BILL NUMBER:  S2033

 TITLE OF BILL :

An act to amend the social services law, in relation to work
experience

 SUMMARY OF SPECIFIC PROVISIONS :

Section 1 would amend social services Law (SSL) § 336-c to require
local districts to credit the value of an individual's time in the
Work Experience Program (WEP) against any benefits legally recovered
by the district.

Section 2 would require that the Office of Temporary and Disability
Assistance promulgate any rules and regulations and conduct any
requisite training necessary for the implementation of the act.

Section 3 provides an immediate effective date.

 EFFECTS OF PRESENT LAW WHICH THIS BILL WOULD ALTER :

This bill would add a new section (5) to SSL § 336-c

 JUSTIFICATION :

              

Persons who receive public assistance in New York State are required
to repay the local social services district for the assistance they
receive. Properly paid public assistance is a debt owed by the
individual who received such assistance and is subject to recovery
under a number of provisions of the social Services Law The recovery
of such assistance is expressly authorized against windfalls such as
inheritances (SSL 104), lawsuit proceeds (SSL 104-b), lottery winnings
(SSL 131-r) and retroactive SS awards. Additionally, local districts
are entitled to recover properly paid public assistance by requiring
applicants for public assistance who own their own homes to provide
the district with a mortgage equal to the sum of public assistance
paid, as a condition of eligibility for assistance (SSL 106). When an
individual works off his or her grant by participation in workfare, it
is only fair that the value of that work be credited against any
recovery that the local district is entitled to make. This bill would
require local social services districts to credit the value of
workfare by calculating the number of hours worked times the higher of
the state or federal minimum wage applicable at the time, when
determining the amount of properly paid public assistance that the
local social services district is entitled to recover.

This legislation would codify the holding of the United States
District Court for the Western District of New York in Elwell v.
Weiss, 2007 WI, 2994308, which addressed a challenge to a County's
seizure of a former recipient's retroactive SSI benefits, holding that
the Fair Labor Standards Act requires that workfare participants
receive a credit equal to the minimum wage value of their labor when a
local district calculates the value of a public assistance recovery.
This proposed legislation is consistent with the provisions of the
social services law that recognize workfare as work and require that
workfare workers be provided with worker's compensation, and that the
hours assigned cannot exceed the total of public assistance and food
stamps received divided by the higher of the state or federal minimum
wage.

Prior to 1997, it was the long standing policy of the state to require
local social services district to credit workfare against any recovery
of properly paid public assistance. When welfare was "reformed" in
1997, chapter 436 of the laws of 1997, section 148, repealed a

provision similar to this proposal. This bill would restore the prior
policy, which recognized the value of such work.

 PRIOR LEGISLATIVE HISTORY :

2016: S1120/A2050 - REFERRED TO SOCIAL SERVICES/ advanced to third
reading
2015: S1120/A2050 - REFERRED TO SOCIAL SERVICES/ passed assembly
2013-2014: S242/A2245 - REFERRED TO SOCIAL SERVICES
2012: S7508/A10650 - REPORTED FROM SOCIAL SERVICES AND COMMITTED TO
FINANCE

 FISCAL IMPLICATIONS :

To be determined.

 EFFECTIVE DATE :
Immediately.