3 Counties Fight Welfare Penalties
Three Southern California counties asked a federal district court Friday to block Reagan Administration efforts to impose $66.5 million in penalties for welfare overpayments by the state in 1981 and 1982.
Imperial, San Bernardino and Riverside counties joined 27 states and the District of Columbia in challenging more than $200 million in fines nationwide for state overpayments and payments to ineligible clients under the federal Aid to Families with Dependent Children and Medicaid programs.
Under state law, California, which faces the largest amount in fines, can pass the penalty costs on to county governments.
The suit charges that existing regulations are cumbersome and that the penalties are illegal because they are based on a law enacted in 1983, two years after the first overpayments occurred.
“Even making an error on a client’s Social Security number is counted as a mistake, even though that client may not have received any payments,” said Kathy Patterson of the American Public Welfare Assn.
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