HB2685 HD1.DOC

SECTION 1. The legislature finds that public assistance programs currently limit eligibility to those with few or no assets. The function of asset limits is to ensure public resources reach individuals and families most in need. However, there is growing recognition that asset limits can discourage savings and prevent families from making investments that can help them escape poverty. Assets, such as personal savings, are precisely the kind of resources that allow families to move off and stay off of public assistance programs.

The purpose of this Act is to:

(1) Raise the asset limit for public assistance from $5,000 to $10,000; and

(2) Require the department of human services to conduct a study on asset limits.

SECTION 2. Section 346-29, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended by amending subsection (c) to read as follows:

"(c) In determining the needs of an applicant or recipient for public assistance by the department, the department shall:

(1) Disregard the amounts of earned or unearned income as required or allowed by federal acts and other regulations, to receive federal funds and disregard from gross earned income twenty per cent plus $200 and a percentage of the remaining balance of earned income consistent with federal regulations and other requirements;

(2) Consider as net income in all cases the income as federal acts and other regulations require the department to consider for receipt of federal funds and may consider the additional income and resources as these acts and regulations permit to be considered;

(3) For households with minor dependents, disregard a total of [~~$5,000~~] $10,000 in assets and the value of one motor vehicle in determining the needs of persons for financial assistance; provided that the amount to be disregarded shall not exceed standards under federally funded financial assistance programs. This paragraph shall not apply to persons eligible for federal supplemental security income benefits, aid to the aged, blind or disabled, or general assistance to households without minor dependents. In determining the needs of persons eligible for federal supplemental security income benefits, aid to the aged, blind, or disabled, or general assistance to households without minor dependents, the department shall apply all the resource retention and exclusion requirements under the federal supplemental security income program;

(4) Apply the resource retention requirements under the federal supplemental security income program in determining the needs of a single person for medical assistance only;

(5) Apply the resource retention requirements under the federal supplemental security income program in determining the needs of a family of two persons for medical assistance only and an additional $250 for each additional person included in an application for medical assistance only;

(6) Disregard amounts of emergency assistance granted under section 346-65;

(7) Not consider as income or resources any payment for services to or on behalf of, or any benefit received by, a participant under the first-to-work program of part XI, other than wages. Wages earned by a participant while participating in the first-to-work program shall be considered income of the participant, unless the wages are excluded or disregarded under any other law;

(8) Not consider as income or resources payment made to eligible individuals, eligible surviving spouses, surviving children or surviving parents as specified under [~~Title~~] title I of the Civil Liberties Act of 1988, Public Law 100-383, which made restitution to individuals of Japanese ancestry who were interned during World War II;

(9) Allow the community spouse of an individual residing in a medical institution to maintain countable resources to the maximum allowed by federal statutes or regulations with provisions for increases, as allowed by the Secretary of Health and Human Services by means of indexing, court order, or fair hearing decree, without jeopardizing the eligibility of the institutionalized spouse for medical assistance;

(10) Allow an individual residing in a medical institution to contribute toward the support of the individual's community spouse, thereby enabling the community spouse to maintain the monthly maximum income allowed by federal statutes or regulations, with provisions for increases as allowed by the Secretary of Health and Human Services by means of indexing, court order, or fair hearing decree;

(11) Consider the transfer of assets from the applicant's name to another name within the specified time period as required by federal regulations, known as the ["]lookback["] period, prior to the application for medical assistance for care in a nursing home or other long-term care facility. Pursuant to rules adopted under chapter 91, the director may attribute any assets that have been transferred within the required federal "lookback" period from the applicant if the director determines that transfer of certain assets was made solely to make the applicant eligible for assistance under this chapter; and

(12) Not consider as income or resources any funds deposited into a family self-sufficiency escrow account on behalf of a participant under a federal housing choice voucher family self-sufficiency program as required or allowed under federal law."

SECTION 3. The department of human services shall conduct a study on asset limits which reviews and evaluates information on promising practices, policies and trends, and the applicability of such limits to the supplemental nutritional assistance program, the temporary assistance to needy families and temporary assistance to other needy families programs, and the medQuest program. The department shall submit its findings and recommendations on asset limits to the legislature no later than twenty days prior to the convening of the regular session of 2013.

SECTION 4. Statutory material to be repealed is bracketed and stricken. New statutory material is underscored.

SECTION 5. This Act shall take effect upon its approval.

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES	H.B. NO.	2685
TWENTY-SIXTH LEGISLATURE, 2012		H.D. 1
STATE OF HAWAII