Advocates Take Note

New York Launches Transitional Beneifts Alternative

January 10, 2002

Author: Barbara Weiner

Introduction

Beginning with November 30, 2001, case closings, many of the households whose welfare benefits under the Family Assistance (FA) program are terminated, provided that they do not then receive Safety Net, should be getting transitional food stamp benefits under New York’s recent implementation of a federal food stamp program option called the Transitional Benefit Alternative (TBA). Households eligible for TBA include, among others, those whose Family Assistance (FA) case closes because the household has reached the 60 month time limit; those whose case closed because of an increase in earned income and those that have simply asked that their FA case be closed.

New York’s Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance has issued an administrative directive, 01 ADM-16, instructing the local social services districts how to implement the TBA. Both conceptually and in its systems implementation, the TBA is a subset of the "separate determination" process. That process requires local districts to make a separate determination of continuing food stamp eligibility when a household’s public assistance case is closed.

The TBA is currently fully operational in districts outside of New York City. In New York City, however, full implementation of TBA requires further modification of WMS. The target date for completion of the system’s modification in New York City is April, 2002.

Once in place in NYC, operation of TBA will be fully automated. This is in contrast to the rest of the state where TBA is for the most part a manual process, requiring caseworker initiation. Until implementation is completed, households in NYC whose FA cases are closed with a code triggering TBA eligibility will automatically be provided with up to 3 months of food stamp benefits, depending how close they are to the 12 month limit in the food stamp certification period. The benefit amount is frozen at the pre-FA case closing amount. The public assistance case closing notice, though not yet containing all the information required by TBA, informs the household how long their food stamp benefits will last and what they must do to continue receiving food stamps after that date.

Who is eligible for TBA?

Households whose cash assistance cases are closing, including mixed income households who are receiving income from sources other than just welfare. To be eligible for TBA, the household must have been in receipt of Family Assistance or federally participating Safety Net. (This is because the TBA is currently only available for people leaving programs funded by TANF.)

Households will not be eligible for TBA if the household includes a member who, at the time of case closing, has:

• violated a food stamp work requirement; 
• committed a welfare or food stamp intentional program violation (IPV); 
• failed to comply with food stamp reporting requirements, or 
• is under a food stamp sanction for violation of a TANF/FS requirement.

Note: If the sanction or disqualification period has been completed at the time of case closing, the household is eligible for TBA.

How long is the transitional benefit period under the TBA?

Transitional benefits are provided for up to three months, beginning with the first month after the welfare case closes. The household’s food stamp certification period must be preserved or extended to allow the household a full 3 months of transitional benefits. However, the certification period of a non-disabled/non-elderly household cannot be extended beyond the statutory 12 month maximum. Thus households who are in their 10th, 11th or 12th month of certification for food stamp benefits when their welfare case closes will not be able to receive the full 3 months of transitional benefits, since they will have to recertify prior to the completion of the transition period.

During the TBA period, households are not required to report changes in income or in other household circumstances, nor are members of the household subject to work sanctions.

How is the transitional benefit amount calculated?

The transitional benefit amount is set either at the amount of monthly food stamp benefits the household was receiving when their welfare case closed or at a higher amount if circumstances have been reported and verified that would result in an increase in food stamp benefits (for example a new member joins the household).

If the household is losing income as the result of leaving cash assistance, which would most likely be the case, the district must calculate the food stamp budget without the cash assistance to determine the transitional benefit amount.

Households are not required to report changes during the 3 month transitional benefit period. Households subject to 6 month reporting are not required to report during the 3 month transitional period.
Local districts must recalculate the household’s transitional benefits if a reported and verified change would increase the transitional allotment. Local district action on changes coming to the district’s that would require a reduction in the grant are postponed until the end of the transition period.

Must the local district provide notice to households that are eligible for TBA?

YES. The following information must be included in the notice:

• that the household is eligible for transitional benefits; 
• the transition period during which the household will receive these benefits; 
• that the food stamp allotment has been frozen at the pre-welfare case closing amount or, if the household’s income is decreasing because it is leaving cash assistance, the allotment has been recalculated to reflect that loss in income; 
• that the household does not have to report any changes in household circumstances during the transition period but may do so if it would result in an increase in the transitional benefit amount, and
• that the local district must re-evaluate the household’s eligibility for continuing food stamp benefits before the end of the 3 month transitional benefits period.

