Authorizes the offering of the twelve month work exemption to certain parents or relatives in receipt of public assistance who personally provide child care.
NEW YORK STATE ASSEMBLY MEMORANDUM IN SUPPORT OF LEGISLATION submitted in accordance with Assembly Rule III, Sec 1(f)
BILL NUMBER: A1805A
SPONSOR: Titus (MS) TITLE OF BILL: An act to amend the social services law, in relation
to the twelve month work exemption for certain parents or relatives
providing child care
PURPOSE OR GENERAL IDEA OF BILL:
The purpose of this legislation is to allow commissioners in social
services to modify the public assistance work requirements in order to
increase access to affordable child care for eligible families.
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:
This bill would amend subdivision 2 of section 410-x of the social
services law. Currently, New York State allows certain exemptions from
work activities for recipients of temporary assistance that are a
single-parent head of household. The current work exemption structure
allows a single-parent who is caring for a child under the age, of one
an exemption from work activities for no more than three months for any
one child; although a social service official has the authority to
extend :the exemption for up to 12 months on a case by case basis.
This bill would allow commissioners of social service districts the
ability to offer an 12 month for exemption if the district is unable to
meet the needs of income eligible working families.
JUSTIFICATION:
Counties are required by law to provide child care payments for public
assistance recipients if such care is necessary in order for the recipi-
ent to participate in mandatory work requirements. The funding source
for these county payments is the New York State Child Care Block Grant
(NYSCCBG.) The NYSCCBG has suffered serious cuts in the past few years
leaving counties with barely enough funds to fulfill the obligation of
child care to Temporary Assistance for Needy Families recipients (TANF)
and very little, if anything, left over to provide child care subsidies
for low income working families.
Most counties are no longer able to serve families up to 200% Federal
Poverty Level due to cuts to the child care block grant. In order to
deal with the shortage of child care funds, counties have lowered eligi-
bility levels, ceased taking new applications for a period of time or
have discontinued the acceptance of new applications all together.
PRIOR LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:
A.6839A (2013-2014) Passed assembly; delivered to senate; REFERRED TO
SOCIAL SERVICES 03/05/14
A.6839 (2013-2014) Amend and recommit to Social Services 02/28/14
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS FOR STATE AND LOCAL GOVERNMENTS:
To be determined.
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This act shall take effect immediately.
