SENATE, No. 570

 

STATE OF NEW JERSEY

 

INTRODUCED JANUARY 29, 1996

 

 

By Senator BASSANO

 

 

An Act concerning recipients of general public assistance benefits and supplementing P.L.1947, c.156 (C.44:8-107 et seq.).

 

    Be It Enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:

 

    1. The Commissioner of Human Services shall establish a centralized registry in the Division of Family Development of the Department of Human Services to contain the names and Social Security numbers, and such additional identifying information as the commissioner deems appropriate, of recipients of benefits under the "General Public Assistance Law," P.L.1947, c.156 (C.44:8-107 et seq.). Each of the municipal welfare agencies shall provide such information and assistance as the commissioner may request to carry out the provisions of this act. The commissioner shall provide for the periodic updating of the information contained in the registry.

 

    2. a. The commissioner shall make the information in the centralized registry established pursuant to section 1 of this act available to those states which are contiguous to New Jersey and shall seek to establish an arrangement for the reciprocal provision of similar information from these states to the Division of Family Development.

    b. The commissioner shall also provide for the use of the registry to conduct comparison checks of general public assistance recipient records between municipalities within the State, as well as comparison checks of general public assistance recipient records with those of recipients of aid to families with dependent children benefits under P.L.1959, c.86 (C.44:10-1 et seq.).

 

    3. The commissioner shall report to the Governor and the Legislature no later than one year after the effective date of this act, and annually thereafter, on the actions taken to carry out the provisions of this act and the results thereof, and shall accompany that report with such recommendations for administrative or legislative actions as the commissioner deems appropriate.

 

    4. The commissioner, pursuant to the "Administrative Procedure Act," P.L.1968, c.410 (C.52:14B-1 et seq.), shall adopt rules and regulations to effectuate the purposes of this act.

 

    5. This act shall take effect immediately.

 

 

STATEMENT

 

    This bill requires the Commissioner of Human Services to establish a centralized registry in the Division of Family Development of the Department of Human Services containing the names and Social Security numbers of recipients of general public assistance (GA) benefits under P.L.1947, c.156 (C.44:8-107 et seq.), along with such other identifying information as the commissioner deems appropriate. Each of the municipal welfare agencies shall provide such information and assistance as the commissioner may request to establish and update the registry. The commissioner shall provide for the periodic updating of the information in the registry.

    The bill further requires the commissioner to make the information in the centralized registry available to the states of New York, Pennsylvania and Delaware, and to seek to establish an arrangement for the reciprocal provision of similar information from these states to the Division of Family Development. The commissioner shall also provide for the use of the registry to conduct comparison checks of GA recipient records between municipalities within the State, as well as comparison checks of GA recipient records with those of aid to families with dependent children recipients.

    Finally, the bill provides that the commissioner shall report to the Governor and the Legislature no later than one year after the effective date of the bill, and annually thereafter, on the actions taken to carry out the provisions of the bill and the results thereof, and shall include with the report any recommendations for administrative or legislative actions that the commissioner deems appropriate.

    This bill is intended to preclude a recurrence of the recent incident involving 425 New Jersey residents who were found to have collected welfare (general assistance) payments in Newark and Manhattan, which represented 23% of the 1,800 welfare recipients included in a comparison of welfare rolls between the two jurisdictions. This incident prompted the Governor of New York to write to the governors of New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to recommend that these states share the Social Security numbers of their welfare recipients. According to a New York Times article of March 3, 1994, the First Deputy Commissioner of the New York City Human Resources Administration indicated that it is currently impossible to ascertain how many New Jersey residents are still receiving welfare payments in both states, although the same article reported that the director of the Division of Health and Welfare in Newark stated that her department had not yet uncovered any cases of New York residents receiving welfare payments in New Jersey.

    New Jersey already matches its aid to families with dependent children (AFDC) recipient files with other states periodically to check for "double dipping," and the federal government assists in this effort. In addition, New Jersey has been able to match its GA recipient records with New York state wage information to make sure that a person working in that state is not collecting GA benefits here; however, to date, there has been no such interstate cross-checking to ensure that New Jersey GA recipients are not collecting benefits in New York or another state. The Department of Human Services recently automated its GA recipient records, and 63 municipalities in the State (representing 85% of the Statewide GA caseload) have automated their records, which will facilitate the implementation of comparison checks by Social Security number between municipalities within the State, and between New Jersey and its neighboring states.

 

 

 

Requires Commissioner of Human Services to share information with contiguous states regarding Social Security numbers of general public assistance recipients.