Opinion ID: 1929151
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: the adequacy of written standards and uniform procedures

Text: We are of the opinion that policy memorandum No. 92-13 did not contain standards adequate to govern the implementation of article 46 and particularly the cutoff of those receiving GPA who failed to meet the stricter standards promulgated by the statute. Pursuant to memo No. 92-13, members of the department conducted a review of the file based upon forms and information that had been developed prior to the enactment of article 46. The case files might well not contain information that would be relevant to a determination of whether the GPA recipient met the qualification for eligibility or might qualify for one of the exceptions to either the six-month cutoff, SSI eligibility, or the special category provided for certain persons over the age of fifty-five. It must be noted that the files used for the internal review process contained forms (entitled G1b) that set forth information which was relevant to standards applicable prior to the implementation of article 46. The emergency rule, Policy Memorandum 92-13, was published once in the Providence Journal and therefore was not effectively made known to the GPA recipients who would be affected thereby. Further and more important, the notices of termination sent to each member of the class did not contain individualized reasons applicable to the recipient. Indeed, a preprinted standardized notice was sent to each recipient whose eligibility was determined to be terminated. Such a notice would not have informed a recipient that an application for SSI benefits might have been sufficient to continue his or her eligibility. Such notices would not have informed a recipient that the finding of an additional physical or mental impairment might have maintained his or her eligibility. The Supreme Court of the United States in the landmark case of Goldberg v. Kelly, 397 U.S. 254, 90 S.Ct. 1011, 25 L.Ed.2d 287 (1970) enunciated the principle that prior to a termination of welfare benefits a recipient must be given notice of the detailed reasons for his or her termination as well as an opportunity for a pretermination hearing at which he or she is entitled to come before an officer with authority to determine his or her continued eligibility. The Supreme Court's holding is encapsulated in the following statement: It is not enough that a welfare recipient may present his position to the decision maker in writing or secondhand through his caseworker. Written submissions are an unrealistic option for most recipients, who lack the educational attainment necessary to write effectively and who cannot obtain professional assistance. Moreover, written submissions do not afford the flexibility of oral presentations; they do not permit the recipient to mold his argument to the issues the decision maker appears to regard as important. Id. at 269, 90 S.Ct. at 1021, 25 L.Ed.2d at 299-300. A fortiori compliance with the foregoing principles would not be achieved by a case-worker's review of the file and a sending of a standard notice to all recipients without indicating the specific reason for termination. Although informal procedures would suffice, notices containing only general conclusory language without specific relevance to the recipients' individual cases would not suffice. See, e.g., Dilda v. Quern, 612 F.2d 1055 (7th Cir.1980), cert, denied, 447 U.S. 935, 100 S.Ct. 3039, 65 L.Ed.2d 1130 (1980); Ortiz v. Eichler, 616 F. Supp. 1046 (D. Del. 1985), aff'd, 794 F.2d 889 (3rd Cir.1986). The lack of individualized notice rendered hearings on the part of the recipients who requested hearings less than meaningful since they were not notified of the change of incapacity standards or the manner in which they failed to meet such standards. Thus the GPA recipients whose benefits were terminated pursuant to policy memorandum No. 92-13 were unaware of the change of standards and most particularly were unaware of the manner in which they failed to meet such standards of incapacity and were therefore deprived of a meaningful opportunity to be heard prior to the termination of their benefits.