(a) The monthly assistance allowance shall be
the basic needs expressed in a dollar amount per individual or family. The
monthly assistance allowance includes cost for food, household supplies,
personal essentials, educational and community activities, laundry,
transportation, telephone, household equipment, household repairs, pregnancy
diet, and shelter.
(b) For a
household receiving financial assistance under the aid to the aged, blind or
disabled programs, the monthly assistance allowance shall be forty-eight per
cent of the standard of need.
(c)
For a household receiving financial assistance under the general assistance
program, the monthly assistance shall be established by the department.
(1) The department's goal is to set a monthly
assistance allowance, to the extent practicable at the greatest amount of
money, excluding the cost of administering the general assistance program, for
the greatest number of people within the limits of the appropriation.
(2) The monthly assistance allowance shall be
a percentage of the standard of need and shall not exceed fifty percent of the
standard of need.
(3) The monthly
assistance allowance shall be computed as follows:
(A) Subtract the cost of administering the
general assistance program from the appropriation for the following fiscal
year; and
(B) Determine the initial
allowance for the following fiscal year by dividing the average monthly
recipient caseload for the most current four months that reflect the actual
recipient caseload for which data is available of the current fiscal year into
the remaining appropriation for the following fiscal year.
(4) The monthly assistance allowance shall be
reviewed, and re-computed in accordance with paragraph (3), no less frequently
than every four months.
(5)
Effective April 1, 2005, at the time of the initial computation in paragraph 3
and the review described in paragraph 4:
(A)
The monthly assistance allowance shall be adjusted if there is a variance of
more than ten percent from the average monthly payment for the current
month.
(B) The monthly assistance
allowance may be adjusted, at the department's discretion, if there is a
variance of ten percent or less from the average monthly payment for the
current month.
(6) Any
projected balance remaining at the end of the fiscal year shall be distributed,
in an equal monthly amount, to all recipients who received benefits in the
fiscal year, for each month they received benefits.
(d) The monthly assistance allowance amount
shall be rounded off to the next lower whole dollar.
