Section 119.032 of the Ohio Revised Code requires a review of all state agency rules within a five-year period. The purpose of this review is to determine whether a rule should be continued without amendment, be amended or be rescinded, taking into consideration the rule's purpose and scope. In addition, the intent of the review is to ensure that rules are clear and concise as written, that program requirements are accurate and up-to-date, that unnecessary paperwork is eliminated, and that, when possible, local agencies are given more flexibility. As part of the ongoing review process, the acronym "CDJFS" has been changed to "county agency" to align with the Food Assistance rules.

If no revisions are made to the proposed rule prior to finalization by the Joint Committee on Agency Rule Review (JCARR), it will become effective on January 1, 2011. If changes are necessary, a copy of the revised rule will be forwarded to you at that time. This cover letter includes a summary statement of the policy change.

Background

Section 5101.184 of the Ohio Revised Code requires that the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services work with the Ohio Department of Taxation to collect overpayments of assistance from refunds of state income taxes. Overpayments which may be collected using this method include those obtained by fraud or misrepresentation, and those resulting from error made by the recipient or by the county agency.

A debtor whose claim is selected for referral to the state tax refund offset program (STOP) is mailed a 30-day notice of intent to offset. The notice informs the debtor of how to prevent the offset, and how to request a review of the intended action. Reviews are conducted by the applicable county agency, with second-level reviews being conducted by the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services.

CHAPTER 4000

5101:1-1-90 Ohio works first: State Tax Refund Offset program

We have reviewed this rule as part of the five-year rule review process and have rewritten it into question and answer format. In addition, the following changes have been made to the rule:

• The 10-year limitation on old debts has been removed. Effective April 15, 2010, Food Assistance rule 5101:4-8-30 was amended to remove this time limitation for the Treasury Offset Program. In a continuing effort to align cash and food assistance programs, we are removing the limitation for claims referred to STOP;
• We have removed Title 11 bankruptcy, as collection would be prohibited under any bankruptcy action; and
• To align with the Food Assistance policy, we have added language to enable the offset to occur from every liable adult that was part of the OWF overpayment.

INSTRUCTIONS:

The following chart identifies the material that should be removed from the Cash Assistance Manual and the material that should be added.