August 8, 2001
MB-AASA-AAA-HCS-DDD-RCS-01-26
MANAGEMENT
BULLETIN
TO: Home
and Community Services Regional Administrators
Area
Agency on Aging Directors
Financial Program Managers
SUBJECT: AUGUST
1, 2001 COLA CHANGES
On August 1, 2001, a special cost of living adjustment
(COLA) will increase clients’ Social Security (SSA and/or SSI). Most clients will get a $1.00 increase in
monthly income. SSPS will do a transaction
generator to update participation and room and board amounts for some clients
receiving either MPC or COPES in Alternate Living Facilities (ALFs).
The following participation rate changes associated with
codes 4512 and 5258 will be auto generated through SSPS on 8/11/01:
Old
(07/01) New (08/01)
$517.06 $518.06
$497.06 $498.06
$496.61 $497.61
$476.61 $477.61
$497.16 $498.16
The 159’s will go out to the local offices on 8/13/01.
Action by Social Service Staff:
NOTE: If staff are
not able to update SSPS due to time constraints and other priorities, the
expectation is that at next case action, review, or COLA the SSPS will be
updated.
SSPS is unable to adjust codes with unique rates, i.e.,
rates different from those listed above.
Also, authorizations have to be current through the month of
August. Any authorizations expiring at
the end of July will not be captured by this transaction generator.
1. Check
income amounts through ACES On-line.
ACES updated on 7/23/01. SSA and
SSI amounts that can be updated by interfaces with SSA will be in the ACES
system.
2. Check SSPS
14-154/159’s for cases with amounts different than listed above. Those not updated from the August 2001
transaction generator will need to be changed by hand. (Note: Cases that
have 9-codes are likely to have unique rates.)
3. Calculate
the new participation rate for MPC.
Update 14-154/159.
4. Notify
each MPC client of the change in their participation.
5. For COPES,
check for an updated ACES award letter.
You can check notices on ACES On-line in notice history or contact
financial staff if you did not receive a copy.
They can also add you as an authorized representative (AREP) in ACES so
that you will get copies in the future.
Update 14-154/159.
Additional Resource: ACES List of Cases Updated for August
2001 COLA -(See attached instructions to access reports)
Two lists updated for the 08/01 COLA have been furnished as
ACES reports. They are available in
ACES online in the Reports section. One
list contains COPES at home cases and the other lists clients living in an
Alternate Living Facility (ALF). They will help you identify clients that
need updating in SSPS. If SSPS was
updated for a COPES client who is not on this list, please let the financial
worker know so that they can issue an award letter.
All clients on the lists had a change in SSA or SSI and
their cases were updated in ACES for 8/01.
The lists identify the client name, ACES client ID, social security
number, date of birth, old participation amount (07/01), new participation
amount (as of 8/01), Social Security income type (UI type), and the new UI
amount. The lists do not show other
income types or amounts.
The ALF lists include both COPES and MPC clients. The ACES On-Line report does not identify
which service, MPC or COPES, the client is receiving. The list only shows the COPES participation amounts and does not
include the room and board amounts that must also be included on SSPS for the
client’s total cost of care. The amount
for the total cost of care can also be obtained from the financial worker, or
from the latest updated award letter in ACES dated after 07/14/01.
Attached:
1. Memorandum
from the Division of Employment and Assistance Programs that contains
instructions for financial staff regarding the COLA increase. This memo also includes:
·
The new 8/01 federal and state combined benefit levels for
SSI beneficiaries
·
Instructions on how to access the ACES On-Line Web Page for
the COLA Web Reports
2. Medical
Income and Resource Standard Chart with the August 2001 changes.
