Section 2 Comprehensive financial assistance program; services
Section 2. (A) The department shall provide and administer throughout the commonwealth a comprehensive transitional assistance financial assistance program, including the following services: the provision of financial assistance to those in economic need and the determination of eligibility for the categorical public assistance provided under the Federal-State programs; financial assistance for care and rehabilitation of the aging; financial assistance for health services and medical care, except that such assistance shall not include medical assistance provided under chapter one hundred and eighteen E; and other forms of financial assistance to families and individuals as needed.
In order that said services be adapted, organized and coordinated to meet the needs of certain population groups, each community service center shall provide financial assistance programs for:
(a) families, children and unmarried parents, which program shall, among other objectives, serve to assist, strengthen and encourage family life for the protection and care of children, assist and encourage the use by any family of all available resources to this end;
(b) the aging and other adults in need of financial, legal, health, employment or other services;
(c) other population groups who require special adaptation of the services provided because of special financial needs;
(B) The department shall:
(a) formulate the policies, procedures and rules necessary for the full and efficient implementation of programs authorized by the laws of the commonwealth and federal laws in the area of transitional assistance financial assistance;
(b) administer the services, funds and personnel necessary for such transitional assistance financial assistance programs throughout the commonwealth;
(c) establish high standards of transitional assistance financial assistance service and shall strive to elevate such standards;
(d) provide the range of transitional assistance financial assistance services on a fair, just and equitable basis to all people in need of such services;
(e) collaborate with other departments of the commonwealth which are in fields related to social welfare and with voluntary or private agencies or organizations to assure efficient and high-quality financial assistance, health, mental health, educational, correctional and employment services for persons who are unable for social or economic reasons to provide such services for themselves;
(f) study the economic problems and welfare services in the commonwealth, and make recommendations to the appropriate branches and agencies of government for broadening and improving the scope and quality of welfare services;
(g) formulate a standard budget of assistance, the adequacy of which shall be reviewed annually.
(h) make quarterly reports, based upon statistical sampling methods, to the house and senate committees on ways and means, on (1) the number of public assistance applications processed within thirty days and for aid under chapter one hundred and eighteen and within twenty-two days under chapter one hundred and seventeen, and (2) the number of such applications processed within forty-five days. Such reports shall contain information sufficient to indicate whether ninety-five per cent of the applications were processed within the time periods in clause (1) of this subsection and if not, what actions have been taken to reach that percentage.
(i) if permitted by federal law and determined by the commissioner to be cost-effective, and subject to any other provision of law regarding fees, charge a reasonable fee for any identification card it issues as a replacement for an identification card that has been lost, mutilated, stolen, or destroyed, except if such loss or destruction occurs during the mailing of an original identification card to a recipient or if the department issues replacement cards on its own initiative to classes of recipients; and charge a reasonable fee to providers of services for reviewing and processing incorrect claims.
(C) (a) If the standards of the department of elder affairs in regard to home care services are in accordance with the standards of the department, the department may enter into an inter-agency agreement with the department of elder affairs for the provision of home care services for the elderly. The department may contract with a public or private agency for the provision of home care services for adult handicapped provided the services are in accordance with the standards of the department.
No rule or regulation of the department establishing such standard shall take effect unless, prior to notice under chapter thirty A, it has been submitted for review and comment to the secretary of elder affairs.
When purchasing home care services from the department of elder affairs, under the provisions of this paragraph, the commissioner may authorize payment from the department to the department of elder affairs for the reasonable cost of any services rendered in accordance with the terms of an inter-agency agreement authorized under the provisions of this section.
(b) The department may also contract with any other person or agency for the provision of home care services, provided that any such contract for the provision of such services for the elderly shall be subject to the approval of the department of elder affairs, and provided further that any contract for the provision of home health services by a certified home health agency shall not be subject to such prior approval.
(c) No rules and regulations of the department establishing standards for regulating the terms and conditions of contracts providing home care services and fee schedules or charges relative to such services shall become effective until they have been approved by the house and senate committees on ways and means of the general court.
