R.I. Drops Appeal of Decision Overturning One-Year Cap on Eligibility for Hardship Benefits
Legal Services E-lert
Bibliographic Info:
Author: Katie Mulvaney
Source: Providence Journal, “Human services drops appeal of welfare ruling”
Date: July 28, 2011
The Providence Journal reports: “The state Department of Human Services has dropped its appeal of a court ruling that barred the department from limiting a person’s eligibility for hardship welfare benefits to one year. Superior Court Judge Bennett R. Gallo ruled in December that state law did not give the department the authority to cut an individual off from receiving hardship benefits after one year in response to a lawsuit filed by Rhode Island Legal Services on behalf of two mothers who had been axed from the program. Considered a last resort for some of the state’s most needy, hardship extensions keep benefits flowing beyond the normal deadline for people who can prove they can’t work due to disability, homelessness or the state’s struggling economy. The DHS, which had set a one-year limit for the benefits in its manual, initially appealed Gallo’s ruling to the state Supreme Court. But the department has since shifted its policy and withdrawn its appeal, according to Frederick Sneesby, spokesman for the department. . . . The welfare overhaul pushed by former Gov. Donald L. Carcieri and passed by the General Assembly in 2008 included a provision allowing state officials to extend welfare benefits on a case-by-case basis to families who could prove they faced a hardship. Enacted as the state faced the worst economic downturn in decades, the measure capped the number of families who could receive hardship extensions to 20 percent of the state total caseload for the so-called Rhode Island Works program. In ruling, Gallo found that the General Assembly did not set time limits for hardship extensions when it passed the law, but limited the program through the 20-percent cap. The department, however, was exercising the 12-month ‘maximum lifetime limit’ for hardship extensions spelled out in its manual.”