COVID-19 Social Security waiver of overpayments during COVID-19

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The Social Security Administration has issued an interim final rule regarding waiver of certain overpayments that accrued during the COVID-19 pandemic. Overpayments incurred between March 1, 2020 and September 30, 2020 that Social Security did not manually process because of its cession of certain activities are eligible for a streamlined waiver process.  Social Security will assume that these overpayments were the result of Social Security ceasing certain operations and that it would be against equity and good conscience to collect them and will waive the debt.

Overpayments that qualify for the streamlined waiver process include overpayments caused by suspended Title XVI redeterminations, not processing information in the claimant’s file, and other suspended actions.  Overpayments identified through automated processes such as computer interfaces with the Veterans Administration are not eligible for streamlined waiver because those matches continued to be processed during COVID-19.

Streamlined waiver will not apply to overpayments caused by fraud or misuse of funds by a representative payee.  Only the portion of an overpayment that occurred between March 1, 2020 and September 30, 2020 is eligible for streamlined waiver.

Auxiliary beneficiaries may be eligible for streamlined waiver even if the primary beneficiary is not eligible for streamlined waiver for the overpayment.

Overpayments that are not eligible for streamlined waiver may still be eligible for the regular waiver process.

Social Security will not issue refunds outside of the regular waiver process for overpayment recovery that occurred during the pandemic period.

The streamlined waiver process applies to qualifying overpayments that Social Security identifies before December 31, 2020.

Between August 31, 2020 and December 31, 2020, overpayment notices will direct beneficiaries to contact their local field office about their overpayment or to request an overpayment waiver.  Field offices will review the case to determine if streamlined waiver applies.  If it does, the field office will document the waiver request and attest to the beneficiary’s signature.  The beneficiary will not be required to complete the full SSA-632 Request for Waiver or provide supporting information about their income and expenses to make the waiver determination.

Beginning August 31, 2020, Social Security intends to resume its normal workload.

This interim final rule is effective on August 27, 2020. Comments on the rule are due on October 26, 2020.  (Waiver of Recovery of Certain Overpayment Debts Accruing During the COVID-19 Pandemic Period, 85 Fed. Reg. 52909.)

Family Urgent Response System for foster caregivers and children or youth

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The California Department of Social Services (CDSS) has issued information regarding Family Urgent Response System for foster caregivers and children or youth (FURS).

FURS is a coordinate statewide, regional and county-level system to provide state-level phone-based response and county-level in-home in-person mobile response during situations of instability for the purpose of preserving the relationship between the caregiver and the child or youth, provide conflict management, and connect the caregiver to local services.

CDSS must establish a state-wide toll free hotline that is available 24 hours per day, seven days per week.  Hotline still will provide de-escalation and conflict management and warm handoff to the County Mobile Response Team where services are needed.

The County Mobile Response Team must be available 24 hours per day, seven days per week, to provide immediate face-to-face in-home response to address instability and preserve the relationship between the caregiver and the child or youth.  Counties must submit a plan to CDSS by November 15, 2020 describing how they will meet the County Mobile Response Team County Mobile Response Team requirements.  (ACL 20-89, August 6, 2020.)

COVID-19 CalFresh emergency allotment for September 2020

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California has been approved to issue an emergency allotment of CalFresh for September, 2020.  The emergency allotment will be issued on October 18 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.

Note that the August 2020 emergency allotment will issued on September 13, 2020, not September 12 as previously announced.

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, August 24, 2020.)

CalFresh ABAWD waiver

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The United States Department of Agriculture  Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) has granted a statewide waiver for California of the CalFresh Able Bodied Adults Without Dependents (ABAWD) time limit from July 1, 2020 to July 31, 2021.

FNS issued new regulations about when states can be eligible for waivers of the time limit.  Those regulations have been enjoined while litigation continues.  While the injunction is in place, FNS is using the prior regulations to decide waiver requests.  Under the prior regulations, California qualified for a statewide wavier because it now qualifies to extended unemployment benefits.

While the new ABAWD waiver is in effect, counties must 1) screen for exemptions and inform clients of the ABAWD rule, 2) track and report registrant, ABAWD, and Employment and Training data, and 3) sanction CalFresh work registrants who voluntarily quit a job of 30 hours per week or more.

Individuals who were previously discontinued from CalFresh for not meeting the ABAWD work requirement can reapply and be approved for benefits.  (ACL 20-90, August 20, 2020.)

COVID-19 CalFresh waiver extension and end of CalFresh interview waivers for September 2020

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California had three federal waivers for CalFresh because of COVID-19.  The federal waiver for not conducting CalFresh initial application and recertification interviews has not been extended.  As a result, counties must begin conducting initial application and recertification interviews on September 1, 2020.

The federal waivers for not conducting a face-to-face interview even on request of the applicant, and not requiring specific recording equipment for telephonic signatures are extended until September 30, 2020.  For details about these waivers, see ACWDL April 2, 2020, summarized here, and ACWDL May 28, 2020, summarized here.  (ACWDL, August 19, 2020.)

Using corrected CalWORKs amount to determine CalFresh overissuance

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The California Department of Social Service (CDSS) has provided clarification that when determining the amount of a CalFresh overissuance or underissuance, the county must use the CalWORKs and CalFresh amount that the household should have received if the household has correctly reported and the county had taken timely action.  For example, if a household has income that was not considered when determining the CalWORKs and CalFresh grants, the CalFresh overissuance is determined using the corrected amount of CalWORKs as income, that is, the lower CalWORKs grant caused by the increase in income.

ACIN I-16-05 is incorrect and is corrected by this letter.  ACL 03-18 is correct.

Households with established claims as of the release of this letter may request a recalculation using the correct methodology.  (ACIN I-05-16E, August 13, 2020.)