Clarification and additional procedures for CalFresh Intentional Program Violations (IPVs) per the Lopez v. Wagner lawsuit. The settlement requires all the counties to list additional information to the disqualified household member along with a revised CalFresh Notice of Administrative Disqualification (DFA 377.7A), effective “as soon as administratively possible, but no later than six months from issuance of the ACL.” The 377.7A was modified to explain how to get back on benefits at the end of the disqualification period, and must be sent with a .7A1 form that allows the recipient to ask for benefits to be restored (other than for permanent disqualifications).  [Download]

Important changes for Non-Assistance CalFresh folks regarding the CalFresh Employment and Training program (CFET, formerly the FSET program.)  SB 43 adds additional deferral criteria to which all E&T counties must adhere, irrespective of their existing deferral policies.  By mandating additional bases for deferral, more CalFresh recipients will be able to avoid any problems with CFET sanctions (as sanctions are only for mandatory, and not volunteer, CFET folks).  The letter lists all the deferral criteria, as well as the counties that did not qualify for the “work surplus” deferral.  For those counties, the letter lists the cities within the counties which are “work surplus” and thus also must defer non-assistance CalFresh recipients.  Counties that have decided to maintain an all-voluntary CalFresh E&T program will not need to monitor their work surplus status.  Unfortunately, all work registrants who are currently in sanction for noncompliance with E&T, who would otherwise deferred from E&T given the passage of SB 43, must continue in sanction until their minimum durational sanction ends or if they would qualify for an exemption to work registration.  (The deferral is not an exemption that can end a sanction.) [Download]