Current Status Bill Number:3633 Type of Legislation:General Bill GB Introducing Body:House Introduced Date:19950216 Primary Sponsor:Shissias, All Sponsors:Shissias, Neal, Cobb-Hunter, Beatty, Keyserling, Inabinett, Neilson, L. Whipper, Howard, Scott, Lloyd, Harvin, Stuart, Hodges, Spearman, S. Whipper, Askins and Lanford Drafted Document Number:BR1\18121AC.95 Residing Body:House Current Committee:Judiciary Committee 25 HJ Subject:Economic Self-Sufficiency and Parental Responsibility Act
Body Date Action Description Com Leg Involved
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House 19950216 Introduced, read first time, 25 HJ
referred to Committee
View additional legislative information at the LPITS web site.
TO ENACT THE ECONOMIC SELF-SUFFICIENCY AND PARENTAL RESPONSIBILITY ACT OF 1995 SO AS TO ESTABLISH THE WELFARE POLICY OF THE STATE; TO EXPAND THE DEPARTMENT OF SOCIAL SERVICES WORK SUPPORT PROGRAM STATEWIDE; TO REVISE THE REQUIREMENTS FOR PARTICIPATION IN THE WORK SUPPORT PROGRAM; TO REQUIRE AID TO FAMILIES WITH DEPENDENT CHILDREN (AFDC) RECIPIENTS TO ENTER INTO AGREEMENTS AND TO ALLOW SANCTIONS FOR NONCOMPLIANCE; TO INCREASE THE FAMILY ASSETS LIMIT AND TO REMOVE THE AUTOMOBILE RESOURCE VALUE LIMIT; TO EXCLUDE FROM INCOME INTEREST AND DIVIDENDS AND A MINOR CHILD'S EARNINGS; TO ALLOW INDIVIDUAL DEVELOPMENT ACCOUNTS; TO REVISE THE AMOUNT A FAMILY MAY DISREGARD AS INCOME; TO DEVELOP A TRANSITION FROM AFDC INCOME WHICH ALLOWS A FAMILY TO RECEIVE CERTAIN BENEFITS AFTER THEY ARE NO LONGER ELIGIBLE; TO LIMIT RECEIVING AFDC TO THIRTY-SIX MONTHS EXCEPT UNDER CERTAIN CONDITIONS; TO ELIMINATE THE FAMILY DEPRIVATION RULE; TO PROVIDE INCENTIVES TO BUSINESS AND INDUSTRY TO HIRE AFDC RECIPIENTS; TO DIRECT THE DEPARTMENT OF SOCIAL SERVICES TO SEEK FEDERAL FUNDS FOR ENTREPRENEURIAL DEVELOPMENT INCENTIVES FOR AFDC RECIPIENTS; TO INCREASE THE AMOUNT RETURNED TO AFDC FAMILIES FROM CHILD SUPPORT COLLECTED; TO PROVIDE OUTREACH SERVICES; TO ENDORSE LOCAL EFFORTS FOR A STATEWIDE MASS TRANSIT NETWORK; TO PROVIDE THAT FUNDS MUST BE APPROPRIATED TO MATCH FEDERAL CHILD CARE FUNDS; TO EXTEND CERTAIN FEDERAL FUNDS TO LOCAL ENTITIES TO PROVIDE LOW INCOME RENTAL HOUSING; TO REQUIRE UNEMPLOYED NONCUSTODIAL PARENTS TO PARTICIPATE IN THE DEPARTMENT'S WORK SUPPORT PROGRAM; TO PROMOTE ADOLESCENT PREGNANCY PREVENTION EFFORTS AND THE EXPANSION OF FAMILY PLANNING SERVICES; AND TO DIRECT THE DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND ENVIRONMENTAL CONTROL BY 2001 TO MAKE FAMILY PLANNING SERVICES AVAILABLE TO WOMEN UNDER ONE HUNDRED EIGHTY-FIVE PERCENT OF THE FEDERAL POVERTY LEVEL.