Inquiries to: Guyce
Lafavour, ACES Field Representative
Home and
Community Programs
(206)
341-7781
Lois
Wusterbarth, Program Manager
Home and
Community Programs
(360)
725-2536
________________________________
Penny Black, Director
Home and Community Services
Division
Attachments
cc: Rick Bacon
Bill Moss
Attachment #1
HCS
Regional Administrators
CSO
Administrators
HCS
Financial Program Managers
FROM: Phyllis
M. Lowe, Acting Director
Division
of Employment and Assistance Programs
Community
Services Division
Penny
Black, Director
Home
and Community Services
SUBJECT: CONSUMER PRICE INDEX (CPI) FIX TO THE YEAR
2000 COST OF LIVING ADJUSTMENT (COLA)
The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) announced
that an error had occurred in the computation of the CPI. As a result of the CPI error, the December
1999 COLA paid in January 2000 was one-tenth of one percent below what it
should have been. The COLA applied in
January 2000 to most federal benefits was 2.4 percent when it should have been
2.5 percent.
The
Social Security Administration (SSA) will be issuing one-time payments in
mid-July to about 45 million Social Security beneficiaries and approximately
six million Supplemental Security Income (SSI) beneficiaries. These payments will ensure that
beneficiaries are compensated for any shortfall in their benefits paid from
January 2000 through July 2001.
The
change affects the following standards (identified on the attached Medical
Standards Chart by **):
SSI
standards -
Correction to increase the Federal Benefit Rate (FBR) and monthly benefit
amounts. The amount did not change for
a couple both eligible or for ˝ of the FBR.
MNIL
(Medically Needy Income Level) – MNIL only. This
increase is to the same amount as the one person, area 1 SSI benefit amount,
rounded up.
CPI Fix
June 29, 2001
Page 2
Long-Term
Care Standards
– Correction to increase the Medical Special Income Level (SIL), the COPES
maintenance allowance for a client with a community spouse, and the COPES
maintenance allowance for a client in a residential facility (ALF).
In
addition, Regular monthly benefit amounts will be increased for August
2001. In most cases these increases
average $1.00 per eligible recipient.
Other federal agencies such as Railroad Retirement (RRB), Veteran’s
Administration and Civil Service Retirement will issue increases in benefits to
eligible beneficiaries to correct the CPI error.
ACES has updated the SSI, MNIL, and related
parameters on the weekend of June 23,
for August case processing. The
BENDEX and SXD file will be processed in the ACES mainframe July 3. The new income will be available at that
time but will not recalculate until July 14, which is when all the letters will
be sent to clients with changes in benefits or participation. Some SDX files, however, will not update
until the Treasury file runs on July 21.
At that time new letters will be sent to those affected households.
COLA related alerts will be suppressed. ACES will only process those changes that
can be done electronically.
State Office will not produce reports/lists for unmatched AU’s. If there is a discrepancy that is preventing
ACES from updating, the user will continue to receive alerts. Cases that are new to ACES will be updated
as they are matched with SDX and BENDEX.
There is currently very little information
available from the VA or the RRB on how their recipients will be affected. We do know, however, that Tier II RR
recipients will not be impacted by the COLA correction. The
tables with the adjusted SSI benefit levels for the CPI error fix are attached
for your review.
LOCAL
OFFICE ACTION REQUIRED:
Local office staff will need to carefully review
SSA, SSI, RRB, Civil Service and VA incomes at:
·
RECERTIFICATIONS
·
ELIGIBILITY
REVIEWS
·
ANY
OTHER CASE ACTION
CPI Fix
June 29, 2001
Page 3
If you have questions or require additional
information, please contact the following:
HCS, Mary Lou Percival at (360) 725-2318, MAA, Mary Beth Ingram at (360)
725-1327, or Food Assistance, John Camp at (360) 413-3232. For general COLA questions, contact Stan
Carlton, at (360) 413-3028.
