October 1998 Mass Changes

Effective October 1, 1998, the following mass changes are applicable. (Please note that the standard utility allowance decreased. Also note that the standard deduction, standard telephone allowance, and homeless household shelter estimate are not listed because they have not changed.)

Standard Utility Allowance

$236

Excess Shelter Deduction

$275

Maximum Coupon Allotments:

Net Income Standards:

Gross Income Standards

Separate AG Income Standards -- Elderly and Disabled AGS Only

Implementation: All applications and reapplications being processed for October 1998 and after shall have the new amounts applied. All ongoing cases will have these new amounts applied during the mass change to be run over Labor Day weekend, effective October 1, 1998. CRIS-E tables will be updated with the changes to be applied October 1998. Alerts will be generated for all cases which CRIS-E cannot update automatically and the eligibility determiner will be required to run ED/BC for these cases to implement these changes. Notice requirements are found in Section 7131.2.

This transmittal obsoletes FACT No. 13.

Changes Due to the Creation of the State Hearings Manual (ODHS 7240)

As a result of the removal of Chapter 9000 (see State Hearings Manual Transmittal Letter No. 1), the following changes have been made. References to Chapter 9000 have been removed from various sections of the manual. Twenty-one (21) forms which will be housed in the State Hearings Manual have been removed from the Appendix. The Index has been updated to remove references to Chapter 9000 and any rule in that chapter. (Please note that the effective date of rule 5101:4-8-25 attached to this rule has not changed from the version it replaces. The only change was the deletion of a cross-reference to an FSCH section number which appeared only in the FSCH version of the rule.)

LEAP Attendance Bonus Payment

The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 made significant changes to food stamp certification policy and demonstration authority. As a result, the Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) has determined that the LEAP attendance bonus payment waiver is not cost neutral for the Food Stamp Program and can no longer be considered excluded income. This change does not result in any change to how the no increase in food stamps due to a failure to comply with another program's requirement is handled. If the $62 attendance bonus is not paid to an assistance group not meeting the minimum attendance requirements, but no sanction is imposed, food stamps will continue to count the amount of the Ohio Works First (OWF) benefit actually received. If, in addition to not being paid the attendance bonus, the assistance group is sanctioned (i.e., the OWF benefit is decreased for failure to comply), food stamps will continue to count the amount of the OWF benefit, minus the attendance bonus, received prior to the OWF failure to comply with LEAP program requirements.

Implementation: This change was effective July 1, 1998, and was implemented via FACT No. 12. FACT 12 contained the following instructions. FNS has granted Ohio a three-month window to accomplish this change. To ensure that an assistance group does not experience any interruption of benefits and to allow for a smooth transition to the new policy, no AG shall be held responsible for any overissuance caused by excluding the attendance bonus payment for the period July through September 1998, provided the AG was certified or recertified prior to July 1, 1998, until the earlier of (1) the expiration of the assistance group's most recent certification period or (2) September 30, 1998. Benefits issued to an AG certified or recertified on or after July 1, 1998, shall have a LEAP attendance bonus payment counted as unearned income. CRIS-E has been reprogrammed to count the LEAP attendance bonus payment as unearned income in the food stamp budget.

The two rules affected by this change which were attached to FACT 12 were OAC rules 5101:4-4-17 and 5101:4-4-19. Please note that subsequent to the issuance of FACT 12, rule 5101:4-4-17 was rescinded and its language now appears as paragraph (M) in rule 5101:4-4-13. The up-to-date versions of 5101:4-4-13 and 5101:4-4-19 are not being issued in this FSTL; they were issued in FSTL No. 219.

This transmittal letter replaces FACT 12.

Miscellaneous

The Outline of Contents for chapters 1000, 2000, 3000 have been updated to reflect the number and title of each Ohio Administrative Code rule.