By Javier Ubach, Paralegal, Seniors Unit
Emma Brown (fictitious name), an 83-year-old woman, reached out to the Community Legal Aid SoCal (CLA SoCal) for assistance after several substantial reductions in her CalFresh benefits. When her household first began receiving CalFresh benefits, they had an allotment of $516 per month. They were later notified that their benefit calculation had been incorrect and that their monthly benefits would be reduced to $375. This significant decrease put additional financial strain on their household.
Emma and her husband’s monthly income was above the federal poverty guidelines. When she spoke with a representative from the CalFresh office, the representative made her feel as though she should be grateful for receiving any benefits at all. However, what the representative failed to understand was that Emma’s husband is a retired veteran with medical conditions that require extensive out-of-pocket expenses, including the need for a live-in caretaker. Most of their monthly income went toward paying for the caretaker, medications, and doctor visits. While on paper this family was above the federal poverty guidelines, they had no extra money to spare.
To make matters worse, their monthly benefit of $375 was reduced to $149. At this point, Emma, with the help of her son, reached out to our office for assistance.
Providing support and assistance
The CLA SoCal Seniors Unit met with Emma and her son in person at our Santa Ana office. Her husband’s medical condition didn’t allow him to join the meeting but another son who lives out of state participated via phone. We conducted a thorough review of the case. Emma and her sons shared that after covering their medical expenses each month, she and her husband barely had enough money to get by. She and her son had filed an appeal to contest the reduction in benefits before contacting us and was anxious about the upcoming hearing. She expressed she already had a lot to take care of with her husband’s condition. We assured Emma that we would represent her and husband at the upcoming hearing.
Emma and her family were never informed by CalFresh that if their household included at least one elderly or disabled member (age 60 or older), they could deduct their excess medical expenses from their counted income. In Emma’s case, she qualified due to her age, and her husband qualified because of his disability.
We were assigned an appeal representative from CalFresh who requested additional documentation. There was considerable back-and-forth between our office and the representative. We submitted receipts for all their medical expenses, only to be told that CalFresh would not recognize the expenses. This was frustrating, especially since the information we provided was directly from CalFresh’s own guidelines. Eventually, the representative agreed to deduct Emma’s excess medical expenses and issued a conditional withdrawal, ordering the local office to redetermine her benefit amount. This was a huge relief for Emma, who had been anxious about needing to appear at an administrative law judge hearing.
About a month after the conditional withdrawal was signed, we heard from Emma that their CalFresh benefits had been increased to $535! They would also receive retroactive benefits for the period while the appeal was processing.
