Current through Register Vol. 46, No. 39, September 25, 2024
Money payments shall be restricted under the following
circumstances:
(a) Restriction based
on inability to handle cash. When the inability of an applicant for, or
recipient of, ADC to handle cash has been demonstrated and when neither the
granting of power of attorney by the recipient nor the appointment of a
committee by the court is deemed practicable, payment of all or part of the
grant shall be made by restricted payments. The recipient shall be sent written
notice whenever a creditor requests a restricted payment for mismanagement on
the basis of nonpayment of bills. Where payment is restricted, the reason for
the decision to restrict shall be explained in the case record and the
recipient shall be sent written notice of the restriction together with the
reasons pertaining thereto. The recipient shall be sent written notice of any
decision not to use a restricted payment. The local social services district
shall initiate discussion concerning the client's reasons for nonpayment of
bills and shall make renewed effort to help the client assume responsibility
for paying his own bills.
(b) When
an applicant/recipient of ADC requests in writing that vendor or protective
payment be made in instances where the budget deficit is greater than or equal
to the charge for the goods or services rendered or greater than or equal to
the maximum amounts set forth in section
352.29(e)
of this Title in those cases where the requested vendor payment is for a heat
and/or domestic energy bill.
(c)
Public assistance must be granted in cash; provided, however, that when the
granting of cash may be deemed inappropriate by the social services district
because of one of the following situations, public assistance may be granted in
whole or in part by restricted payment:
(1)
an applicant or recipient has demonstrated an inability to manage
funds;
(2) less expensive or more
easily controlled alternative methods of payment are available;
(3) when vendor payments are made to
landlords on behalf of individuals residing in public housing; or
(4) an applicant or recipient requests
restricted payments.
(d)
Restricted payments for rent. When a recipient of public assistance has failed
to fully apply the shelter allowance to his rent, the social services official
shall consider such failure as an indication of inability to handle cash and
shall investigate the advisability of making restricted payment of the shelter
allowance directly to the landlord or his designated agent. In determining
whether such restricted payments shall be made, the following considerations
shall apply:
(1) Two months nonpayment of the
shelter allowance or eviction notice for nonpayment of rent shall be considered
rebuttable presumptive evidence of inability to handle cash. Examples of how
this presumption may be rebutted include, but are not limited to:
(i) where a recipient demonstrates that the
family has experienced some emergency or extraordinary event for which it was
appropriate for available funds to be spent;
(ii) where a recipient demonstrates
extraordinary expenses for necessary items not normally provided for by the
public assistance grant or by the medical assistance program or for which
payment is not readily available from some other source; or
(iii) where a recipient demonstrates that the
family has withheld the payment of rent as a reasonable exercise of consumer
rights.
(2) When a
recipient is two months or more in rent arrears, and the landlord or his
designated agent desires restricted payment for rent, the landlord or his
designated agent must make such request in writing to the local social services
official. Prior to making such written request, the landlord or his designated
agent shall attempt to collect the overdue rent from the recipient and shall
provide such evidence to the social services official when the written request
is made.
(3) Such payment shall not
be made where a recipient's rent is in excess of the amount allowed as a
shelter allowance and the recipient pays the full amount of such allowance but
fails to pay part or all of the amount due above the allowance, nor shall such
payments be made where the social services official has been withholding rent
payments in accordance with the provisions of section 143-b of the Social Services
Law.
(4) The social services
official shall advise the recipient whenever a landlord or his designated agent
requests restricted rent payments.
(5) The social services official shall advise
the recipient of the decision to restrict rent by means of a timely and
adequate notice detailing the reasons for the proposed action or shall advise
the recipient of a decision not to restrict rent.
(6) When a decision to make restricted
payments for rent is made pursuant to this subdivision, the decision shall be
entered in the case record and the reasons underlying the decision shall be
fully documented.
(e)
Payments in closed cases.
(1) Public
assistance payments are to be made only to persons who are current recipients
of public assistance and care on the date of payment, except as provided below:
(i) payment must be made to former applicants
for and recipients of ADC whose cases have been closed and who are owed ADC
benefits for periods after July 1, 1985 if such benefits are owed solely
because such persons are not current recipients of ADC and:
(a) such benefits are:
(1) requested by the former applicant or
recipient or the appropriate social services district is otherwise informed
that such payments are owed; and
(2) not in dispute and are acknowledged as
benefits owed to the former applicant or recipient by the social services
district; or
(b) such
benefits have been established as owed to the former applicant or recipient as
a result of a fair hearing requested pursuant to section
358-3.5
of this Title;
(ii)
payment must be made on behalf of closed public assistance cases when an
obligation has been authorized prior to an applicant's or recipient's death or
prior to the date of closing of a public assistance case if the social services
district is required to pay the cost or unpaid balance of the obligation to a
vendor. Payment on behalf of a closed public assistance case under this
subparagraph must be by vendor payment; or
(iii) payment must be made to former
applicants for and recipients of public assistance whose cases have been closed
for energy reconciliation payments, as authorized by section
352.5 of this
Title, payments for net loss of cash income as authorized by section
352.7(m)
of this Title, payments for extended supportive services as authorized by
section
385.3(d)
of this Title, replacement payments for lost or stolen checks as authorized by
section
352.7(g)(1)
of this Title or replacement payments for voided checks when such applicants or
recipients are eligible for such payments.
(2) Support pass-through payments, as
authorized by section
352.15 of this
Title, and burial payments, as authorized by sections
352.7(n)
and
620.3(a)
of this Title, may be made in closed cases.
