Memo MC # 2

MEMORANDUM

DATE: April 17, 2001

TO: Adult Public Assistance Manual Holders

FROM: Policy and Program Development Team

SUBJECT: Adult Public Assistance Manual Change #2

Earlier this year, federal regulations were changed to promote employment for disabled persons who want to work. As a result, this manual change updates the substantial gainful activity amount used in making disability determinations and increases the earned income exclusion for a blind or disabled student child. This manual change also simplifies the processing of annual reviews for SSI recipients.

Changes to the substantial gainful activity amount and the earned income exclusion for a blind or disabled child are effective January 1, 2001. The guidance on processing annual reviews for SSI recipients is effective April 1, 2001.

Explanation of Manual Changes

Old Policy New Policy Section 425-1 , Definition of Blindness/Disability Defines ”substantial gainful activity” as an individual’s own average monthly earned income of $700. Raises the SGA amount to $740 per month. Section 442-2D , Earned Income Exclusion of a Blind or Disabled Child Provides for an earned income exclusion against the earnings of a blind or disabled student child of up to $400 per month, but not more than $1620 per calendar year. Raises the earned income exclusion to $1290 per month, and $5,200 per calendar year. Section 480-1 , Reviews Provides directions on how to process annual APA reviews for all recipients. Simplifies the annual review process for SSI recipients.

Implementation Guidelines for Reviews for SSI Recipients

As a result of last year’s Business Analysis and Process Design Conference, field staff representatives made several suggestions for streamlining the operation of the Adult Public Assistance ( APA ) program. One of these suggestions was to streamline the annual APA reviews for SSI recipients. SSI recipients make up about 60 percent of our statewide APA caseload. Our long-term goal is to fully automate the annual APA review process for those APA recipients who also receive SSI benefits. Essentially, this means the Eligibility Information System ( EIS ) will automatically check for Alaska residency and SSI recipient status, and re-certify the APA / SSI recipient for another year. Non- SSI recipients will continue to have their annual APA reviews processed the same as before.

Part of the necessary programming has now been completed. That is, for APA / SSI recipients whose EIS review period ends April 2001 or later, EIS will no longer mail APA Review Due notices and APA review applications to APA recipients who receive SSI benefits. However, programming to automatically check Alaska residency and SSI recipient status, and recertify the APA / SSI recipient for another year has not yet been completed. Until the new APA review process for SSI recipients is fully automated, we have established some interim procedures to reduce paperwork and alleviate your APA workload as much as possible.

Interim Procedures:

Review your monthly caseload report, CR001, at the beginning of the month to identify those APA / SSI cases that need to be reviewed and reauthorized for another year. The first month this must be done is April 2001.

Register a review APA application on EIS for the identified SSI recipients.

Confirm the individual’s Alaska residency and SSI recipient status through the use of the SVES interface or other available information. If the APA recipient meets these two criteria, APA benefits may be approved for another year.

Use alerts to identify APA / SSI cases that still need to be reviewed and processed. An EIS alert will be generated at the end of the month if a review application was not registered on EIS . Alerts of this type must be acted on immediately so that the individual’s APA benefits are delayed no longer than necessary.

Do not send an EIS notice once the review is completed. Because SSI recipients are not required to submit an annual review application, it is no longer necessary to send them an EIS notice (i.e., P802) to advise them that their APA review has been completed.

Please address any questions or comments to the Policy and Program Development Team by e-mail at dpapolicy@health.state.ak.us, or call us at 465-3347. The explanation of the manual changes and the affected manual sections are described below.

Manual Change Filing Instructions

Remove Old Pages Insert New Pages H-1 through H-2 H-1 through H-2 P-3 through P-4 P-3 through P-4 Chapter Contents (Chapter 480) Chapter Contents (Chapter 480) X-1 through X-6 X-1 through X-8