County ofSan Diego Health and Human Services Agency HHSACalWORKs Program GuideCalFresh Program Guide Special Notice Number Page Social Security Administration Cost of Living Adjustment CalWORKs 2208 1 of 2 CalFresh 2207 Effective Date January 1 2023 Background Social Security Administration SSA recipients will receive an 87 percent CostofLiving Adjustment COLA effective December 30 2022 and payable January 1 2023 Policy A COLA Mass Update will run on December 3 2022 and automatically adjusting CalWORKs and CalFresh benefits to reflect the increased SSA COLA effective January 2023 The automatic adjustment of the SSA COLA will not occur on cases where there was a discrepancy Cases not included in the COLA run such as applications with customers providing the preCOLA benefit amounts will require a recalculation of January 2023 benefits as follows Step Action 1 Use the previous SSA Title II benefit amount 2 Multiply the amount by 1087 3 Round down to the next lower dollar remove the cents 4 Final amount will be the new anticipated SSA benefit amount Treatment of SSA COLA for Ongoing SemiAnnual Reporting SAR Customers The SSA COLA is considered a midperiod countyinitiated action As a result a decrease in CalWORKs or CalFresh benefits may occur effective January 1 2023 with timely and adequate notice CalWORKs Income Reporting Threshold IRT Requirements CalWORKs customers are required to report if the COLA increase when combined with earned income results in the Assistance Unit AU income exceeding the IRT If income exceeding the IRT is reported by the AU an evaluation is required to determine if cash aid should be discontinued If cash aid is discontinued the CalFresh household HH will continue to receive benefits through Transitional CalFresh Treatment of SSA COLA for CalWORKs Annual ReportingChild Only ARCO Cases Upon receipt of this Special Notice take action on cases with SSA income that were not included in the COLA run refer to the Procedure section below The only cases where this action will not be considered midperiod are those ARCO cases with a December 2022 redetermination For those cases include the updated SSA COLA amount in budgeting for the upcoming ARCO period Timely and Adequate Notice As with any adverse action timely and adequate notice is required to decrease benefits when CalWORKs or CalFresh benefit amounts are decreased due to the SSA COLA benefit increase If unable to change January 2023 CalWORKs grant or CalFresh allotment amount take the appropriate action to decrease benefits the first of the following month after timely adequate notice can be provided Recalculate January 2023 benefits using the new SSA payment amount and if the calculation results in a decrease an overpaymentoverissuance will need to be established as appropriate County ofSan Diego Health and Human Services Agency HHSACalWORKs Program GuideCalFresh Program Guide Special Notice Number Page Social Security Administration Cost of Living Adjustment CalWORKs 2208 2of 2 CalFresh 2207 Note During the pandemic for any month in which an Emergency Allotment EA was issued do not establish an overissuance unless the HH is found to be completely ineligible for CalFresh or there is evidence of benefit trafficking Refer to CalFresh Program Memo No 2015 Procedure The reports below require action and can be found on the SharePoint site under the EOAEO TrackingSSA COLA 2023 folder Mass Update COLA Exception Report CalWORKsCalFresh cases that did not convert successfully during the COLA update process will require a recalculation of January 2023 benefits and manual authorization Client Correspondence Details Report List of correspondence remaining online after the SSA COLA was run that remains in the print queue will require o Review all correspondence that is held in the print queue o Delete unnecessary correspondence o Mail out remaining correspondence after completing any manual variables References ACIN No I7222 Sunset Date This policy will be reviewed for continuance by December 31 2023 Approval for Release Assmaa Elayyat Chief SelfSufficiency Services