County of San Diego Health and Human Services Agency HHSACalWORKs Program GuideCalFresh Program Guide Special Notice Social Security Administration SSA Cost ofLiving Adjustment COLA Effective January 1 2020 Number Page CalWORKs 1907 CalFresh 1905 1 of 3 Effective Date January 1 2020 Background Per All County Information Notice ACIN I6719 the COLA for SSA benefits is 16 percent beginning with the December 2019 benefits payable in January 2020 Annual updates on SSA COLAs may be obtained through the following website httpwwwssagovoactcola Policy The amount of the SSA COLA is considered a KnowntoCounty change and is to be reasonably anticipated to be received by recipients of SSA benefits beginning January 2020 As the COLA impacting Supplemental Security Income SSI payments can vary based on other income received by the individual it is not considered a KnowntoCounty change Treatment of SSA COLA for Applicants For new CalWORKs and CalFresh applicants who receive SSA the actual amount of the SSA benefit including the increase will be used for eligibility and prospective budgeting purposes beginning with the month of January 2020 If the application was taken in November or December 2019 and the applicant provided the preCOLA benefit amount reasonably anticipate the increased benefit amount Calculate the increased SSA amount by multiplying the preCOLA benefit amount by 1016 Example An individual received an SSA Title II benefit amount of 38500 in the month of December 2019 To determine the amount the applicant will receive in January 2020 Multiply 38500 by 1016 39116 Round down to the next lower dollar 39100 New anticipated SSA benefit amount 39100 Treatment of SSA COLA for Ongoing SemiAnnual Reporting SAR Recipients The SSA COLA is considered a midperiod CountyInitiated action As a result a decrease in CalWORKs andor CalFresh benefits may occur effective January 1 2020 with timely and adequate notice CalWORKs Income Reporting Threshold IRT Requirements CalWORKs recipients 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 the worker is required to determine if cash aid should be discontinued If cash aid is discontinued the CalFresh household will continue to receive benefits from a Transitional CalFresh case County of San Diego Health and Human Services Agency HHSACalWORKs Program GuideCalFresh Program Guide Special Notice Social Security Administration SSA Cost ofLiving Adjustment COLA Effective January 1 2020 Number Page CalWORKs 1907 CalFresh 1905 2 of 3 IRT Reminders When anyone in the AU has earned income or begins to receive earned income the AU is required to report when their total combined gross earned and unearned income exceeds the IRT AUs with unearned income only including disabilitybased unearned income are not required to report when that income by itself exceeds the IRT midperiod 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 The only cases where this action will not be considered midyear are those ARCO cases with a December 2019 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 2020 CalWORKs grant andor CalFresh allotment amount as a result of the increased January 2020 SSA benefit take the appropriate action to decrease benefits the first of the following month after timely adequate notice can be provided Recalculate January 2020 benefits using the new SSA payment amount and if the calculation results in a decrease an overpaymentoverissuance will need to be established as appropriate Payment Verification System PVS The California Department of Social Services CDSS will not be providing additional notification of the SSA COLA through the PVS However upon request a costofliving report will be provided through Secure File Transfer SFT The COLA printouts will be subject to the 45day timeliness requirements of the Income and Eligibility Verification System IEVS Procedure Automation The COLA Mass Update run on December 14 and 15 2019 automatically adjusted CalWORKs and CalFresh benefits to reflect the increased SSA COLA effective January 2020 The automatic adjustment of the SSA COLA did not occur on cases where there was a discrepancy or where the application was received after the COLA run Following further instruction from CDSS the SSI benefits of CalFresh applicants and recipients were not updated with the COLA Mass Update Additional guidance regarding the SSI COLA will be issued when available Management Reporting The reports below require action and can be found on the SharePoint site under the EOAEO TrackingSSA COLA 2020 folder County of San Diego Health and Human Services Agency HHSACalWORKs Program GuideCalFresh Program Guide Special Notice Social Security Administration SSA Cost ofLiving Adjustment COLA Effective January 1 2020 Number Page CalWORKs 1907 CalFresh 1905 3 of 3 Mass Update COLA Exception Report CalWORKsCalFresh cases that did not convert successfully during the COLA update process Worker Action Required o Review case and authorize Client Correspondence Details Report List of Correspondence Remaining Online after the SSA COLA was run that remains in the Print Queue for review Worker Action Required 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 Program Impacts Instructions for other programs are distributed separately References ACIN I6719 Sunset Date This policy will be reviewed for continuance by December 31 2020 Approval for Release RICK WANNE Director Eligibility Operations