Last week, the California Department of Social Services (CDSS)
released an All County Welfare Directors Letter (ACWDL)
providing guidance to County Welfare Departments (CWDs) on
implementation of three approved federal waivers from the US
Department of Agriculture, Food and Nutrition Service (FNS). The
waivers requested by CDSS will provide flexibility for initial
federal application requirements for California’s SNAP program,
CalFresh. CSAC was supportive of these waiver efforts, which will
help counties process the surge of new applications for CalFresh
in a timely manner and meet the food assistance needs of county
residents.
In response to an extreme uptake in CalFresh applications due to
the result of the COVID-19 pandemic, CDSS received the temporary
approval to waive the initial application interview, waive the
recording requirement for telephonic signature when certain
criteria is met, and waive the face-to-face interview
requirement. For CWDs to waive the interview requirements CDSS
instructs counties to accept any available documentation to
verify an applicant’s identity. Additionally, at initial
application, when an application is submitted over the phone or
when a paper application is submitted without a signature, the
federal requirement for an audio recording of a telephonic
signature has been waived for CWDs when they do not have the
method for a telephonic or other electronic signature and a wet
signature has not been provided by the client.
California has requested other COVID-19 related flexibilities
from FNS for CalFresh, child nutrition programs, and the WIC
program. The FNS
website has current information on the status of all COVID-19
nutrition related waivers California has requested.