Whereas, the General Assembly finds that the welfare system of South Carolina must be based upon a reciprocal agreement between welfare recipients and those who are providing the services to these families. The system must assist families in poverty to become economically independent by providing the tools to achieve self-sufficiency and by providing supportive services while at the same time deterring abuse of the system through the imposition of fair and meaningful sanctions that can only be imposed when the State has provided all of the supportive services required to assist the family in their efforts toward self-sufficiency; and
Whereas, public assistance is not a desired choice for most recipients since most recipients want to work and improve the lives of their families as evidenced by the fact that the average Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) recipient is on public assistance for less than two years; and
Whereas, government resources for welfare, when used in an effective manner, can reduce crime and prison populations, encourage productivity, improve the quality of life of many South Carolina families, and generally be as beneficial to this State as resources spent on traditional economic development strategies; and
Whereas, preventing the need for public assistance is the most cost effective approach for welfare reform and public policy that uses resources to encourage and enable responsible family planning, to emphasize family unit preservation and prevention of pregnancy in our adolescents, and to promote responsible prenatal and parenting practices is a good investment in the future of South Carolina; and
Whereas, public and private efforts to increase opportunities for meaningful job creation and economic development can enable public assistance recipients and other at-risk individuals to achieve self-sufficiency and this can be achieved through the cooperative efforts and joint ventures between the Department of Commerce and the Department of Social Services; and
Whereas, if the public policy of South Carolina places a priority on saving people who are mired in the welfare system, then the State will benefit by saving money, and the quality of life of all South Carolinians can be enhanced by a lower crime rate, less incarceration, less illiteracy, and stronger families. Now, therefore,
Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of South Carolina:
SECTION 1. This act may be cited as the "Economic Self-Sufficiency and Parental Responsibility Act of 1995."
SECTION 2. It is the policy of the State that the welfare system in South Carolina must be structured to assist families in poverty to maximize their potential to become economically independent. At the same time, there must be a reciprocal agreement between welfare recipients and those who pay for welfare, the taxpayers whose tax dollars provide the services to help achieve self-sufficiency. The system must encourage individual responsibility by providing the tools to achieve self-sufficiency and by determining abuse of the system through the imposition of fair and meaningful sanctions. It is also the policy of this State that the State and its authorized agencies must provide supportive services of child care, transportation, health care, and intensive case management necessary to assist families in the effort to become self-sufficient.
SECTION 3. Providing Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) families with education and training is meaningless without available employment and entrepreneurial opportunities. It is the policy of the State and an immediate priority to make employment and entrepreneurial opportunities available to AFDC recipients, and the Department of Commerce shall allocate significant resources to assist in making these opportunities available.
SECTION 1. The Department of Social Services Work Support Services Delivery System (Work Support Program), as provided in Article 5, Chapter 5 of Title 43, and which is an employability development and job placement program for recipients of AFDC currently administered by the department in twenty-seven counties must be expanded to provide the full array of program services in all forty-six counties.
SECTION 2. To foster the goals of self-sufficiency and independence in the early stages of a family's involvement in the welfare system, the Department of Social Services shall apply to the federal government for a waiver authorizing the State to require an AFDC parent to participate in the Work Support Program when the parent's youngest child is one year old rather than three years old, the current threshold for participation.
SECTION 3. The Department of Social Services shall apply to the federal government for a waiver to revise its Work Support Program and AFDC program to implement a self-sufficiency program in all forty-six counties providing individualized plans and individualized intensive case management which would establish a reciprocal agreement between the AFDC family and the State to:
(1) provide a continuum of services including, but not limited to, transitional services to clients and their children based on a holistic model where case managers are assigned to coordinate services based on individualized client needs;
(2) consolidate all work support functions for AFDC clients under the Department of Social Services and charge the department with the responsibility for placing AFDC clients into meaningful employment;
(3) establish an agreement of service provision and program participation and compliance between the client and the State;
(4) establish and locate job development and placement specialists and housing specialists at the Department of Social Services to serve these needs for AFDC clients;
(5) identify the time frame necessary for each client to complete an individualized plan for self-sufficiency;
(6) provide meaningful community service placement to clients when they successfully complete their individualized plans for self-sufficiency and no jobs are available for employment; community service placements must not conflict with the client's employment search capabilities and must not displace positions for paid employees at the community placement;
(7) cooperate in the establishment of paternity and collection of child support, unless there is good cause for the client to refuse;
(8) sanction clients who refuse to comply with their individualized plans in the following manner:
(a) Upon a client's initial refusal to comply with the plan, a thirty-day conciliation period must be granted to the client to reconsider. During this thirty-day period the recipient has the right to appeal the department's decision to impose sanctions, and the extent of noncompliance and whether there was good cause for the recipient's refusal must be determined. After the thirty-day conciliation period, the client must be taken out of the AFDC budget, and only may be reinstated when the client agrees to comply with the individualized plan.
(b) If a client refuses to comply with the plan a second time, a thirty-day conciliation period must be granted to the client to reconsider. After the thirty-day conciliation period all AFDC benefits must be terminated and only may be reinstated when the client agrees to comply. Training, education, or other services as outlined in the plan may be provided to the client but the client is ineligible for benefits except Medicaid.
SECTION 4. In order to assist AFDC families in fulfilling their obligations to participate in the work support program or to assure their ability to get to their place of employment by having reliable transportation, the Department of Social Services shall apply to the federal government for a waiver authorizing the department to increase the amount of assets a family may have from one thousand to three thousand dollars and to remove the one thousand five hundred dollars equity value resource limit on a car so as to allow a family one vehicle without regard to value.
