The following packets are being sent (in the next 6 business days) to the Office of Administrative Law (OAL). As emergency regulations, they are effective January 1, 2009. They are also open for public comment:
1. Senate Bill (SB) 39 Regulations for the Reporting and Disclosure Requirements of Child Abuse and/or Neglect Fatalities. Comments due March 18th, 2009.
2. Asset Exclusion Changes and EITC Outreach in CalWORKs Program. Comments due February 11, 2009.
Effective January 1, 2009, the community spouse resource allowance is $109,560 and the new maximum spousal income allocation/minimum monthly maintenance need allowance is $2,739 per month under the MCCA. [Download]
The letter provides the 2008-2009 Income Reporting Threshold (IRT) chart ….effective 10/1/08. It also reviews the IRT rules and informing notice requirements. The IRT rules also apply to the Refugee Cash Assistance and Trafficking and Crime Victims Assistance Programs. [Download]
This ACL provides instructions and a form for determining eligibility for, and the appropriate level of the supplement to, the regular “dual-agency” rate. The supplement is based on “extraordinary care and supervision needs”. (A dual agency child is a child receiving Foster Care or Adoption Assistance Program (AAP) benefits and who is concurrently a consumer of California regional center services due to a developmental disability, and/or a child receiving services under the California Early Start Intervention Services Act.) The children must be three years of age and older to be eligible for the supplement; counties have sole discretion to determine a supplement, which cannot exceed $1,000 per month. The ACL also has a Q & A section, and reviews the use of the “Supplement to the Rate Eligibility Form (SOC 836).” [Download]
The ACL transmits the newly developed reporting form and instructions to report on AB 98 subsidized work. The first report month will be January 2009, with the final report month, December 2010. AB 98 provides for reimbursement to counties choosing to participate in this program. (Reimbursement is for 50% of the CalWORKs recipient’s wage subsidy, outside of the county Single Allocation, when the recipient is participating in subsidized employment.) In order for counties to claim the additional funds, the county program must limit wage subsidies to a maximum of six months for each recipient and the amount of wage subsidies claimed outside of the Single Allocation may not exceed 50 percent of the maximum aid payment for the assistance unit of which the recipient is a member. [Download]
Although the state COLA was suspended, the federal SSI COLA gets passed through. This Notice provides the COLA effective 1/09, the new standards, and a reminder how to do the calculations for various things like aid-in-kind, deeming, and coordination when the spouse receives SSI. [Download]