a telephone announcement with working days and times, when the offices will be closed, and procedures for applying for benefits, and 4) post notices at welfare department offices of times when the office will be closed, procedures to obtain and file applications, and procedures for applying for and receiving expedited CalFresh, immediate need CalWORKs and homeless assistance within mandated time frames.

Counties must provide access to benefits and services by telephone in a timely manner.  Extended wait times, which require applicants and recipients to hold for hours or call back on multiple days are not compliant.

Best practices for counties include triaging client needs to limit lobby traffic and the number of people in the lobby, setting up stations outside of the county office to accept applications and screen for eligibility, providing accessible phones for clients when the county provides applications in boxes outside of a partially closed office, setting up drive through drop-off stations for no contact delivery of documents, issuing homeless assistance benefits to the client’s EBT card, and offering pick-up mail services for homeless clients.

Counties can also set up a laptop pilot program to loan participants mobile devices such as smart phones and tablets, and establish a Digital Navigator program to help clients with digital access and learning, and developing digital skills.  (ACIN I-76-20, November 4, 2020.)

COVID-19 CalFresh emergency allotment for November 2020

Posted on by

California has been approved to issue an emergency allotment of CalFresh for November, 2020.  The emergency allotment will be issued on December 20 to raise each household’s monthly CalFresh allotment to the maximum allowable for the household size.  Per guidance from the Food and Nutrition Service (FNS), households already receiving the maximum allotment are not eligible to receive an emergency allotment.

Moving forward, emergency allotments may be approved by FNS on a month-to-month basis until the Secretary of Health and Human Services rescinds the public health emergency. (ACWDL, October 30, 2020.)

Counting homework time for Cell-Ed

Posted on by

In ACIN I-55-20, summarized here, the California Department of Social Services (CDSS) described its partnership with Cell-Ed to provide distance learning for Welfare-to-Work, CalFresh Education and Training, and Refugee Support Services.  People assigned to Welfare-to-Work, CalFresh Education and Training, and Refugee Support Services may also be assigned supervised or unsupervised homework time.  Cell-Ed coursework homework time hours are considered supervised homework time and can be documented by the case manager.

Cell-Ed recommends for every hour spent on the application, three additional hours of are credited for homework time.  This recommendation depends on a client demonstrating satisfactory progress as defined by the educational provider.  (All County Welfare Directors Letter, October 19, 2020.)

COVID-19 CalFresh waiver of interview requirements

Posted on by

The California Department of Social Services (CDSS) is implementing federal waivers of the initial application and recertification interview and face-to-face interview.  These waivers were previously in effect, and are not being reimplemented because of the Continuing Appropriations Act.  These waivers are effective from now until June 30, 2021.  The waivers can be applied to any application pending at the time of the release of the guidance.

Counties must waive the requirement for an interview at initial certification and recertification of eligibility for benefits if the county has verified the identity of the applicant and has completed all mandatory verifications.  Households entitled to expedited service and whose identity is verified within the three-day expedited service timeframe will have their initial interview waived prior to benefit issuance.  If an expedited service household does not provide missing mandatory verification, benefits will be discontinued per existing CDSS policy.

To verify identity counties must accept any readily available documentary evidence which reasonably establishes the applicant’s identity.  If documentary evidence is not readily available, counties may verify identity using collateral contacts.

For other verification, counties should proactively use electronic verification when it is available.

Verification of job loss is not a mandatory verification for CalFresh.  Verification of job loss should be requested only if the job loss is questionable. A client’s statement of job loss is sufficient evidence that the client cannot reasonably anticipate income from that job.

If the county determines that any of the information provided on the application is questionable or incomplete, or the applicant does not complete identity verification or other mandatory verification, then an interview is required.

For households whose interviews cannot be waived, counties may require the household to completed a telephone interview even if they request a face-to-face interview.  (All County Welfare Directors Letter, October 21, 2020.)

Disaster CalFresh October 2020 additional counties

Posted on by

California has been approved to issue Disaster CalFresh in Butte, Napa, Sonoma and Santa Clara Counties for persons affected by the wildfires.

Disaster CalFresh provides food assistance to households affected by natural disasters.  To be eligible, families must live or work in the disaster area, plan to purchase food during the benefit period, experience adverse effects from the disaster and meet Disaster CalFresh income guidelines.

Disaster CalFresh has three verification requirements: identity, residency and loss or inaccessibility of income, and household composition and food loss, if questionable.  Benefits should be issued within 72 hours of application.

The application period is Wednesday October 28 to Friday October 30 and Monday November 2 to Thursday November 5.  For Santa Clara County, the application period is Monday November 2 to Friday November 6 and Monday November 9 to Tuesday November 10.  Applications can be submitted by phone, online or in person.  Applications will not be accepted by mail.  Applicants can verbally attest to information. Verification can be submitted, using the Disaster CalFresh pre-registration tool, the SAWS client portals, secure email or fax, and in person at application sites. Pre-registration will be available from October 21 to October 27. For Santa Clara County, pre-registration will be available from October 26 to October 30.

The start date of the disaster for Napa, Santa Clara and Sonoma Counties is August 14, 2020. The start date of the disaster for Butte County is September 7, 2020.  (ACWDL, October 16, 2020.)

Disaster CalFresh October 2020

Posted on by

California has been approved to issue Disaster CalFresh in Lake, Monterey, San Mateo, Santa Cruz, Solano and Yolo Counties for persons affected by the wildfires.  Note that after this letter was issue, Santa Clara County was also approved for Disaster CalFresh.

Disaster CalFresh provides food assistance to households affected by natural disasters.  To be eligible, families must live or work in the disaster area, plan to purchase food during the benefit period, experience adverse effects from the disaster and meet Disaster CalFresh income guidelines.

Disaster CalFresh has three verification requirements: identity, residency and loss or inaccessibility of income, and household composition and food loss, if questionable.  Benefits should be issued within 72 hours of application.

The application period is Wednesday October 14 to Friday October 16 and Monday October 19 to Thursday October 22.  Applications can be submitted by phone, online or in person.  Applications will not be accepted by mail.  Applicants can verbally attest to information. Verification can be submitted, using the Disaster CalFresh pre-registration tool, the SAWS client portals, secure email or fax, and in person at application sites. Pre-registration will be available from October 7 to October 13.

The start date of the disaster for Napa, Santa Clara and Sonoma Counties is August 14, 2020. (ACWDL, October 5, 2020.)