ACL 07-31: Food Stamp Simplification – Clarification Of The $50 Child Support Disregard And “19 Year Old” Student Earnings Exclusion (9/7/07)

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Another oops. Last August, CDSS provided instructions on the changes made to align Food Stamps with CalWORKs. This included how to treat the $50 child/spousal support pass-through and student income. Only problem was that the Food Nutrition Services said the state misinterpreted federal law, and got those two areas of instructions wrong. So, here are the corrected instructions. Can’t disregard legally obligated support. And, the student exemption is for children under 18, not 19. The correct policy is effective immediately and to be implemented no later than November 1, 2007, with encouragement to do it early to avoid QC issue and overissuances. (Although there is a “hold harmless” provision for following prior policy, and no need to do a retroactive case review.) [Download]

ACL 07-13E: Correction re: Kinship Guardianship Assistance Payment Program Enhancements (8/9/07)

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Oops. ACL 07-13E had a tiny error. Like what the eligibility requirement is for the program!  It erroneously stated that to be eligible youth needed to be 12 continuous months with a legal guardian. Turns out the CORRECT statement is that the youth 1) have lived with a relative 12 continuous months; 2) have a kinship guardian appointed by the juvenile court; 3) have the juvenile court case dismissed. Also a reminder that though the letter was about probation youth, the regular Kinship rules re: dependents is unaffected…. [Download]

ACL 07-29: Access To Case Records And Use Of Manual Workarounds (8/17/07)

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A redux of the 2006 letter, given the on-going problems… Unrestricted access, regardless of how the file information is kept, and “in spite of the challenges … of automated information.” It even mentions that there “may be” a due process violation for failure to comply.  Automation in your way? do a manual workaround… And just to make extra clear, there’s a special section addressed to CalWIN and C-IV counties, with such great options as having a staff person help the recipient navigate all the read-only pages, or printing everything out at no cost. Finishes up with a little reminder that benefits must be issued timely, and if that pesky automation is in the way, to issue them manually. [Download]

ACIN I-44-07:Changes To SAWS 2 Form Regarding Utility Cost Information (8/22/07)

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Food Stamp Simplification changes the rules re: utilities. Now, the SAWS2 (application) has been changed to reflect those new rules. However, CDSS has advised counties they may use existing form stock until depleted, as long as they are “vigilant” about applying current policy. Which will be tricky since it’s not specifically on the form…. But heh, the new policy has been effective since 11/1/06, so hopefully they are used to working off an incorrect application! [Download]