SECTION 5. In order to assist AFDC families in gaining financial independence and in building for the future, the Department of Social Services shall apply to the federal government for a waiver allowing the State to exclude interest income and dividends in determining eligibility and payment amounts for Aid to Families with Dependent Children.
SECTION 6. Families on AFDC and those not receiving welfare but whose household income falls below one hundred eighty-five percent of the federal poverty level may own an Individual Development Account. These accounts are tax free and shall allow for savings up to ten thousand dollars to be used for education, for job training, or to purchase a home.
SECTION 7. To remove the disincentive to employment that occurs when a family's AFDC payment is reduced because of a minor child's earnings and to encourage children in AFDC families to develop positive work attitudes, the Department of Social Services shall apply to the federal government for a waiver to exclude income earned by a minor child attending school when determining eligibility or payment amount for Aid to Families with Dependent Children.
SECTION 8. The Department of Social Services and the Department of Commerce shall work with private industry and the business community in an effort to obtain employment for AFDC clients. These programs shall offer, at a minimum, some combination of these incentives to industries and the business community:
(1) welfare payments as salary supplements for AFDC employees for a limited but sufficient time for the employee to acquire insurance coverage under the new employer and to complete any probationary period established by the employer;
(2) provision of vouchers for use by welfare clients at licensed or registered day-care centers and expansion of publicly operated day-care centers to make it easier to develop on-site child care programs and expansion of publicly operated day-care centers to assist workers in upholding their work obligation;
(3) transportation to the work site for new employees and AFDC recipients or other assistance such as vouchers or tax credits for co-workers who provide transportation to these employees.
SECTION 9. The Department of Social Services shall seek federal funds for the entrepreneurial development to create jobs and provide incentives for AFDC clients in their efforts to attain self-sufficiency and independence. The project must create jobs in identified markets for AFDC clients, provide clients with job skills and opportunities to develop expertise in operating businesses, and allow clients to accrue savings, buy stock in a business or, over a period of time, purchase a business. In carrying out this program the department shall work in conjunction with public, community, and private sector entities including businesses, banks, and other institutions to develop strategies that provide training, technical assistance, planning, and research to AFDC clients in their efforts to own their own businesses.
SECTION 10. To assist AFDC families to more gradually ease from the welfare system attaining a more stable level of self-sufficiency and reducing the recidivism rate of families returning to welfare, the Department of Social Services shall apply to the federal government for a waiver allowing the department to revise its income requirements for families on AFDC. Under this waiver the department would disregard fifty percent of a family's total gross income until the remaining fifty percent exceeded the amount of income allowed to be eligible for AFDC, rather than the current disregard of thirty-three-and-one-third percent for only four months.
SECTION 11. To promote stability and longevity in employment, the Department of Social Services shall apply to the federal government for a waiver authorizing a transition program for employed AFDC clients who because of their income would otherwise be ineligible but who do not have sufficient income or earning power to avoid returning to welfare following the abrupt loss of AFDC benefits. The transition program waiver would assure continued AFDC day-care and Medicaid benefits but would reduce economic benefits incrementally each quarter after the family's income exceeds the net income allowed for AFDC eligibility, according to this schedule:
(1) for the first quarter, the family would receive a grant of twenty percent of the maximum AFDC award for the family size.
(2) for the second quarter, the family would receive a grant of fifteen percent of the maximum award for the family size.
(3) for the third quarter, the family would receive a grant of ten percent of the maximum award for the family size.
(4) for the last quarter, the family would receive a grant of five percent of the maximum award for the family size.
SECTION 12. From the amounts collected by the South Carolina Department of Social Services Division of Child Support Enforcement for children and the parents of these children who are currently recipients of Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC), pursuant to Section 43-5-220, the department may distribute these amounts as follows:
(a) Of the amounts collected which represent monthly monetary support obligations, the first one hundred dollars of the monthly payment must be paid to the AFDC family and thereafter must be increased by fifty dollars per month per year up to the amount of the monthly support obligation;
(b) If the amount collected is in excess of the amounts required to be distributed under item (a), the excess must be retained by the department as reimbursement for AFDC payments made to the family for which the State has not been reimbursed. Of the amount retained by the department, the department shall determine the federal government's share so that the department may reimburse the federal government to the extent of its participation in the financing of the AFDC payment.
(c) Payments made to the family in item (a) may not be used in determining the amount paid, if any, in AFDC or other welfare benefits.
SECTION 13. (A) The Department of Social Services shall apply to the federal government for a waiver providing that no family may receive Aid to Families with Dependent Children for more than thirty-six months unless the head of the household is:
(1) working 30 hours per week;
(2) permanently or totally disabled, whether physical or mental;
(3) unable to obtain employment in the private sector because no job for which the person is qualified is available but the person is working forty hours per month in a meaningful volunteer public sector community placement that will contribute to further employability without displacing already employed workers;
(4) providing full-time care to a disabled dependent in the home; or
(5) unemployed because Work Support Program services including, but not limited to, transportation or child care are not available to assist the person in becoming self-sufficient.
