- State stops seeking refunds for overpaid welfare, By Marisa Lagos, January 10, 2012, San Francisco Chronicle: “The state will no longer allow counties to seek refunds from former welfare recipients who were minors when their caregivers were overpaid, officials announced in a partial win for advocates who had sued on behalf of the recipients last year. The announcement was welcome news for one of the plaintiffs in that suit, a 19-year-old Riverside County woman whose was being asked to repay $766 mistakenly given to her mother four years ago. But the other family named in the lawsuit, headed by Fresno County resident Clarence Ayers – who receives $334 a month to help raise his 14-year-old great-granddaughter, Irene – will still be on the hook, said attorney Patti Prunhuber. That’s because the state decided only to halt collections from former recipients, she said. In cases where the recipient is a minor who is still receiving welfare, county welfare agencies will be allowed to continue pursuing the debt, said Prunhuber. The Public Interest Law Project in Oakland, where she works, filed the suit in November…”
- State will stop trying to recoup past erroneous food stamp overpayments to poor, By Catherine Candisky, December 21, 2011, Columbus Dispatch: “The state will no longer try to recoup food stamp overpayments made in error to poor families prior to Jan. 1, 2000. The announcement comes a month after Gov. John Kasich dumped efforts initiated by his predecessor to collect more than 10-year-old overpayments of cash assistance to former welfare recipients. State officials said the rationale for both policy changes is the same – they don’t want to create further hardship for vulnerable families by trying to collect non-fraudulent debts more than a decade old…”
Poverty-related issues in the news, from the Institute for Research on Poverty