Attachments
cc: Rob
St. John, ESA
Mary Lou Percival, HCS
Steven Wish, MAA
John Camp, DEAP
Mary
Beth Ingram, MAA
Bobbi Hickox
|
LIVING ALONE – Own Household or
Alternate Care, Except Nursing Homes or Medical Institutions |
Federal Benefit Level |
State Supplement |
Combined Benefit Level |
|
Individual |
$ 531.00 |
$ 25.90 |
$ 556.90 |
|
Individual with one
essential person |
$ 797.00 |
$ 19.90 |
$ 816.90 |
|
Individual with
multiple essential persons |
$531 for the eligible individual plus
$266 for each essential person (no state supplement) |
||
|
Individual with an ineligible spouse |
$ 531.00 |
$ 166.10 |
$ 697.10 |
|
Couple |
$ 796.00 |
$ 19.90 |
$ 815.90 |
|
Couple with one or more essential
persons |
$796 for eligible couple plus $266 for
each essential person (no state supplement) |
||
B) Living Alone: Area 2 (All Other Counties)
|
LIVING ALONE – Own Household or
Alternate Care, Except Nursing Homes or Medical Institutions |
Federal Benefit Level |
State Supplement |
Combined Benefit Level |
|
Individual |
$ 531.00 |
$ 5.45 |
$ 536.45 |
|
Individual with one
essential person |
$ 797.00 |
$ 0.00 |
$ 797.00 |
|
Individual with
multiple essential persons |
$531 for the eligible individual plus
$266 for each essential person (no state supplement) |
||
|
Individual with an ineligible spouse |
$ 531.00 |
$ 136.15 |
$ 667.15 |
|
Couple |
$ 796.00 |
$ 0.00 |
$ 796.00 |
|
Couple with one or more essential
persons |
$796 for eligible couple plus $266 for
each essential person (no state supplement) |
||
|
SHARED LIVING |
Federal Benefit Level |
State Supplement |
Combined Benefit Level |
|
Individual |
$ 354.00 |
$ 3.71 |
$ 357.71 |
|
Individual with one
essential person |
$ 531.34 |
$ 4.20 |
$ 535.54 |
|
Individual with
multiple essential persons |
$354.00 for the eligible individual
plus $177.00 for each essential person (no state supplement) |
||
|
Individual with an ineligible spouse |
$ 354.00 |
$ 101.66 |
$ 455.66 |
|
Couple |
$ 530.67 |
$ 4.20 |
$ 534.87 |
|
Couple with one or more essential
persons |
$530.67 for eligible couple plus
$177.00 for each essential person (no state supplement) |
||
|
Federal Benefit Level |
State Supplement |
Combined Benefit Level |
|
$ 30.00 |
$ 11.62 |
$ 41.62 |
July 23, 2001
INSTRUCTIONS FOR SUMMER
COLA WEB REPORTS (ACES):
1. Go to the “Client Reports Build a
Report” page. You can access this page
by accessing aces.online (http://acesonline.dshs.wa.gov/). From there, choose the “Reports” tab. On the Reports page, there is a section
called “Client Reports” with the Build A Report option under it. Choose the Build A Report option.
2. On the Build A Report page, there is a
box that lists the TWO COLA reports Choose the appropriate report and
left-click on the “submit” box.
3. You will now see a page that states the
report you have selected and provides you the option to choose how much of the
report you want to see. You can choose
to view the report for the entire state or you can narrow it down to your
division (CSD or HCS), Region, CSO, or a specific worker.
MEDICAL INCOME AND RESOURCE STANDARDS EFFECTIVE 8/1/01 August, 2001 CHANGES **
|
CN STANDARDS |
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
6 |
7 |
8 |
9 |
10 |
+ 10 |
|
|||||||||||
|
TANF INCOME—SHELTER |
349 |
440 |
546 |
642 |
740 |
841 |
971 |
1075 |
1180 |
1283 |
1283 |
|
|||||||||||
|
TANF INCOME –NO SHELTER |
212 |
268 |
332 |
391 |
451 |
511 |
591 |
654 |
718 |
780 |
780 |
|
|||||||||||
|
TANF RESOURCES |
1000 |
1000 |
1000 |
1000 |
1000 |
1000 |
1000 |
||||||||||||||||