Penalty Upheld on Tardy State Welfare Reports

A federal judge has upheld the policy of Gov. George Deukmejian’s Administration of withholding welfare payments from working parents who are late in filing monthly income reports, but he denounced it on moral grounds.

“Having found as I have, I have done my duty as a judge,” said Presiding U.S. District Judge Lawrence K. Karlton. “I must question, however, whether those in the state have done their duty as human beings dealing with human misery.

“Nonetheless, that question is not for me to resolve in this case.”

A statewide regulation based on a federal law passed in 1980 requires the head of a family receiving Aid to Families with Dependent Children to report any job earnings with the county welfare department by the 11th of each month.

If the report is late, the county department may withhold a percentage of the next month’s AFDC check, money that is normally paid to cover paycheck deductions and the cost of child care while the parent is working.

A coalition of legal aid groups filed suit in 1986 challenging the policy. “Our position is that the rule was meant to penalize those who didn’t report their (outside) earnings until months or years later,” said Edward Barnes of the Legal Aid Society of Alameda County. “But in California if the report is one minute late, the recipient gets penalized.”

Weighing Appeal

Barnes said he and the other plaintiffs are discussing an appeal of Karlton’s ruling. “But one of our options is to go to Congress and ask it to change the law,” he said. “The judge seems to be suggesting that the law is unfair, and the legislative approach may be best.”

Kathleen Norris, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Social Services, said the agency had not received Karlton’s order and could not comment.

Neither Norris nor the attorneys who argued the suit would estimate how much money was at stake in welfare payments.

State, federal and county expenditures for AFDC in California totaled more than $4.1 billion in the 1986-87 fiscal year, Norris said.

About 5% of AFDC families have a working parent. That amounts to just over 31,000 single-parent households with about 85,000 family members, the majority of whom are children, according to department figures.