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All County Letter No. 14-100 Page Four

Identifying and Adding Individuals with a Prior Felony Drug Conviction to the CalFresh Household

Under current CalFresh regulations, the income and resources of individuals ineligible for CalFresh benefits due to their felony drug convictions are already counted in their entirety (MPP section 63-503.44). Therefore, any excluded household member who becomes eligible for CalFresh benefits as a result of this statute will become an included household member, which may result in additional CalFresh benefits for the household (MPP section 63-504). Newly qualified individuals with a prior felony drug conviction shall be added to the CalFresh household effective April 1, 2015. CWDs must identify individuals who were previously excluded due to their previous ineligible felony drug conviction in order to add them to the case prior to the April 1 effective date. CWDs shall use the CF 1468 TEMP to inform the CalFresh household of the added household member. CWDs shall provide timely and/or adequate notice for changes resulting in an increase or decrease in benefit level.

CalFresh Applications

For CalFresh households that apply in March 2015 with a member who is ineligible due to a prior felony drug conviction, special instructions apply:  Mixed households which contain individuals with a prior felony drug conviction after meeting all other eligibility requirements, shall be approved for benefits minus the member with a previous felony drug conviction, who shall then be added effective April 2015. The household shall not be required to request the previously excluded person to be added.  Households comprised entirely of individuals with a previous felony drug conviction shall be approved effective April 2015.

Verification of the Status of Parole or Probation

Applicants and recipients with prior felony drug convictions must be in compliance with the terms of their parole or probation in order to be eligible to receive CalWORKs or CalFresh benefits. AB 1468 mandates that CWDs use existing protocols to obtain verification that individuals with a previous felony drug conviction are in compliance with the terms of their probation or parole. No additional verification shall be required of individuals with a previous felony drug conviction, outside of what CWDs require of all other CalWORKs and CalFresh applicants and recipients, to verify the status of an applicant or recipient's parole or probation. CWDs are reminded that CDSS distributes the Fleeing Felon Match (FFM) report to CWDs on a monthly basis. This report matches records obtained from the Department of Justice Wanted Persons File against the Medi-Cal Master Eligibility File (MMEF). The FFM report provides counties with information for current recipients who are fleeing felons or parole or probation violators.