As a result of passage of the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012, there are two major changes for counties: 1) federal tax credits and refunds received on or after January 1, 2013, are permanently excluded
as income when determining eligibility and benefit amount in the CalWORKs and CalFresh programs; and 2) these tax credits and refunds are also disregarded as a resource for 12 months from the date of receipt. [Download]
Summaries of select CalWORKs, CalFresh, Health and Housing Regulations
CalFresh / SNAP
ACL 13-45: California CalFresh Alert Case Process (6/7/13)
This letter outlines the steps the state and the county will be taking when the state gets an “Alert” from FNS regarding people with “unusual” transactions at retailers closed down or penalized for fraud. Includes the California “Integrity Plan.” [Download]
ACL 11-06E: Continuing Of All County Letter (ACL) 11-06 Sponsor Deeming, Indigent Noncitizen Determination And Sponsor Income Verification (5/23/13)
This errata is more like a new ACL, as it is a continuation of an ACL from 2011 (yes, 2 years ago), ACL 11-06. This letter reviews (1) the procedure for reviewing sponsor deeming when a child receiving benefits turns eighteen years old; (2) the updated address and procedure for notifying the USCIS of the names of the indigent sponsored noncitizen and the sponsor in accordance with federal guidance; and (3) the valuation of in-kind assistance solely for the purpose of making the indigent determination. [Download]
ACIN I-24-13: CalFresh Administrative Error Overissuances (5/10/13)
When the Lomeli settlement went into effect, DSS issued a regulation, but did not remove the old provisions that were in a different section. Just to clarify, this letter explains that admin error overissuances are limited to a 5% collection rate. [Download]
ACL 13-35: Heat And Eat Program (4/24/13)
A tweak to the “Heat and Eat” program described in ACL 12-61, to remedy the fact that some homeless households with income were losing benefits. Since the intent of Heat and Eat is to increase benefits, CWDs are instructed to determine which deduction should be used in the CalFresh budget calculation for the homeless household so as to not adversely affect the household’s benefits. If the homeless shelter deduction, vs. the SUA, is more advantageous, that would be used. Homeless households adversely impacted by use of the SUA rather than the homeless shelter deduction should have their benefits recalculated using the correct deduction retroactively to January 1, 2013. These households get the LIHEAP benefit either way. [Download]
ACL 13-32: Modified Categorical Eligibility/Broad-Based Categorical Eligibility And Elderly/Disabled CalFresh Households (4/24/13)
An important add-on to ACL 12-62, explaining that if a household with seniors/people classified as disabled are above 200% FPL (the financial cut off with the feds for Categorical Eligibility), the county must still process the application to determine if the household is eligible. Why? Because these households have no gross income limit (as well as having no excess shelter cap and being eligible for out of pocket medical expenses), and thus could be eligible even if above 200% FPL. The county would need to determine if they are below the $3k resource limit. Which is one of the only times (other than when looking at Expedited eligibility) that resources matter for CalFresh. [Download]