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ACL No. 14-56 Page Two

Effective February 1, 2011, the MCE program was expanded to include all Non- assistance CalFresh Households (NACF). On April 24, 2013, the California Department of Social Services (CDSS) issued ACL 13-32, for Elderly/Disabled (E/D) households, clarifying that E/D households are never subject to a gross income test for actual program eligibility and also have a higher gross income level to be eligible for MCE. Therefore, E/D households with gross income at or below 200 percent of the FPL were to be conferred MCE status if they were issued or had online access to the "Family Planning - PUB 275" brochure. Effective January 1, 2014, AB 191 (Chapter 669, Statutes of 2013) required that any household inclu

ding a member who receives Medi-Cal be conferred MCE status if the household’s gross income does not exceed 200 percent of the FPL (see ACL No. 12- 62). With the passage of SB 855 (Chapter 29, Statutes of 2014), effective July 1, 2014, all households with gross income at or below 200 percent of the FPL, must be conferred MCE status if they are issued or have online access to the TANF-funded “Family Planning – PUB 275” brochure and meet all other conditions of eligibility for CalFresh. In addition, the provisions of MCE for Medi-Cal recipients, as outlined in AB 191, became inoperative as of June 30, 2014. Implementation All counties must immediately implement a 200 percent FPL gross income level for MCE for all NACF households. Until automation is programmed, this must be done manually. For any case pending as of July 1, 2014, if automation indicates ineligibility for a non-aged/disabled CalFresh applicant household because of the 130 percent FPL gross income limit, the county must pull the case and manually verify whether eligibility under MCE status exists because of gross income at or under 200 percent FPL. Additionally, counties must check any applications that were denied for exceeding gross income since July 1, 2014, as well as applications denied in June where the 30 day processing would have gone into July. Corrective action must be taken on any cases that would have been eligible under the MCE 200 percent FPL gross income test. Automation The CDSS is currently working with the Statewide Automated Welfare Systems to develop an automated procedure for processing households based on the 200 percent FPL for MCE. The automation is to be completed by November 2014. In the interim, a manual workaround at the county level is necessary, effective July 1, 2014.