Public social services: intercounty transfers.

Existing law provides for the California Work Opportunity and Responsibility to Kids (CalWORKs) program under which, through a combination of state and county funds and federal funds received through the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program, each county provides cash assistance and other benefits to qualified low-income families. Existing law establishes the Medi-Cal program, administered by the State Department of Health Care Services, under which qualified low-income persons are provided with health care services. Existing law establishes a statewide program to enable eligible low-income persons to receive food stamps under the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) , known in California as CalFresh. Existing law requires counties to implement the program, including determining eligibility and distributing CalFresh benefits. Existing law requires the State Department of Social Services to establish and implement a process of intercounty transfer of eligibility for CalFresh benefits, and to take various regulatory actions. Existing law requires the county where an applicant of a public assistance program lives to be responsible for paying for the aid and requires transfer of the responsibility to pay, when that person moves to another county, to the 2nd county as soon as administratively possible, but not later than the first day of the month following 30 days after notification to the 2nd county. This bill would instead, commencing June 1, 2017, require the responsibility for payment of aid to transfer to the 2nd county as soon as administratively possible, as specified. The bill would delete provisions relating to the determination of the county of residence for an aid recipient who has been released or discharged from a state hospital. Under existing law, a recipient of aid who is changing residence from one county to another within the state is required to notify the county paying aid to the recipient of the move, and to apply for a redetermination of eligibility within the new county of residence. Existing law imposes various requirements on the relevant counties, including requiring the county to which the recipient has moved to determine the recipient's continued eligibility for payment of aid and, to the extent possible, the recipient's eligibility for the Medi-Cal program. This bill would make inoperative on June 1, 2017, those provisions relating to the notice and redetermination of aid procedures for when a recipient of aid changes residence from one county to another within the state, including the procedures for intercounty transfer of CalFresh benefits. The bill would instead, commencing June 1, 2017, require the recipient to notify either the county from which he or she moves or the county to which he or she moves of the change of residence and, within 7 business days of notice of a new residence, would require that county to initiate an intercounty transfer for specified public social service benefits. The bill would require that the benefits be transferred no later than the first day of the next available benefit month following 30 days after a county was notified. The bill would prohibit the new county of residence from interviewing recipients from another county to determine continued eligibility for the CalWORKs or CalFresh programs until the next scheduled recertification or redetermination, and would require case file documents to be shared electronically between the prior county of residence and the new county of residence. The bill would require the State Department of Health Care Services and the State Department of Social Services to adopt regulations by July 1, 2021. The bill would require, beginning June 1, 2017, the departments to provide a status report on the adoption of the regulations to the Legislature on a semiannual basis. Because this bill would impose additional duties on counties with regard to the provision of aid, this bill would impose 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.