HOUSE BILL REPORT

                      SB 6060

                     As Reported By House Committee on:

                               Human Services

Title:  An act relating to coordination between public assistance programs.

Brief Description:  Making changes regarding the coordination of general assistance programs.

Sponsor(s):  Senators Roach and Stratton; by request of Dept. of Social and Health Services.

Brief History:

   Reported by House Committee on:

Human Services, February 24, 1992, DP.

HOUSE COMMITTEE ON

HUMAN SERVICES

Majority Report: Do pass.  Signed by 11 members:  Representatives Leonard, Chair; Riley, Vice Chair; Winsley, Ranking Minority Member; Tate, Assistant Ranking Minority Member; Anderson; Beck; Brekke; Hargrove; Hochstatter; R. King; and H. Myers.

Staff:  David Knutson (786-7146).

Background:

Some persons with applications pending for federal supplemental security income benefits qualify for interim general assistance based upon incapacity for gainful employment.  Sometimes assistance from these federal and state sources may overlap, creating duplication of benefits. The department has encountered some difficulty in recouping the amount of such duplicate assistance.

Resource eligibility for purposes of qualifying for assistance under supplemental security income and general assistance-unemployable, and aid to families with dependent children (AFDC) is inconsistent, sometimes creating anomalous results among similar cases served in different locations.

Federal and state laws differ, for purposes of administering AFDC funds, in their designations of what constitutes residence with a "relative of specified degree" for a dependent child in need.  Federal law is less restrictive in its qualifying definitions.

Summary of Bill:

Recovery of interim assistance duplicate payment is enhanced by treating such payment as a debt due the state and subject to available legal remedies.

Resource eligibility is based upon resource limitations consistent with federal aid to families with dependent children program rules, as adopted by the department.

The definition of "relative of specified degree," for purposes of determining child residence in AFDC benefit decisions, conforms to the definition contained in the Code of Federal Regulations.

An obsolete waiver provision is repealed.

Fiscal Note:  Not requested.

Effective Date:  Ninety days after adjournment of session in which bill is passed.

Testimony For:  Technical changes to the public assistance statutes are necessary to standardize the resource standards for the general assistance and aid to families with dependent children programs.  The state definition of a "relative of specified degree" should be changed to conform to the federal definition.  Other obsolete provisions in public assistance statutes should be removed.

Testimony Against:  None.

Witnesses:  Bernice Morehead, Department of Social and Health Services.