Advocates Across the Country Call in for Asset-Limit Reform Training

Nearly 40 advocates, attorneys, and funders from 18 states participated in a conference call training on reforming state asset limits hosted by the Sargent Shriver National Center on Poverty Law on May 23. The training entitled “It’s About Getting Ahead: Strategies and Options for Eliminating State Asset Limits” was based on a March–April 2007 CLEARINGHOUSE REVIEW article by Dory Rand, the Shriver Center’s supervising attorney for community investment.

Rand gave a brief overview of the need for asset-limit reform and key approaches, including legislative and administrative advocacy to eliminate asset limits, raise limits, or exempt asset categories or all three. Using examples from Illinois and California, she emphasized the importance of marshaling facts and arguments to answer the usual questions and objections, such as “Will the state appear soft on welfare?” and “Will caseloads/costs increase?”

Paul Fraunholtz and Beth Kowalczyk of the Ohio Department of Jobs and Family Services shared information on how Ohio became the first state to eliminate asset limits in the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program and how Ohio aligned Food Stamp Program asset tests with TANF as part of a broader “work first” and program simplification effort that had the backing of staunch conservatives.

Stacy Dean of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities described how to use categorical eligibility rules, alignment with TANF rules, and other methods to eliminate asset limits, exempt assets, and raise asset limits in the Food Stamp Program and asset bills pending in Congress. Dean also described how to discus asset-limit reform as part of the government’s broader efforts to promote savings. For example, since the federal government provides favorable tax treatment to Individual Retirement Accounts (IRAs) to encourage saving for retirement, we should exempt IRAs from asset tests. 

Rourke O’Brien of the New America Foundation advised that a new federal asset bill was in the works and would raise the asset limit in the Food Stamp Program, index it to inflation, and exempt all retirement and education savings accounts and vehicles. The bill would eliminate the asset test in the Supplemental Security Income program and State Children’s Health Insurance Program and offer high-performance bonuses to states that eliminate the asset test in TANF.

The panelists fielded audience questions and encouraged participants to share strategies and lessons learned. A transcript of the call is available here under Two Cents Plus Interest. “We hope that participants will use this information to take action to reform asset limits in their home states and to support asset-limit reform at the federal level,” said Rand, who will participate as a faculty member on asset limits at CFED’s forthcoming Assets and Opportunity Institute in September.

For more information, contact Dory Rand, 312.368.2007.