CDSS director Kim Johnson's response to question on how much time Californians spend dealing with benefit programs

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[Grecia Marquez-Nieblas] 13:05:37
a question here. It says how much time does it take for participating Californians to apply for and comply with benefit programs every year?

[Grecia Marquez-Nieblas] 13:05:47
How is this trending

[Kim Johnson] 13:05:49
How much time is that? What the question was

[Grecia Marquez-Nieblas] 13:05:51
How much time to to apply for and comply with which I'm assuming means, you know, if there's any things that need to do to maintain their status

[Kim Johnson] 13:05:54
Yeah.

[Kim Johnson] 13:05:58
Sure, sure, sure I mean I think partly it's gonna depend on the programs for which an individual is applying for so again, we do have, for example, one application that connects to Cal fresh and medical and cowworks and child care you know so we are looking to continue in that space of making sure that there's

[Kim Johnson] 13:06:19
not multiple steps or kind of entry points for individuals to have to do, to comply on the on the component around.

[Kim Johnson] 13:06:28
So staying on, helping, avoid churn, and keeping people who are eligible on the program.

[Kim Johnson] 13:06:35
We are, we have initiatives like our verification, Hub, which is essentially a way in which the data systems can talk together.

[Grecia Marquez-Nieblas] 13:06:37
Hmm.

[Kim Johnson] 13:06:41
So, if I'm a recipient and I'm putting forward my pay stubs that show that I've continue to be eligible for the programs that there is on the back end the ability to share that information with whatever case worker for whatever program right needs to have it is that project is

[Kim Johnson] 13:06:57
is really both so intended to help again people stay on the program who are eligible, but also to reduce the administrative burdens of our administrators, our counties.

[Kim Johnson] 13:07:07
Going through the program too. So we are looking to really reduce that time, especially for the into the individual who's applying and maintaining their program.

[Kim Johnson] 13:07:16
I will say that it's a particular challenging time for communications. Right?

[Kim Johnson] 13:07:22
We do have we've had a lot of flexibilities that change our rules.

[Kim Johnson] 13:07:27
So so we were allowing for electronic signatures, and we were allowing for longer periods before you had to reverify and demonstrate your information.

[Kim Johnson] 13:07:35
So with all of that, I would just say that we're doing our very, very best to be very clear about.

[Kim Johnson] 13:07:41
Now that some of those flexibilities have transitioned, that we are people understand and know that yes, it really is time to demonstrate that you're still eligible and submit the the documentation that helps support that but again the more that we can do that once and have the have the

[Kim Johnson] 13:07:59
Back end kind of share that information across the other programs.

[Kim Johnson] 13:08:03
We? We are aiming to simplify that process, going forward