For the purposes
of this title, unless the context indicates otherwise, the
following definitions shall apply:
(1) "Public assistance" or "assistance" -- Public aid to
persons in need thereof for any cause, including services,
medical care, assistance grants, disbursing orders, work relief,
general assistance and federal-aid assistance.
(2) "Department" -- The department of social and health
services.
(3) "County or local office" -- The administrative office for
one or more counties or designated service areas.
(4) "Director" or "secretary" means the secretary of social
and health services.
(5) "Federal-aid assistance" -- The specific categories of
assistance for which provision is made in any federal law
existing or hereafter passed by which payments are made from the
federal government to the state in aid or in respect to payment
by the state for public assistance rendered to any category of
needy persons for which provision for federal funds or aid may
from time to time be made, or a federally administered
needs-based program.
(6)(a) "General assistance" -- Aid to persons in need who:
(i) Are not eligible to receive federal-aid assistance,
other than food stamps or food stamp benefits transferred
electronically and medical assistance; however, an individual who
refuses or fails to cooperate in obtaining federal-aid
assistance, without good cause, is not eligible for general
assistance;
(ii) Meet one of the following conditions:
(A) Pregnant: PROVIDED, That need is based on the current
income and resource requirements of the federal temporary
assistance for needy families program; or
(B) Subject to chapter 165, Laws of 1992, incapacitated from
gainful employment by reason of bodily or mental infirmity that
will likely continue for a minimum of ninety days as determined
by the department.
(C) Persons who are unemployable due to alcohol or drug
addiction are not eligible for general assistance. Persons
receiving general assistance on July 26, 1987, or becoming
eligible for such assistance thereafter, due to an alcohol or
drug-related incapacity, shall be referred to appropriate
assessment, treatment, shelter, or supplemental security income
referral services as authorized under chapter 74.50 RCW.
Referrals shall be made at the time of application or at the time
of eligibility review. Alcoholic and drug addicted clients who
are receiving general assistance on July 26, 1987, may remain on
general assistance if they otherwise retain their eligibility
until they are assessed for services under chapter 74.50 RCW.
Subsection (6)(a)(ii)(B) of this section shall not be construed
to prohibit the department from granting general assistance
benefits to alcoholics and drug addicts who are incapacitated due
to other physical or mental conditions that meet the eligibility
criteria for the general assistance program;
(iii) Are citizens or aliens lawfully admitted for permanent
residence or otherwise residing in the United States under color
of law; and
(iv) Have furnished the department their social security
account number. If the social security account number cannot be
furnished because it has not been issued or is not known, an
application for a number shall be made prior to authorization of
assistance, and the social security number shall be provided to
the department upon receipt.
(b) Notwithstanding the provisions of subsection (6)(a)(i),
(ii), and (c) of this section, general assistance shall be
provided to the following recipients of federal-aid assistance:
(i) Recipients of supplemental security income whose need,
as defined in this section, is not met by such supplemental
security income grant because of separation from a spouse; or
(ii) To the extent authorized by the legislature in the
biennial appropriations act, to recipients of temporary
assistance for needy families whose needs are not being met
because of a temporary reduction in monthly income below the
entitled benefit payment level caused by loss or reduction of
wages or unemployment compensation benefits or some other
unforeseen circumstances. The amount of general assistance
authorized shall not exceed the difference between the entitled
benefit payment level and the amount of income actually received.
(c) General assistance shall be provided only to persons who
are not members of assistance units receiving federal aid
assistance, except as provided in subsection (6)(a)(ii)(A) and
(b) of this section, and will accept available services which can
reasonably be expected to enable the person to work or reduce the
need for assistance unless there is good cause to refuse.
Failure to accept such services shall result in termination until
the person agrees to cooperate in accepting such services and
subject to the following maximum periods of ineligibility after
reapplication:
(i) First failure: One week;
(ii) Second failure within six months: One month;
(iii) Third and subsequent failure within one year: Two
months.
(d) Persons found eligible for general assistance based on
incapacity from gainful employment may, if otherwise eligible,
receive general assistance pending application for federal
supplemental security income benefits. Any general assistance
that is subsequently duplicated by the person's receipt of
supplemental security income for the same period shall be
considered a debt due the state and shall by operation of law be
subject to recovery through all available legal remedies.
(e) The department shall adopt by rule medical criteria for
general assistance eligibility to ensure that eligibility
decisions are consistent with statutory requirements and are
based on clear, objective medical information.
(f) The process implementing the medical criteria shall
involve consideration of opinions of the treating or consulting
physicians or health care professionals regarding incapacity, and
any eligibility decision which rejects uncontroverted medical
opinion must set forth clear and convincing reasons for doing so.