(D) Subject to appropriation, the department shall administer a program of emergency assistance to needy families with children and pregnant woman with no other children, subject to and in accordance with the provisions of the Social Security Act of 1935, as defined in 42 USC 606(e), to provide benefits to avoid destitution or to provide living arrangements in a home. The commonwealth shall accept matching funds from the appropriate federal authorities for said program.
Said program of emergency assistance shall assist eligible families to prevent destitution or to provide living arrangements in the home.
The department shall promulgate rules and regulations to establish the levels of benefits available under the program and to ensure simplicity of administration in the best interest of needy recipients. Such benefits shall include, but not be limited to, the following:—
(a) for the prevention of the loss of housing, the actual liability up to three times the monthly rental or mortgage liability;
(b) for the prevention of utility shutoffs or for the resumption of utility services, up to three months of the actual service liabilities;
(c) for the provision of home heating assistance, up to three months of the actual fuel liabilities.
The department shall promulgate regulations which would authorize the department to make payments for a fourth month of rent, utility or fuel arrearages if the commissioner certifies in writing that the family would otherwise become homeless, or be without utilities or fuel.
(d) for the prevention of homelessness, temporary shelter as necessary to alleviate homelessness when such family has no feasible alternative housing available, up to the maximum period subject to federal reimbursement; storage of furniture for up to thirty days; moving expenses of up to one hundred and fifty dollars; advance rent payments of one month’s rent; and security deposit not to exceed one month’s rent.
The department shall establish procedures, consistent with federal law, to require applicants for the program to also submit an application for federal energy assistance where appropriate. No benefits for a particular emergency shall be provided to an applicant family under the emergency assistance program when benefits are available within seven days of application under the federal assistance program to meet such particular emergency.
A needy family shall be eligible for assistance under the emergency assistance program if its income is within the income limits for the program of aid to families with dependent children established pursuant to chapter one hundred and eighteen.
Emergency assistance shall not be granted to a family who, at any time within one year immediately prior to the filing of an application for emergency assistance, has made an assignment or transfer of real or personal property for the purpose of becoming eligible for such assistance.
The department shall take all reasonable actions to minimize abuse and errors. Such activities shall include:—
(a) the collection and analysis of data regarding utilization patterns;
(b) the recording and tracking of use of this program by individual recipients, including, but not limited to, the utilization of a year to year cross check of recipients to determine if a person or persons has received similar benefits in the previous year or years;
(c) the utilization by the department of mechanisms, such as payment of all or part of a regular assistance grant directly to vendors, to prevent the misuse of this program, provided, however, that such mechanisms are authorized under federal or state law;
(d) the utilization of wage reporting and bank matching systems, provided, however, that the provision of assistance shall not be delayed by such utilization;
(e) subject to federal approval of any necessary waivers, use of the warrant management system established pursuant to section twenty-three A of chapter two hundred and seventy-six; and, in accordance with section 11 of chapter 14 and the rules and regulations of the fraudulent claims commission, the department shall forward the name of any applicant or beneficiary of public assistance who, according to said warrant management system, has an outstanding default or arrest warrant issued against him; and the department shall comply with existing state and federal law applicable to time standards for review and determination of eligibility, and all notice and hearing requirements afforded to applicants and beneficiaries under its public assistance programs; and
(f) the department shall not issue a check or grant any benefits of any kind to or on behalf of an applicant for or recipient of public assistance benefits against whom an outstanding default or arrest warrant has issued by any court of the commonwealth. Evidence of the outstanding default or arrest warrant appearing in said warrant management system shall be sufficient grounds for such action by the department.
If a hearing is requested to challenge the termination of benefits due to an outstanding default or arrest warrant, the law enforcement agency responsible for the warrant shall be notified of the time, place, date of hearing and the subject of the warrant. An affidavit from the law enforcement agency responsible for the warrant or from the colonel of the state police may be introduced as prima facie evidence of the existence of a warrant without the need for members of that law enforcement agency to attend any hearings held under this section.