Evidence of the exceptions to the thirty-six month benefit limit as enumerated in this subsection must be provided to the Department of Social Services in the manner and form as the department may require.
(B) This section takes effect upon receipt of a waiver or July 1, 1995, whichever occurs first, and applies to families who apply for Aid to Families with Dependent Children benefits after June 30, 1995, and upon recertification to families receiving or who have been determined eligible to receive Aid to Families with Dependent Children as of July 1, 1995.
SECTION 14. In order to assure that all families working toward self-sufficiency have access to all potential supportive services that will help ensure their success, the Department of Social Services shall develop outreach and informational programs which provide information and assistance on support services available to low income families.
SECTION 15. To assist AFDC families in successfully maintaining employment reliable child care is necessary, and the General Assembly in the annual appropriations act shall appropriate the funds necessary to match all available federal child care money.
SECTION 16. To promote independence and assist AFDC families in participating in the Department of Social Services Work Support Program and in getting to their place of employment, reliable transportation services are needed. The Department of Social Services in conjunction with the Department of Public Safety and county and local governments shall endorse local efforts to develop a statewide network of mass transit systems.
SECTION 17. The Secretary of Commerce annually shall report to the General Assembly on the department's efforts and results in the recruitment and creation of employment and entrepreneurial opportunities for current and former AFDC recipients.
SECTION 1. In order to strengthen and support AFDC families, promote self-sufficiency, and provide children with the benefits of a two-parent household, the Department of Social Services shall apply to the federal government for a waiver to eliminate the "parental deprivation rule" which deems a family ineligible for AFDC benefits, regardless of the family's income, if both parents live in the home and neither is disabled. Those parents in an AFDC family who are unemployed or underemployed shall participate in the Department of Social Services Work Support Program.
SECTION 2. Notwithstanding any other provision of law, if a court order for child support is in effect, an unemployed or underemployed noncustodial parent shall participate in the Department of Social Services Work Support Program.
SECTION 3. The Department of Health and Environmental Control shall establish a task force of reproductive health care providers and professionals to develop incentives to increase physician participation in the Medicaid program in order to provide better access to comprehensive family planning and prenatal care for Medicaid clients.
SECTION 4. To assist AFDC families in directing their efforts to becoming economically stable and financially independent rather than diverting their resources (human, emotional, and financial) to the care of children and family members with health and medical problems as funding is available, the State shall:
(1) provide greater access to and place emphasis on early and continuous prenatal care;
(2) eliminate as many barriers to good prenatal care as possible;
(3) promote counseling and education about early childhood health and especially the need for immunizations;
(4) foster better access to preventive health services through better transportation, co-location of services, and expanded hours for public health clinics;
(5) provide school nurses to increase access to primary care and more effective identification and referral of health problems among children;
(6) expand effective Medicaid reimbursable substance abuse primary prevention, education, and intervention strategies;
(7) facilitate coordination among the Department of Social Services, Department of Alcohol and Other Drug Abuse Services, Department of Juvenile Justice, and the Department of Education in providing school and community-based education for alcohol and drug prevention programs.
SECTION 5. In an effort to provide comprehensive assistance to AFDC clients that leads to self-sufficiency, the Department of Social Services Work Support Program must include classes on parenting skills and daily living skills including, but not limited to, money management and budgeting, managing a household, marriage and family relationships, stress management, and coping skills.
SECTION 6. In an effort to assist AFDC clients with family planning, greater access to family planning counseling and to a broad range of voluntary family planning methods must be available to the entire family unit. To address the issue of teen pregnancy the Department of Health and Human Services, in conjunction with other appropriate state and local agencies, shall establish and administer a program for adolescent pregnancy prevention such as the establishment of adolescent pregnancy prevention councils.
SECTION 7. To further strengthen the family unit and promote responsible parenting, the concept of family planning must be expanded beyond methods of contraception to include more education about reproductive health, abstinence, pregnancy spacing, sexually transmitted diseases with an emphasis on AIDS education, and the responsibility of males for pregnancy avoidance and postponement. The Department of Health and Environmental Control shall define a set of clinical, educational, and method oriented family planning services for males and females. The department shall assist and encourage state agencies and private sector health care professionals to provide this expanded information to their clients and shall promote a coordinated public-private effort to address this issue.
SECTION 8. The Department of Health and Environmental Control shall make family planning services available to women whose household income is under one hundred eighty-five percent of the federal poverty level by 2001.
This act takes effect upon approval by the Governor.