(g) Recipients of general assistance based upon a finding of
incapacity from gainful employment who remain otherwise eligible
shall have their benefits discontinued unless the recipient
demonstrates no material improvement in their medical or mental
condition. The department may discontinue benefits when there
was specific error in the prior determination that found the
recipient eligible by reason of incapacitation. Recipients of
general assistance based upon pregnancy who relinquish their
child for adoption, remain otherwise eligible, and are not
eligible to receive benefits under the federal temporary
assistance for needy families program shall not have their
benefits terminated until the end of the month in which the
period of six weeks following the birth of the recipient's child
falls. Recipients of the federal temporary assistance for needy
families program who lose their eligibility solely because of the
birth and relinquishment of the qualifying child may receive
general assistance through the end of the month in which the
period of six weeks following the birth of the child falls.
(h) No person may be considered an eligible individual for
general assistance with respect to any month if during that month
the person:
(i) Is fleeing to avoid prosecution of, or to avoid custody
or confinement for conviction of, a felony, or an attempt to
commit a felony, under the laws of the state of Washington or the
place from which the person flees; or
(ii) Is violating a condition of probation, community
supervision, or parole imposed under federal or state law for a
felony or gross misdemeanor conviction.
(7) "Applicant" -- Any person who has made a request, or on
behalf of whom a request has been made, to any county or local
office for assistance.
(8) "Recipient" -- Any person receiving assistance and in
addition those dependents whose needs are included in the
recipient's assistance.
(9) "Standards of assistance" -- The level of income required
by an applicant or recipient to maintain a level of living
specified by the department.
(10) "Resource" -- Any asset, tangible or intangible, owned by
or available to the applicant at the time of application, which
can be applied toward meeting the applicant's need, either
directly or by conversion into money or its equivalent. The
department may by rule designate resources that an applicant may
retain and not be ineligible for public assistance because of
such resources. Exempt resources shall include, but are not
limited to:
(a) A home that an applicant, recipient, or their dependents
is living in, including the surrounding property;
(b) Household furnishings and personal effects;
(c) A motor vehicle, other than a motor home, used and
useful having an equity value not to exceed five thousand
dollars;
(d) A motor vehicle necessary to transport a physically disabled household member. This exclusion is limited to one
vehicle per physically disabled person;
(e) All other resources, including any excess of values
exempted, not to exceed one thousand dollars or other limit as
set by the department, to be consistent with limitations on
resources and exemptions necessary for federal aid assistance.
The department shall also allow recipients of temporary
assistance for needy families to exempt savings accounts with
combined balances of up to an additional three thousand dollars;
(f) Applicants for or recipients of general assistance shall
have their eligibility based on resource limitations consistent
with the temporary assistance for needy families program rules
adopted by the department; and
(g) If an applicant for or recipient of public assistance
possesses property and belongings in excess of the ceiling value,
such value shall be used in determining the need of the applicant
or recipient, except that: (i) The department may exempt
resources or income when the income and resources are determined
necessary to the applicant's or recipient's restoration to
independence, to decrease the need for public assistance, or to
aid in rehabilitating the applicant or recipient or a dependent
of the applicant or recipient; and (ii) the department may
provide grant assistance for a period not to exceed nine months
from the date the agreement is signed pursuant to this section to
persons who are otherwise ineligible because of excess real
property owned by such persons when they are making a good faith
effort to dispose of that property: PROVIDED, That:
(A) The applicant or recipient signs an agreement to repay
the lesser of the amount of aid received or the net proceeds of
such sale;
(B) If the owner of the excess property ceases to make good
faith efforts to sell the property, the entire amount of
assistance may become an overpayment and a debt due the state and
may be recovered pursuant to RCW 43.20B.630;
(C) Applicants and recipients are advised of their right to
a fair hearing and afforded the opportunity to challenge a
decision that good faith efforts to sell have ceased, prior to
assessment of an overpayment under this section; and
(D) At the time assistance is authorized, the department
files a lien without a sum certain on the specific property.
(11) "Income" -- (a) All appreciable gains in real or personal
property (cash or kind) or other assets, which are received by or
become available for use and enjoyment by an applicant or
recipient during the month of application or after applying for
or receiving public assistance. The department may by rule and
regulation exempt income received by an applicant for or
recipient of public assistance which can be used by him or her to
decrease his or her need for public assistance or to aid in
rehabilitating him or her or his or her dependents, but such
exemption shall not, unless otherwise provided in this title,
exceed the exemptions of resources granted under this chapter to
an applicant for public assistance. In addition, for cash
assistance the department may disregard income pursuant to RCW 74.08A.230 and 74.12.350.
