GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF NORTH CAROLINA
SESSION 1997
SESSION LAW 1998-106
AN ACT TO EXTEND AND IMPROVE THE CABARRUS COUNTY WORK OVER WELFARE PROGRAM.
The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:
Section 1. Chapter 368 of the 1995 Session Laws, as rewritten by Section 24.16A of Chapter 18 of the 1995 Session Laws, Second Extra Session 1996, reads as rewritten:
"Section 1. Notwithstanding any law to the
contrary, the Department of Human Resources Health and Human Services
shall designate Cabarrus County as a pilot county for the purpose of
conducting a demonstration Workfare Program for certain Aid to Families with
Dependent Children (AFDC) Work First and
Food Stamp recipients. Immediately upon the ratification of this act, the
Department shall seek all federal waivers necessary to allow this demonstration
program. To the extent that this act or the program established pursuant
to it conflicts with any State law, the program supersedes that law.
Sec. 2. (a) The Cabarrus County
demonstration Workfare Program for certain AFDC Work First and
Food Stamp recipients shall:
(1) Provide job
opportunities to all able-bodied AFDC Work First and Food Stamp
recipients who:
a. Are
not eligible for the JOBS program;
b. Are
between the ages of 18 and 64;
c. Are
not caring for a child under one year of age;
d. Are
working less than 30 hours per week; and
e. Are
not full-time high school students or the equivalent; are required to
participate in the Work First employment program.
(2) Create job
opportunities in the public, the private, nonprofit, and the private,
for-profit sector, primarily in the human services areas by allowing Cabarrus
County to use grant diversions, consisting of the AFDC Work First benefits
and the cash value of Food Stamps that would be paid to otherwise eligible
recipients to match employer funds, to subsidize the employment of these
recipients. Human service area jobs will meet such socially necessary
needs as day care work, nursing home aide work, and in-home aide work;
(3) Allow wages paid to these recipients, which contain grant-diverted funds, to be exempt from income for purposes of determining eligibility for assistance;
(4) Structure payment of wages to these recipients such that they will be considered income, in order to make recipients eligible for the federal earned income tax credit;
(5) Create work experience opportunities in the private sector more realistically to reflect the world of work;
(6) Require these recipients to participate in the development of an opportunity contract, outlining the responsibilities of the recipient and agency, as well as the incentives for compliance and the sanctions for noncompliance;
(7) Require all these
recipients who participate in the program to pursue and accept employment, full
or part time, subsidized or unsubsidized, as a condition for continued
eligibility for AFDC Work First and Food Stamp assistance;
(8) Require job search training of all participants;
(9) Require monitored job search of all participants until employment is found or until other work activities of up to 40 hours per week are in place;
(10) Provide child care by allowing
Cabarrus County to use grant diversions, consisting of the Family Support
Act child day care subsidies that would be paid to otherwise
eligible recipients, and transportation as required;
(11) Create a positive work incentive by providing wage incentives to participants who are in compliance with the program, equal to the first thirty dollars ($30.00) and one-third of the remainder of monthly gross income for a period of up to two years;
(12) Provide enhanced Food Stamp benefits after participants are employed and are in program compliance by using the thirty dollar ($30.00) and one-third of the remainder wage incentive as an income exemption;
(13) Provide time-limited
sanctions, or withholding of benefits for the adult members of the household of
all AFDC and Food Stamp benefits for noncompliance, beginning with the first
sanction period equal to the time necessary to come into compliance, second
sanction period - four months, third and subsequent sanctions - eight months; (i)
a pay-for performance system that withholds the entire Work First benefits for
the household for the month following any month in which it fails to
comply with Work First participation requirements and restores these benefits
for the month following any month in which it successfully complies with Work
First participation requirements, and, to ensure that children in sanctioned
households are not harmed, (ii) social worker monitoring and the use of direct
vendor payments or assistance from other community resources for rent,
utilities, or other basic needs of children, as necessary, during the period in
which the household is sanctioned;
(14) Provide automatic Medicaid coverage for children and pregnant adults of sanctioned families by transferring the children administratively to the Medicaid for Indigent Children (MIC) Program and by transferring the pregnant adults administratively to the Medicaid for Pregnant Women (MPW) Program.
(b) An adjunct
program to the demonstration program prescribed in subsection (a) of this
section shall:
(1) Require AFDC
recipients who are mandated JOBS participants to pursue and accept employment,
full or part time, subsidized or unsubsidized, as part of their job plan.
The maximum number of hours delegated to job activities, including employment,
shall be 40 hours per week. AFDC recipients who are JOBS eligible and who
are caring for children under five years of age shall, in this program, not be
limited to 20 hours per week;
(2) Require AFDC
recipients who are potential JOBS participants to engage in job search until
either employment is found or they become JOBS eligible; and
(3) Ensure that
sanctions for noncompliance and provision of Medicaid coverage shall be as
provided in subdivisions (13) and (14) of subsection (a) of this section.
Sec. 3. This act shall be funded by Cabarrus County
using the grant diversions and administrative transfers prescribed in Section 2
of this act, together with federal and State administrative funding allocated
to Cabarrus County for the public assistance and JOBS programs.
Sec. 4. The Department of Human Resources Health
and Human Services shall evaluate the Cabarrus County Demonstration Project
and report to the General Assembly and to the Joint Legislative Public
Assistance Commission on or before May 1, 1998. September 1,
1998.
Sec. 5. This act becomes effective July 1, 1995 and
shall expire on January 1, 1999. July 1, 2001."
Section 2. This act is effective when it becomes law.
In the General Assembly read three times and ratified this the 19th day of August, 1998.
s/ Dennis A. Wicker
President of the Senate
s/ Harold J. Brubaker
Speaker of the House of Representatives