CalFresh / SNAP

New NA Back 9 form

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The California Department of Social Services (CDSS) has issued a revised version of the NA Back 9 form, which is the form on the back of every Notice of Action for a CDSS administered program about hearing rights and how to request a hearing.  The new NA Back 9 form includes the ability to request a preferred hearing modality, instructions on submitting hearing requests online or by email, and information about on-line hearings accounts.

Counties must begin using the new NA Back 9 form when automation in the CalSAWS computer system is complete.  All county generated notices must include the revised NA Back 9 after it is programmed into CalSAWS.  CDSS does not state when to expect the revised NA Back 9 to be programmed into CalSAWS or state a deadline for that programming.

Counties must include the local legal aid office(s) in the “Get Help” section of the new NA Back 9.

Agencies that use a form other than the NA Back 9 to request a hearing must have those forms reviewed and approved by the CDSS State Hearings Division.  (ACL 23-81, September 19, 2023.)

CalFresh mass replacement for Northern California power outages

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The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) has approved mass replacement of CalFresh benefits for area impacted by public outages in Northern California in August, 2023.  Based on USDA’s approval, the California Department of Social Services (CDSS) will automatically replace 30 percent of CalFresh benefits for August, 2023 for zip codes: Calaveras: 95223 and 95247 Contra Costa: 94514 Del Norte: 95531, 95543, 95548, and 95567 Humboldt: 95556, 95558, and 95546 Kings: 93204 Lake: 95426 Mariposa: 95325 Nevada: 95975 Placer: 95715 Santa Cruz: 95006 Siskiyou: 95568 Trinity: 95527 and 95563 Tulare: 93633 Tuolumne: 95321 and 95372.  CDSS will automatically replace 25 percent of CalFresh benefits for August, 2023 for zip codes: Colusa: 95979 Glenn: 95939 Humboldt: 95569 Shasta: 96065, 96084, and 96047 Tehama: 96029 and 96074.

The replacement benefits will be issued to all regular CalFresh households in those zip codes.  Households that have already received replacement benefits based on a signed affidavit of loss will not receive the mass replacement benefits.  Households can submit a signed affidavit of loss to request more than the amount of the mass replacement benefits. (USDA Letters, September 8, 2023 and September 15, 2023.)

Increase in CalWORKs Maximum Aid Payment

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Effective October 1, 2023, the CalWORKs Maximum Aid Payment (MAP) will increase by 3.6%.  In addition, the 10% MAP increase that was scheduled to end on September 30, 2023 will continue.

The 3.6% increase in the MAP may cause a decrease in CalFresh benefits.  Counties must give written notice of any CalFresh grant decrease because of the MAP increase no later than September 20, 2023.

Counties must send a notice to all CalWORKs recipients informing of the MAP increase and the potential CalFresh decrease no later than September 1, 2023. Counties must also send individualized notices giving each assistance unit information specific to their CalWORKs grant amount.

CDSS has updated the child MAP charts to reflect the October 1, 2023 MAP increase.  The child MAP is used to determine if child support received on behalf of a child is more than the CalWORKs grant amount for that child.  If the child support received on behalf of a child is more than then CalWORKs grant amount for that child, the assistance unit has the option of having that child opt-out of the assistance unit.  The county may add the child back into the grant mid-period if the child support received is no longer greater than the CalWORKs grant amount.  If the child support received remains lower than the CalWORKs grant amount, the county must add the child to the CalWORKs grant at the next semi-annual review or annual recertification.

These changes must be programmed into the CalSAWS computer system no later than October 1, 2023.  If they are not, CalSAWS must provide counties with a manual work-around to ensure that families receive the correct amount of benefits.  (ACL 23-74, August 30, 2023.)

CalFresh waivers of 10-day requirement to report food loss

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CalFresh recipients who lose food because of a power outage have 10 days to ask for replacement of the food they purchased.  The Food and Nutrition Service has approved a waiver of the 10-day time frame to request food replacement for three counties because of various disasters.  The deadline to request food replacement for households in Siskiyou County because of power outages due to wildfires is extended to September 14.  The deadline to request food replacement for households in Del Norte County because of power outages due to wildfires is extended to September 18.  The deadline to request food replacement for households in Riverside county because of power outages due to Hurricane Hillary is extended to September 19.  (August 24, 2023 letter from FNS (Siskiyou), Letter from FNS (Del Norte), August 30 2023 letter from FNS (Riverside).)

Change to CalFresh treatment of Guaranteed Income

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Effective immediately, Guarantee Income (GI) payments that have any amount of non-government funding and are exempt from being considered as income for CalWORKs are also not counted as income for CalFresh. This means that CalFresh GI exemptions are no longer limited to funds from individually approved CalWORKs demonstration projects.

Some programs have already been screened and approved by the California Department of Social Services to meet the requirements to be exempt for CalFresh purposes.  Counties can rely on those approvals.  To exempt future GI payments for CalFresh, counties will need to determine whether GI payments contain any non-governmental funds.

For resource determinations, this change will not impact households that have Modified Categorical Eligibility status because they do not have a resource limit for CalFresh.  Households that do not have Modified Categorical Eligibility must meet a resource test, and they will be at risk of losing CalFresh if GI payments that they save put them over the resource limit at initial application, semi-annual reporting, or annual recertification.  Households that do not have Modified Categorial Eligibility are households that contain sanctioned individuals, or elderly or disabled households with income over 200% of the Federal Poverty Level.  (ACL 23-60, July 5, 2023.)