CalWORKs and Food Stamp Program: reporting.

(1) Existing law requires each county to provide cash assistance and other social services to needy families through the California Work Opportunity and Responsibility to Kids (CalWORKs) program using federal Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) block grant program, state, and county funds. Under existing law, the county is required to annually redetermine eligibility for CalWORKs benefits. Existing law additionally requires the county to implement a recipient monthly reporting system, consistent with federal law until the Director of Social Services makes a specified declaration, at which time the county would be required to redetermine recipient eligibility and grant amounts on a quarterly basis, using prospective budgeting, and to prospectively determine the grant amount that a recipient is entitled to receive for each month of the quarterly reporting period. Under existing law, a CalWORKs recipient is required to report to the county, orally or in writing, specified changes that could affect the amount of aid to which the recipient is entitled. Under existing law, the CalWORKs quarterly reporting system is also implemented by the State Department of Social Services in administering the federal Food Stamp Program. This bill would repeal the requirements relating to quarterly redetermination and prospective determination grant amounts, and would, instead, impose similar requirements for a semiannual redetermination, operative July 1, 2010, to be implemented no later than January 1, 2011, except as prescribed. The bill would also require the department to establish an income reporting threshold for CalWORKs recipients, as specified. The bill would make various related conforming changes, including revising provisions relating to the collection of CalWORKs grant overpayments. The bill would authorize counties to adopt staggered semiannual reporting requirements, as specified. The bill would authorize the department to implement the semiannual reporting provisions through all-county letters until the adoption of implementing regulations, as prescribed. This bill, to the extent permitted by federal law, would require the department to streamline the Food Stamp Program verification process at application by seeking to utilize information provided by applicants to other state agencies, including, but not limited to, the Department of Motor Vehicles. (2) Existing law requires the State Department of Social Services and the California Health and Human Services Agency Data Center to design, implement, and maintain a statewide fingerprint imaging system for use in connection with the determination of eligibility for benefits under the CalWORKs program, excluding the Aid to Families with Dependent Children‑Foster Care program, and the Food Stamp Program. Existing law, with specified exceptions, requires applicants for, and recipients of, CalWORKs and Food Stamp Program benefits, as a condition of eligibility, to be fingerprint imaged, pursuant to the statewide fingerprint imaging system. This bill would, instead, require the department and the Office of Systems Integration to design, implement, and maintain the system. The bill would require the fingerprint imaging system to apply to use under the Food Stamp Program only to the extent the applicants for, or recipients of, food stamps also apply for or receive designated nonhealth benefits associated with county aid and relief to indigents. (3) 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. (4) To the extent that the bill would expand eligibility for CalWORKs and food stamp benefits, the bill would create a state-mandated local program. 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.