April 6, 2007
STATE BUDGET - THUMBS DOWN
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Pataki welfare policy becomes Spitzer welfare policy?
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Despite adding billions in new spending to this year’s state budget, Governor Spitzer and legislative leaders have - so far - failed to take action to reverse a Pataki-era policy that denies federal disability benefits to over a thousand disabled children in low-income households that receive the HIV/AIDS emergency shelter allowance.
“Everyone agrees the state budget includes a disturbing amount of spending, including thousands of dollars in new tax cuts for some of the state’s richest families,” said Michael Kink, Legislative Counsel for Housing Works.
“At the same time, Spitzer and the Legislature have failed to look out for our poorest and most vulnerable families – formerly homeless parents living with AIDS whose kids receive federal disability benefits,” said Kink. “Pataki’s policy is one of the many things that should have changed on Day One. It’s unconscionable to continue this policy now.”
Kink said AIDS, antipoverty and disability groups will try to persuade Spitzer and welfare commissioner David Hansell to change the policy as part of a capital spending bill to be considered later this month.
Families living on survival-level welfare benefits lose approximately $573 per month under the harsh policy.
The cost of changing the policy is estimated to be about $4.8 million – far less than many of the questionable spending items criticized by watchdog groups who’ve reviewed this year’s state budget.
Kids and families at risk
The households at issue under the policy:
- include a disabled child receiving SSI
- include a person or persons living with AIDS
- receive welfare cash assistance
- receive the HIV emergency shelter allowance
Proper welfare budgeting policy would not include the child’s SSI benefits in calculating welfare cash assistance for the household; the child should be “invisible” for budget calculation purposes and should receive no shelter allowance. Federal SSI benefits should then be used to address the disabled child’s needs, as intended.
Pataki problem – and a Spitzer problem
Governor Pataki imposed a policy to take the additional federal benefits away from these families. A lawsuit (Melendez v. Wing) restored the benefits until last year, when Governor Pataki added a sentence to the Education, Labor and Family Assistance budget bill to take away the benefits once again.
Governor Spitzer’s budget proposal – and the just-passed human services budget:
- includes funding to ensure SSI invisibility for families with disabled children who receive the regular welfare shelter allowance;
- does not ensure SSI invisibility for families with disabled children who receive the HIV/AIDS emergency shelter allowance.
“Clearly, all poor families with disabled children should receive the full benefit of federal disability payments,” said Kink. “There is no humane or logical reason to single out families living with AIDS for more harmful treatment.”
Fighting for a fix
Housing Works and allies in the HIV/AIDS, antipoverty and disability advocacy communities will keep working to reverse this harsh policy as part of the capital spending bills expected to be passed later this month when the legislature returns to Albany.
“Over 1,000 of the most vulnerable families in New York are counting on Spitzer and the Legislature to take action on this important issue,” said Kink. “We’re not going to stop fighting until these kids get the survival benefits they’re entitled to.”