Existing law establishes various social services programs that provide cash assistance and other benefits to qualified low-income families and individuals, including the California Work Opportunity and Responsibility to Kids (CalWORKs) program. Existing law requires applicants for, and recipients of, public social services for which state grants-in-aid are made to counties to accurately report facts material to eligibility and grant payment determinations. Existing law authorizes current and future grants payable to an assistance unit to be reduced because of prior overpayments, and requires grant payments to be reduced by 5% of the maximum aid payment when the overpayment was caused by agency error or 10% of the maximum aid payment when the overpayment was for any other reason. Existing law prohibits a county from attempting, if an individual is no longer receiving CalWORKs benefits, to recover overpayments when the outstanding overpayments are less than $35, and requires reasonable cost-effective efforts at collection to be implemented if the overpayment amounts owed are $35 or more. Under existing law, however, a county is prohibited from establishing a CalWORKs overpayment based on any differences between the amount of income the county prospectively determined for the recipient and the income the recipient actually received, if the recipient’s report was complete and accurate. Existing law provides that no civil or criminal action may be commenced against a person based on alleged unlawful application for or receipt of public social services if the case record of the person has been destroyed after the required retention period.

This bill would authorize the State Department of Social Services to establish a minimum cost-effectiveness threshold, as specified, for collecting an overpayment established under CalWORKs that is greater than $125, and would require counties to implement the new threshold if one is established by the department pursuant to these provisions. The bill would require current and future grant payments be reduced by 5% of the monthly payment when the overpayment is because of agency error or 10% of the monthly payment when the overpayment was for any other reason. The bill would prohibit a county from establishing an overpayment if the costs of collecting the outstanding payments are expected to exceed the average amounts to be recovered by the county, or the amount of the overpayment is less than $125, or the minimum cost-effectiveness threshold, whichever is greater. The bill would prohibit a county from attempting to recover CalWORKs overpayments if an individual is no longer receiving CalWORKs benefits and the outstanding overpayments are less than $125, or the minimum cost-effectiveness threshold, whichever is greater. The bill would also prohibit a civil, administrative, or criminal action against a person based on alleged unlawful or erroneous application for or receipt of public social services if the case record of the person has been destroyed after the required retention period. The bill would require the department to issue an all-county letter or similar instructions by April 1, 2015, and to adopt regulations to implement the provisions of the bill by July 1, 2016. By increasing the duties of county agencies, this bill would create a state-mandated local program.

Existing law continuously appropriates moneys from the General Fund to defray a portion of county costs under the CalWORKs program.

This bill would instead provide that the continuous appropriation would not be made for purposes of implementing the bill.

The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement.

This bill would provide that, if the Commission on State Mandates determines that the bill contains costs mandated by the state, reimbursement for those costs shall be made pursuant to these statutory provisions.