COVID-19 child care guidance

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The California Department of Social Services (CDSS) has issued guidance and temporary waivers regarding Stage One Child Care and the Emergency Child Care Bridge Program for Foster Children because of COVID-19.

CalWORKs Stage One child care providers must be reimbursed for the maximum hours of authorized care, regardless of attendance, from July 1, 2020 to June 30, 2021.

Family fees for former CalWORKs recipients receiving Stage One Child Care continue to be waived through June 30, 2021.  Families who were disenrolled, voluntarily or involuntarily, because of inability to pay family fees from July to August, 2020 must be reenrolled without the need for any additional documentation.

Signature requirements for CalWORKs and the Bridge Program continue to be waived for the duration of the statewide emergency declaration.

Counties must reimburse for CalWORKs Stage One Child Care and the Bridge Program during the time school-age children participate in distance learning and are attending their child care program or are being cared for by a child care provider. This is because CDSS does not consider the child to be attending school while participating in distance learning for purposes of child care reimbursement.  (ACWDL, October 2, 2020.)

Disaster CalFresh October 2020 additional counties

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California has been approved to issue Disaster CalFresh in Butte, Napa, Sonoma and Santa Clara Counties for persons affected by the wildfires.

Disaster CalFresh provides food assistance to households affected by natural disasters.  To be eligible, families must live or work in the disaster area, plan to purchase food during the benefit period, experience adverse effects from the disaster and meet Disaster CalFresh income guidelines.

Disaster CalFresh has three verification requirements: identity, residency and loss or inaccessibility of income, and household composition and food loss, if questionable.  Benefits should be issued within 72 hours of application.

The application period is Wednesday October 28 to Friday October 30 and Monday November 2 to Thursday November 5.  For Santa Clara County, the application period is Monday November 2 to Friday November 6 and Monday November 9 to Tuesday November 10.  Applications can be submitted by phone, online or in person.  Applications will not be accepted by mail.  Applicants can verbally attest to information. Verification can be submitted, using the Disaster CalFresh pre-registration tool, the SAWS client portals, secure email or fax, and in person at application sites. Pre-registration will be available from October 21 to October 27. For Santa Clara County, pre-registration will be available from October 26 to October 30.

The start date of the disaster for Napa, Santa Clara and Sonoma Counties is August 14, 2020. The start date of the disaster for Butte County is September 7, 2020.  (ACWDL, October 16, 2020.)

End of proration of IHSS protective supervision

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The California Department of Social Services (CDSS) has information regarding the end of prorating of In Home Supportive Services (IHSS) protective supervision.

Protective supervision is an IHSS service for observing non-self directing, confused, mentally impaired or mentally ill persons who need 24-hour per day supervision to remain safely in their home.  Previously, when two or more recipients in the same household were eligible for protective supervision, the need was considered to be met in common and the hours were prorated.  Effective July 1, 2020, protective supervision will no longer be prorated when two or more protective supervision recipients live in the same home.

Counties must ensure that recipients understand that their IHSS hours may increase because protective supervision hours are no longer prorated.  County should inform recipients of workweek limitations and the possible need for additional care providers because of the increased hours.  (ACL 20-111, October 13, 2020.)

Disaster CalFresh October 2020

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California has been approved to issue Disaster CalFresh in Lake, Monterey, San Mateo, Santa Cruz, Solano and Yolo Counties for persons affected by the wildfires.  Note that after this letter was issue, Santa Clara County was also approved for Disaster CalFresh.

Disaster CalFresh provides food assistance to households affected by natural disasters.  To be eligible, families must live or work in the disaster area, plan to purchase food during the benefit period, experience adverse effects from the disaster and meet Disaster CalFresh income guidelines.

Disaster CalFresh has three verification requirements: identity, residency and loss or inaccessibility of income, and household composition and food loss, if questionable.  Benefits should be issued within 72 hours of application.

The application period is Wednesday October 14 to Friday October 16 and Monday October 19 to Thursday October 22.  Applications can be submitted by phone, online or in person.  Applications will not be accepted by mail.  Applicants can verbally attest to information. Verification can be submitted, using the Disaster CalFresh pre-registration tool, the SAWS client portals, secure email or fax, and in person at application sites. Pre-registration will be available from October 7 to October 13.

The start date of the disaster for Napa, Santa Clara and Sonoma Counties is August 14, 2020. (ACWDL, October 5, 2020.)

COVID-19 CalFresh emergency allotment for October 2020

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California has been approved to issue an emergency allotment of CalFresh for October, 2020.  The emergency allotment will be issued on November 15 to raise each household’s monthly CalFresh allotment to the maximum allowable for the household size.  Per guidance from the Food and Nutrition Service (FNS), households already receiving the maximum allotment are not eligible to receive an emergency allotment.

Moving forward, emergency allotments may be approved by FNS on a month-to-month basis until the Secretary of Health and Human Services rescinds the public health emergency. (ACWDL, September 29, 2020.)

COVID-19 EDD Reset

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The Employment Development Department (EDD) has is doing a two week reset period starting September 19. 2020 to help expedite new claimant payments, reduce fraud and tackle backlog issues.  The reset period is in response to the EDD Strike Team report. The Strike Team found that there are 591,016 backlogged initial claims, and over a million claims where claimants received payments and then payments stopped.

During the two week reset period, people attempting to apply for unemployment insurance for the first time will be directed to a temporary webpage where they can submit information so EDD can invite them back to EDD Online when it is ready.  New claims will be backdated to cover the reset period.  Claimants will be able to certify for benefits more quickly so that eligible claimants will get their first payment within 21 days. People who have existing claims will still be able to use UI Online to manage their claim.

During the reset period, EDD will implement a new identity verification tool called ID.me.  People will be required to upload identifying identification documents along with along with a self-photo that EDD will validate. In addition, the most experienced EDD staff will redirected to work through the oldest and most complicated cases. Staff will also be redirected to process mail and email, and will call claimants to request additional information.

EDD will also expand the capability of the document upload feature for mobile devices, and will allow for providing wage information and filing military and federal employee claims online.  (EDD News Release 20-49, September 19, 2020.)