Over the last few months, the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) has published several memoranda outlining changes to rules and laws that have an impact on how the General Assistance (GA) program is administered locally. Below is a description of the changes MMA has been made aware of as of August 1, 2007.
This notice will be updated as necessary. For that reason, we encourage you to check this site on a periodic basis. A summary of DHHS’s most recently issued memo will be listed first. If you have any questions, please contact DHHS’s Cindy Boyd at 1-800-442-6003.
800 Number for Disqualifications (issued on July 25, 2007)
Municipalities are required to notify DHHS when they have disqualified an applicant from receiving GA benefits. Previously, disqualifications were reported by telephone to the state over the “disqualifications line” at 1-800-273-0812. The dedicated GA disqualification telephone line no longer exists.
Instead, municipalities are being asked to provide disqualification information to the Department by using the GA hotline number (1-800-442-6003) or fax (287-5096). GA administrators can also mail the information to the Department:
General Assistance
Department of Health and Human Services
268 Whitten Road
11 State House Station
Augusta, Maine 04333
Changes to State’s Vendor Form Impact on SSI Interim Assistance Recipients (issued on July 20, 2007)
In cases where the state is responsible for handling a recipient’s Supplemental Security Income (SSI) retroactive payment, the recipient must request the issuance of his or her SSI funds by DHHS through the use of a vendor form. In order for the state to issue the requested funds, the vendor form must be properly completed. Due to a change in the state’s financial payment system, a properly completed form must include the applicant’s: 1) social security number; 2) name, mailing address and telephone number; and 3) dated signature.
As part of the process, GA administrators are encouraged to make a copy of the completed form for the municipality’s records. The original form must be sent to the Department:
General Assistance
Department of Health and Human Services
268 Whitten Road
11 State House Station
Augusta, Maine 04333
Mileage Reimbursement Rate Change (issued by DHHS on July 5, 2007)
On July 1, 2007 the mileage reimbursement rate for state employees increased to 40 cents per mile. This change impacts municipalities that have adopted the Maine Municipal Association’s (MMA) 2005 model GA ordinance.
As part of the procedure for processing GA applications, municipal officials must factor the applicant’s (or members of the applicant’s household) work related expenses. One of those work related expenses is the cost of transportation. In MMA’s 2005 model ordinance, the mileage allowance is linked to the reimbursement rate provided to state employees. In other words, if the community has adopted the 2005 model ordinance, a change in the state reimbursement rate could impact the rate used to calculate a working GA applicant’s benefit.
If your community has adopted the 2005 model ordinance, in the calculation of work related expenses the mileage reimbursement rate must be adjusted to 40 cent per mile. All other communities are authorized to use the mileage reimbursement rate expressly adopted by ordinance.
Funding Indigent Person’s Burial/Cremation (issued by DHHS on July 5, 2007)
As a result of the passage of PL 2007, c. 441 (LD 980), as of September 20, 2007 GA administrators will no longer be able to consider siblings as potentially financially responsible for the costs of burying or cremating an indigent person.
After September 20 th, only the parents, grandparents, children and grandchildren that are living in Maine or who own property in Maine can be held responsible for paying for an indigent relative’s burial or cremation if the responsible relative is deemed by the GA administrator as being financially capable.