With the passage of AB 1094, CalWORKs has added Veteran’s Disability Benefits to the list of disability income.  This income is subject to the $225 disregard.  The law was effective 1/1/14, so counties must issue any corrective payments, by recalculating the grant the next time the CWD takes action on the case (e.g. processing a SAR 7, annual redetermination, voluntary report from the AU, etc.) or when it becomes known to the CWD. This includes rescinding any discontinuances if the failure to provide the disregard caused the discontinuance.  [Download]

The DSS has posted a notice of open comment period regarding CalWORKs Overpayments.  Deadline is March 12, 2014.

A review of the importance of issuing “adequate notice” and what that means in the context of the CalWORKs program.  (In sum, enough information that the individual “has sufficient information to understand the action that is being taken on their application or CalWORKs case.”)  Of note is the section discussing automation, and that workers must manually complete NOAs if the automation doesn’t permit sufficient detail. more details on language access, and information on disability accommodations when there are reading issues.  [Download]

Passing along the new IRT chart for CalWORKs, along with the review of the 3 tier IRT system and the IRT reporting rules.  (For FFY 2014, the amount of income likely to render an AU ineligible for CalWORKs is less than 130 percent of the FPL for each AU size, so only tiers one and two are applicable.)  [Download]

Just passing on the regs implementing SAR.  The bulk of it was already in ACL No. 12-25. [Download]