The California Department of Social Services (CDSS) has issued guidance regarding time on aid for CalWORKs Family Reunification cases that receive temporary homeless assistance benefits.

Effective January 1, 2018, CalWORKs families receiving Family Reunification services are eligible for temporary homeless assistance if the county determines these benefits are necessary for reunification to occur.  Previously, these families could only receive supportive services.  These families are not eligible for a CalWORKs grant.

CDSS states that homeless assistance benefits are considered special need payments and special needs payments count as receipt of aid towards the recipients CalWORKs 48-month time on aid limit.  Homeless Assistance does not tick the Federal Temporary Aid to Needy Families time on aid clock because federal regulations consider homeless assistance to be non-recurring short-term benefits, not assistance.  (ACL 19-112, December 12, 2019.)

The California Department of Social Services (CDSS) has issued guidance about the Cal-OAR California Continuous Quality Improvement (Cal-CQI) process.  Cal-OAR establishes a local data-driven management system to facilitate improvement to county CalWORKs programs.  The Cal-CQI occurs in three-year cycles using data gathered from Cal-OAR.  During each three-year cycle, counties must conduct a self-assessment, develop a system improvement plan, implement and evaluate strategies for improvement and report progress.

Each county must conduct a self-assessment to 1) comprehensively evaluate services, program implementation, and outcomes; 2) identify strengths and challenges of current program practices and 3) describe how local operational decisions and systemic factors affect outcomes.  Counties are required to work with local stakeholders in the Cal-OAR process.  Counties must also have a peer review component.  Based on this information, counties develop a plan for improvement in which they select a measure or set of measures for focused improvement and develop strategies to improve performance on the chosen measures.

When the self improvement plan is approved by the Board of Supervisors and CDSS, the county will work to implement its improvement strategies.  Counties must do a progress report on implementation progress of the self improvement plan.

CDSS will provide training on the Cal-OAR process in a variety of formats.  (ACL 19-108, November 27, 2019.)

The California Department of Social Services (CDSS) has issued guidance regarding AB 807 that exempts awards and scholarships provided by a private or public entity to, or on behalf of, a dependent child, and income earned from temporary work related to the census.

Prior to AB 807, awards or scholarships provided for academic or extracurricular achievement were exempt from being considered income.  Now any award or scholarship provided to a dependent child is exempt from being considered income for CalWORKs.

Prior to AB 807, income from census work was counted for CalWORKs if it was reasonably anticipated.  Now, any census-related income or stipend earned during the year preceding a census and the year of a census is not income for CalWORKs.

Counties must implement these changes manually until the changes are automated.  (ACL 19-106, November 12, 2019.)

The California Department of Social Services (CDSS) has issued a reminder about regulations an policies for processing CalWORKs applications and documents on behalf of disaster victims and evacuees.

For evacuees who apply for CalWORKs, if the applicant and the county make a good faith effort to obtain verification and are unable to do so, the county must accept the evacuee’s statements signed under penalty of perjury in lieu of verification.

When an individual or family displaced by fires applies for CalWORKs, counties must establish that the evacuee was living in a county designated as a federal disaster and/or state-declared emergency zone and ask if the evacuee or anyone else in their family is receiving CalWORKs from that county or another disaster county.

Counties are encouraged to offer CalWORKs diversion to evacuees to address their specific crisis or item of need.

Disaster assistance from federal, state or local government or disaster assistance organizations is excluded from consideration as income.

For new applicants, counties should pay special attention to homeless assistance, including that evacuees are entitled to an exception to the once in twelve months limitation, and to eligibility for immediate need payments.  A written statement from the applicant is sufficient to establish intent to establish residency in California and in the county of application for the foreseeable future.  For income, it is expected that some evacuees will no longer have reasonably anticipated income because of the disaster.  For property and resources, counties must consider the applicant’s ability to access, occupy or sell their property at the time of application because of the disaster.

For families temporarily separated because of the disaster, a family member is considered temporary absent if they expect to reunite within one full calendar month.  CalWORKs recipients can maintain a home in a different county than the county they are physically residing in if they intend to return to that home within four months.

Evacuated families should make a good cause determination for nonparticipation in welfare-to-work activities.  Counties should also determine if an applicant needs barrier removal services such as mental health services or housing stabilization program services and provide these services as expeditiously as possible.  (All County Welfare Directors Letter, October 29, 2019.)