CalFresh / SNAP

COVID-19 civil rights obligations

Posted on by

The California Department of Social Services (CDSS) provides guidance to counties regarding meeting their civil rights obligations in emergency situations.  Civil rights laws remain in effect when counties take emergency actions such as closing physical offices to the public, shortening office hours, or requiring staff to work from home.

Counties must provide services and administer programs free of discrimination.  During emergencies there can be heightened fear and anxiety leading to increased acts of xenophobia, racism, ableism, transphobia and many other forms of prejudice toward protected classes.  Counties should remind their staff to be mindful of the additional stress and anxiety of their clients.  CDSS recommends that counties make statements that reaffirm their commitment to civil rights protections both internally among their staff and externally to the public.  CDSS also recommends that counties provide refresher trainings to staff on how to provide service in an inclusive, culturally appropriate and sensitive manner.

Counties should remind staff to use the name provided by a person, even if it is different from the name on their record.  County staff should not make assumptions about a person’s sex, gender, gender identity and/or sexual orientation based on their name, their gender expression, their spouse or partner’s name, or their voice, and should use gender neutral language to foster an inclusive environment, until and unless the individual has identified their gender.

It is important to remind staff that COVID-19 is not linked to any race or nationality, and that stigmatizing people because of race or nationality is unlawful.

Counties must ensure that clients are notified of and can obtain information about programs or program changes, including changes in response to emergencies such as shortening office hours or increasing availability of phone interviews.  Counties must publicize this information in understandable and diverse formats in the threshold languages required by law.  Counties must also adopt communication methods that are understandable to people with intellectual, cognitive and psychosocial impairments.

When offices are closed or have shortened hours, office-related activities must continue to meet accessibility and non-discrimination standards.

Services and programs must remain accessible to people with disabilities as counties make changes during an emergency.  If a county designates a location for pick up/drop off of applications and forms, it must comply with Americans with Disabilities Act regulations for physical accessibility.

During medical emergencies such as COVID-19, if persons are advised to stay home, counties should ensure live or recorded messages are available in American Sign Language, Teletypewriter, and Telecommunications Device for the Deaf, and include captioning.  Counties can also consider designating office hours for people with disabilities or other vulnerable people.

Documents and postings on social media with images should have captions and images should be inclusive and not stigmatize disability.

Counties must continue to provide accommodations for people who have vision, hearing or speech disabilities.  Counties must provide auxiliary aids and services when necessary to communicate effectively.

Counties must continue to offer reasonable accommodations to persons with disabilities.  This obligation does not end at intake.  If a county staff member have actual knowledge of an individual’s disability or an individual’s need for an accommodation is obvious, the staff member must offer to assist the individual in self-identifying the disability and/or appropriate accommodations.  County staff should check for disability indicators in the case file prior to contact with the client.  Reasonable accommodations must be offered regardless of the method of contact. There is no limit on the amount of reasonable accommodation requests a person may make, and each request must be analyzed individually.

Counties must make sure they have adequate qualified interpreters and qualified translation services to assist Limited English Proficient individuals.  Counties must continue to maintain up-to-date lists of bilingual staff and remind staff of how to access these individuals.  Counties must also ensure that staff are trained in accessing alternate interpreter resources, including telephonic or video interpretation.

Clients maintain the right to file a discrimination complaint during an emergency or disaster.  Counties are reminded of their duty to actively receive and process civil rights complaints. Complaints can be made verbally or in writing.  Counties cannot require complainants to complete a form as a condition of filing a complaint.  (ACIN I-69-20, November 9, 2020.)

Disaster CalFresh for November 2020

Posted on by

California has been approved to issue Disaster CalFresh in Fresno, Los Angeles, Madera, Mendocino, Napa, San Bernardino, San Diego, Shasta, Siskiyou, and Sonoma 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 Monday November 16 to Friday November 20.  Applications can be submitted by phone, online or in person.  However, this Disaster CalFresh plan emphasizes a phone-based approach because of COVID-19 including phone interviews for applicants and allowing telephonic signatures. 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. Disaster CalFresh applicants verify identity, residency and loss/inaccessibility of income or liquid resources if possible, and household composition and food loss, if questionable.

Because the fires started on different dates, different benefit periods will be used by counties to determine Disaster CalFresh eligibility.  The benefit periods are:

  • Fresno and Madera: September 4, 2020 through October 3, 2020
  • San Bernardino and San Diego: September 5, 2020 through October 4, 2020
  • Los Angeles: September 6, 2020 through October 5, 2020
  • Mendocino: September 7, 2020 through October 6, 2020
  • Siskiyou: September 8, 2020 through October 7, 2020
  • Napa, Shasta, and Sonoma: September 27, 2020 through October 26, 2020

(ACWDL, November 9, 2020.)

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.)