Special Assistance Change Notice

CHANGE NOTICE FOR MANUAL

DATE: August 25, 2003

Manual: State/County Special Assistance for Adults

CHANGE NO: 02-03, SPECIAL ASSISTANCE PROGRAM MANUAL UPDATES

To: County Directors of Social Services

Effective: September 1, 2003

I. BACKGROUND AND DESCRIPTION OF CHANGES

A. Transfer of Resources

SA-3205, Transfer of Resources is revised to include policy for allowing transfers between spouses. For Special Assistance, any transfer of resources between spouses is an allowable transfer and there is no sanction. This includes transfers that occurred during the lookback period and transfers that occur after the individual enters an adult care home and/or applies for Special Assistance.

A number of clarifications have been added to the transfer policy and procedures in response to questions from the training sessions. These include instructions for calculating transfer sanctions when both spouses are applicants/recipients and establishing the date of transfer for liquid resources.

B. General Statute 108A-47

SA-3100, Eligibility is revised to include a reference to North Carolina General Statute 108A-47. This law prohibits payments of Special Assistance to any person residing in an adult care home that is owned or operated by a member of the county board of social services, a member of the board of county commissioners, an employee of the county department of social services, or the spouse of any of these individuals.

II. EFFECTIVE DATE – September 1, 2003

III. IMPLEMENTATION OF CHANGE

A. Transfer of Resources

Apply the change in treatment of spousal transfers to all transfers occurring since implementation of transfer policy in November 2002.

Research your records to determine if any applications have been denied due to spousal transfers. Contact the applicants to advise them that transfer policy has changed and they may reapply for benefits if they choose. Benefits begin with the new application.

B. Conflict of Interest

This policy is included because it is a state law and is already in effect.

IV. MAINTENANCE OF MANUAL

Section	Paper Manual: Remove Pages	Paper Manual: Insert Pages	Online Manual Sections Revised (Highlighted in Red)
SA-3100, Eligibility	Entire Section, pages 1-2	Entire Section, pages 1-2	IV.
SA-3205, Transfer of Resources	Entire Section, pages 1-12	Entire Section, pages 1-13	II.B.4. V.C.3. V.D. V.G.3. VI.B.1. VII.B. and E. VIII.F

If you have any questions regarding this information, please contact your Adult Programs Representative or Jackie Franklin, Special Assistance Program Coordinator, at 919-733-3677.

Sincerely,



John T. Tanner, Chief

Adult and Economic Services Section

JTT:jf

attachments:

SA-3100

SA-3205