(b) If, under applicable federal requirements, the state has
the option of considering property in the form of lump sum
compensatory awards or related settlements received by an
applicant or recipient as income or as a resource, the department
shall consider such property to be a resource.
(12) "Need" -- The difference between the applicant's or
recipient's standards of assistance for himself or herself and
the dependent members of his or her family, as measured by the
standards of the department, and value of all nonexempt resources
and nonexempt income received by or available to the applicant or
recipient and the dependent members of his or her family.
(13) For purposes of determining eligibility for public
assistance and participation levels in the cost of medical care,
the department shall exempt restitution payments made to people
of Japanese and Aleut ancestry pursuant to the Civil Liberties
Act of 1988 and the Aleutian and Pribilof Island Restitution Act
passed by congress, P.L. 100-383, including all income and
resources derived therefrom.
(14) In the construction of words and phrases used in this
title, the singular number shall include the plural, the
masculine gender shall include both the feminine and neuter
genders and the present tense shall include the past and future
tenses, unless the context thereof shall clearly indicate to the
contrary.
[2003 1st sp.s. c 10 § 1; 2000 c 218 § 1. Prior: 1998 c 80 § 1; 1998 c 79 § 6; prior: 1997 c 59 § 10; 1997 c 58 § 309; prior: 1992 c 165 § 1; 1992 c 136 § 1; 1991 sp.s. c 10 § 1; 1991 c 126 § 1; 1990 c 285 § 2; 1989 1st ex.s. c 9 § 816; prior: 1987 c 406 § 9; 1987 c 75 § 31; 1985 c 335 § 2; 1983 1st ex.s. c 41 § 36; 1981 2nd ex.s. c 10 § 5; 1981 1st ex.s. c 6 § 1; prior: 1981 c 8 § 1; prior: 1980 c 174 § 1; 1980 c 84 § 1; 1979 c 141 § 294; 1969 ex.s. c 173 § 1; 1965 ex.s. c 2 § 1; 1963 c 228 § 1; 1961 c 235 § 1; 1959 c 26 § 74.04.005; prior: (i) 1947 c 289 § 1; 1939 c 216 § 1; Rem. Supp. 1947 § 10007-101a. (ii) 1957 c 63 § 1; 1953 c 174 § 17; 1951 c 122 § 1; 1951 c 1 § 3 (Initiative Measure No. 178, approved November 7, 1950); 1949 c 6 § 3; Rem. Supp. 1949 § 9998-33c.]
NOTES:
Short title -- Part headings, captions, table of contents not law -- Exemptions and waivers from federal law -- Conflict with federal requirements -- Severability -- 1997 c 58: See RCW 74.08A.900 through 74.08A.904.
Severability -- 1991 sp.s. c 10: "If any provision of this act or its application to any person or circumstance is held invalid, the remainder of the act or the application of the provision to other persons or circumstances is not affected." [1991 sp.s. c 10 § 2.]
Effective date -- 1991 sp.s. c 10: "This act is necessary for the immediate preservation of the public peace, health, or safety, or support of the state government and its existing public institutions, and shall take effect July 1, 1991." [1991 sp.s. c 10 § 3.]
Findings -- Purpose -- 1990 c 285: "(1) The legislature finds
that each year less than five percent of pregnant teens
relinquish their babies for adoption in Washington state.
Nationally, fewer than eight percent of pregnant teens relinquish
their babies for adoption.
(2) The legislature further finds that barriers such as lack
of information about adoption, inability to voluntarily enter
into adoption agreements, and current state public assistance
policies act as disincentives to adoption.
(3) It is the purpose of this act to support adoption as an
option for women with unintended pregnancies by removing barriers
that act as disincentives to adoption." [1990 c 285 § 1.]
Severability -- 1990 c 285: "If any provision of this act or its application to any person or circumstance is held invalid, the remainder of the act or the application of the provision to other persons or circumstances is not affected." [1990 c 285 § 10.]
Effective date -- Severability -- 1989 1st ex.s. c 9: See RCW 43.70.910 and 43.70.920.
Savings -- Severability -- 1987 c 75: See RCW 43.20B.900 and 43.20B.901.
Severability -- 1983 1st ex.s. c 41: See note following RCW 26.09.060.
Effective date -- 1981 1st ex.s. c 6: "This act is necessary for the immediate preservation of the public peace, health, and safety, the support of the state government and its existing public institutions, and shall take effect July 1, 1981." [1981 1st ex.s. c 6 § 31.]
Severability -- 1981 1st ex.s. c 6: "If any provision of this act or its application to any person or circumstance is held invalid, the remainder of the act or the application of the provision to other persons or circumstances is not affected." [1981 1st ex.s. c 6 § 30.]
Consolidated standards of need: RCW 74.04.770.