What should happen at the end of the transitional benefit period?

The local district must determine the continued eligibility of the household for food stamp benefits. The procedure for doing so will vary depending on whether the household is still within its certification period when the 3 months expire or not.

For households who are within their certification period when the TBA ends:

At least 30 days before the transition period expires, the local district must send the household a Request for Contact (RFC) notice, providing the household with at least 10 days to report and verify any changes in income, household composition or allowable costs. If the household fails to respond or fails to provide all the necessary information, timely notice must be provided that the household’s food stamp case will be closed at the end of the transition period.

If the information the household submits requires a change in the benefit amount, the local district must process the change and inform the household of the new benefit amount before the end of the transition period. If the food stamp grant will be reduced or terminated based on the household’s current circumstances, timely notice must be given.

At the end of the transitional period, the local district may extend the certification period beyond that originally authorized and is encouraged by the State to do so, though the period cannot exceed the statutory 12 month limit.

For households whose certification expires at the end of the transition period:

The local district must provide a re-certification call in notice at which time the household will be required to provide information and verification about its current circumstance.

What if the household is not eligible for TBA when its cash assistance case closes?

The continued eligibility for food stamp benefits of households who are receiving Safety Net benefits (non federally participating) at the time they go off assistance or who have sanctioned household members that make them ineligible for the transitional benefit program must be evaluated by the local district under the separate determination process.

If the household is still within its food stamp certification period when the cash assistance case closes, the local district must send a notice to the household asking it to submit any information that may be needed to calculate on-going benefits. The district may not shorten the certification period to coincide with the welfare case closing nor require the household to report for an in-office interview during its period of certification.

What are some potential problems to be looking out for?

Caseworker assignment of an incorrect case closing code:

The biggest concern is of course that the caseworker insert the correct case closing code when the Family Assistance case is closed. In New York City, when TBA is fully automated, it will be the case closing code that will trigger issuance of the TBA notice, extension of the certification period if necessary and the determination of the correct transitional benefit amount. In areas outside of NYC, where the system is not automated, the concern will be not only that the correct case closing code is used but that the caseworker manually process the case for TBA benefits.

Inappropriate imposition of a food stamp sanction for conduct not sanctionable under the Food Stamp Program:

In addition, the other major area of concern is that sanctions not be inappropriately imposed or continued in the food stamp case when the FA case closes. For example, because of New York’s Simplified Food Stamp Program, the failure of a parent of a child under six to comply with workfare requirements while receiving FA is also sanctionable in the food stamp case. However, once the FA case closes, the Simplified Program no longer applies and the food stamp sanction must be terminated immediately. If the household is leaving cash assistance altogether, assuming that there are no other grounds for ineligibility, the household should receive transitional food stamp benefits under TBA. (If the household transitions to the Safety Net Program, although it will not be eligible for TBA, the work sanction must be terminated because the Simplified Food Stamp Program rules only apply to FA cases.)

Caseworker implementation of TBA for eligible cases:

In districts outside of NYC where the system is not automated, even the use of a correct case closing code does not guarantee that an eligible household will receive the benefits to which it is entitled under TBA. Here some of the problem areas include:

• Does the FA case closing notice include the necessary TBA information?
• Has the caseworker re-calculated the budget to reflect the loss of cash assistance?
• Are TBA cases being re-evaluated in a timely fashion so that an RFC notice or re-certification call-in is issued in a timely manner to allow the food stamp case to continue if the household’s post TBA circumstances warrant it.

If you have questions about TBA or a particular case, is there someone to call?

Implementation of TBA to the benefit of our clients will require careful monitoring and advocacy. Advocates who would like advice or assistance with particular cases or who have experiences to share about how TBA is working in their area are encouraged to contact:

In New York City, Anne Pearson of the Welfare Law Center at (212) 633-6967.

In areas outside of NYC, Barbara Weiner of the Greater Upstate Law Project, Inc., at (518) 462-6831.