 |
Reauthorized the FSP through the end of FY 1985. |
|
|
Future adjustments to the TFP scheduled for Oct. 1,
1983 and Oct. 1, 1984, and will use June 30 data for
the same year for the cost of the 4-person plan reduced
by 1 percent. On Oct. 1, 1985, and each subsequent October,
the unreduced cost of the plan based on the same year's
June 30 data will be used. |
|
|
Family members who live together and who are neither
elderly nor disabled considered one economic unit.
Disabled or infirm elderly persons and their spouses may
be considered separate households even if they live with
others, providing that the income of the other household
members does not exceed 165 percent of the poverty guidelines. |
|
|
Household allotments and adjustments to the TFP,
standard deduction, and the cap on the dependent
care/excess shelter expense deduction rounded down to
the nearest lower $1. The unrounded cost of the 4-person
TFP is now used to compute the plan for all other
household sizes. |
|
|
Households with no elderly or disabled members required
to meet both a 100 percent of poverty net income test and a
130 percent of poverty gross income test. |
|
|
Adjustments of the standard deduction and the cap on the
dependent care/excess shelter expense deduction delayed
until Oct. 1, 1983. |
|
|
Optional standard utility allowance can only be used if
the household incurs heating or cooling costs.
Households cannot receive the full standard utility
allowance if they are only billed for excess or shared
costs. |
|
|
Households in which the adult members are elderly or
disabled and have no earned income exempted from monthly
reporting. Secretary allowed to waive monthly reporting
for households for which a State can demonstrate an
unwarranted administrative expenditure. Granting of
waivers permitted to establish periodic reporting rules
compatible with AFDC. |
|
|
Households consisting entirely of AFDC recipients
considered categorically resource eligible. |
|
|
Definition of disabled expanded to include disabled
veterans and their surviving disabled spouses and
children, thus allowing them to use the net income test
and medical deductions. |
|
|
Disqualification period for households whose head
voluntarily quits a job increased from 60 to 90 days.
States provided the option of requiring job search at
application. Government employees losing jobs due to
participation in an illegal strike considered voluntary
quitters. |
|
|
Discontinued first-month allotments of less than $10.
Prorated benefits following a break of any length in
certification. |
|
|
Limited expedited service to households with less than
$150 in monthly gross income, or destitute migrant or
seasonal farm workers with no more than $100 in liquid
resources. Redefined expedited service as providing food
stamp benefits within five days from the date of
application, and the law specifically called for the
verification of income and liquid assets during that
time period to the extent possible. |
|
|
Replaced the three-tiered incentive system by 60 percent
federal funding of administrative costs for State
agencies with error rates below 5 perecent and a reasonable rate
of invalid decisions. Any State agency's administrative
funding may now be reduced if its overissuance error
rate exceeds 9 percent in FY 1983, 7 percent in FY 1984, or 5
percent in FY
1985 or any succeeding fiscal year. Under the sanctions,
administrative funding would be reduced 5 percent for each 1
percent -
3 percent that its error rate exceeds the goal. For each 1
percent or
fraction above 3 percent that a State agency's error rate
exceeds its goal, funding would be reduced 10 percent. State
agencies may avoid sanctions in the first two years by
making satisfactory progress toward a set goal.
Secretary may find good cause for a State agency's
failure to meet its goal and waive the sanction. |
|
|
Workfare obligation increased to 30 hours a week, and
WIN participants no longer automatically exempt. State
agencies may share in the savings from job placements. |
|
|
Waiver authority for those required to report under MRRB
expanded to allow for increased compatibility with AFDC. |
|
|
Disregarded COLA increases in Social Security and SSI
until October 1 of each year. |
|
|
Secretary allowed to require State use of alternative
methods of issuance to improve program integrity. |
|
|
Permanently disqualified retailers and wholesalers who
violate the law for the third time from program
participation. Civil money penalties increased from
$5,000 to $10,000 for stores whose disqualification
would harm participants. Secretary allowed to require
bonds from previously penalized retailers and
wholesalers. |
|
|
Deleted work registration exemption for a parent or
other caretaker of a child in a household where there is
another able-bodied parent who is subject to work
requirements. |
|
|
Deleted requirement for joint USDA/DOL employment
regulations. |
|
|
Prohibited a household's receipt of an increased
allotment as the result of a decrease in the household's
income resulting from a penalty which was imposed
against the household for an intentional failure to
comply with a Federal, State, or local law relating to
welfare or a PA program. |
|
|
Secretary authorized to limit the participation of
house-to-house trade routes in those areas in which he
finds evidence that the operation of these routes
damages the program's integrity. |
|
|
Prohibited the Secretary from requiring a State to
submit for prior approval, as part of the approval
process for a plan of operation, State agency
instructions to staff, interpretations of existing
policy, State agency methods of administration, forms
used by the State agency, or any materials, documents,
memoranda, bulletins, or other matter, unless the State
determines that these materials alter or amend the State
plan of operation or conflict with the rights and levels
of benefits to which a household in entitled. |
|
|
Deleted requirement for States to comply with
certification points and hours standards to be
established by the Secretary. |
|
|
Secretary allowed to restrict the number of households
which may be represented by an authorized representative
and establish standards for such representatives. |
|
|
Provided for the prompt reduction or termination of
benefits in any case in which the State agency receives
from the household a written statement containing
information that clearly requires such a reduction or
termination of benefits. |
|
|
States required to establish a system to assure that an
individual does not receive coupons in more than one
jurisdiction within the State. |
|
|
States required to ensure that FSP recipients do not
receive both food coupons and SSI cash-out benefits at
the same time. |
|
|
States allowed to use alternative means of collecting
overissuances. |
|
|
Mandated that Puerto Rico implement a noncash food
assistance program effective Oct. 1, 1983, allowing
the Commonwealth to provide cash benefits to recipients
during Fiscal Year 1983. Secretary to study the impact
of making food assistance available to needy persons in
Puerto Rico in the form of cash and report findings to
Congress by March 8, 1983. |
