DSS issued ACL 12-02 ordering the immediate termination of any current or future collection of overpayments from adults or emancipated minors who were minors at the time the CalWORKs overpayment occurred.
Social Security announced that for the first time since 2009 that there will be a cost of living adjustment in Social Security and SSI benefits effective January 1, 2012. The COLA will impact the the calculation of Pickle Amendment eligibility for Medicaid. Gordon Bonnyman of the Tennessee Justice Center updated this table and instructions that enables advocates to calculate Medicaid eligibility under the Amendment quickly and simply. Download the Table.
Yesterday, a Federal Court issued a TRO enjoining the SB 73 20% cut in IHSS hours. The order requires the state to rescind ACL 11-81, the reprogramming of the CMIPS computer, and any plans to send recipient notices. The hearing on the Injunction is scheduled for December 15th. Counsel for Plaintiffs are Disability Rights California, and Altshuler Berzon LLP.
The purchasing power of TANF benefits in 2011 is now at least 20% below the 1996 levels in 34 states, after adjusting for inflation. During this year, six states (including California) and the District of Columbia cut cash aid to families, impacting more than 700,000 low-income families, or over one-third of all low-income families on TANF. Read the CBPP report.
Social Security has a new Spanish website for all the things “most popular” SSA services in Spanish! You can find the applications for retirement and Medicare, and help with Medicare prescription drug costs. There is also online calculator to estimate retirement benefits. (And, just as with the English website, you can apply on-line with an electronic signature without further documentation!)
Despite the large increase in need resulting from the recession, State General Assistance programs have weakened. This CBPP report discusses how General Assistance Programs have been weakened over the years, and provides an overview of program policies across the 30 states with programs in 2011.
Earlier this week, Governor Brown signed AB 1403 which contains a provision that allows prevailing indigent parties to recover court interpreter costs when represented by an IOLTA-qualified legal services provider. Specifically, this part of AB 1403 amends California Code of Civil Procedure Section 1033.5(a) by adding to the list of recoverable costs the following: “(12) Court interpreter fees for a qualified court interpreter authorized by the court for an indigent person represented by a qualified legal services project, as defined by Section 6213 of the Business and Professions Code.”
The numbers out of the U.S. Census yesterday about the increases in poverty offered nothing but bad news. The New York Times today published a very good, if painful to read, overview of the new data in its front-page article, Soaring Poverty Casts Spotlight on ‘Lost Decade”. The Sacramento Bee also weighed in with the equally discouraging report that California’s poverty rate highest in more than a decade.
The Center on Budget Policies and Priorities has posted Making Sense of Next Week’s Poverty Data, a succinct, insightful summary of five key points about updated Census poverty data to be published this week. For those attuned to low-income commnunties, the news is pretty much all bad, especially the prediction that the numbers may reveal the highest levels of “deep poverty” ever recorded. (Deep poverty = the percentage of people living below half of the poverty line, i.e., with incomes below about $11,000 a year for a family of four.)
The National Center for Lesbian Rights and Legal Services of Northern California are pleased to announce the publication of California Public Benefits Issues for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Clients: A Guide for Attorneys and Advocates, covering issues commonly faced by LGBT people and their families who are seeking Social Security, health benefits, income assistance, disability and unemployment, veterans benefits, and more.
This publication is available from LSNC here as well as from the NCLR website. NCLR provides technical assistance to attorneys and advocates representing LGBT people or their families in public benefits applications. For assistance, contact NCLR via email at info@nclrights.org or call them at (415) 392-6257.
