Court Opinion

ID: 9670776
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 03:26:11.594999+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:16:06.485391
License: Public Domain

WAHL, Justice
(dissenting).
I respectfully dissent. Minn.Stat. § 256.-98 (1982) provides for prosecution of persons who wrongfully obtain assistance to which they are not entitled and recovery of the amount incorrectly paid. The statute defines the amount of assistance incorrectly paid as “the difference between the amount of assistance actually received and the amount to which the recipient would have been entitled under state and federal law had the welfare agency been informed of all material facts.” Under the statute, it was error for the trial court to refuse Ibar-ra’s offer of proof that she was eligible for the AFDC Unemployed Parent program. If she were eligible for that program, the amount she would have received under it should be subtracted from the amount she received under the Absent Parent program to determine any amount incorrectly paid, which is all that is recoverable under the statute.
In this case, Ibarra, if eligible, would have received a larger monthly AFDC grant had she applied for the proper program. The fact that she did not apply for the proper program is apparently due to the fact that she did not know of its existence. Both of the AFDC workers who handled Ibarra’s case testified that they had never told Ibarra about the Unemployed Parent program. The federal regulations governing application, determination of eligibility, and the furnishing of assistance under public assistance programs, including AFDC, provide;
Applicants shall be informed about the eligibility requirements and their rights and obligations under the program. Under this requirement individuals are given information in written form, and orally as appropriate, about coverage, conditions of eligibility, scope of the program, and related services available, and the *133rights and responsibilities of applicants for and recipients of assistance. Specifically developed bulletins or pamphlets explaining the rules regarding eligibility and appeals in simple, understandable terms are publicized and available in quantity.
45 CFR § 206.10(a)(2)(i) (1983). Further, Minnesota rules provide:
The local agency shall inform applicants and recipients of the availability of all programs, the benefits and limitations of each, the areas of client choice among and within programs and the results of such choices, the items concerning eligibility of or payment which must be reported if they change, the time within which such reports must be made, and any other policies or actions which have a direct effect on recipients.
Minn.Rule 9500.0050, subp. 10 (1983). Not only did the county withhold information from Ibarra which could have precluded the dispute here, it now wants to recover an amount that may be more than the amount allowed by statute.
The majority opinion incorrectly interprets section 256.98. The statute offsets the amount to which the recipient would have been entitled “under state and federal law had the welfare agency been informed of all material facts.” The majority opinion interprets “material” as relating only to the specific program for which the recipient applied. Read in context, the term does not support this interpretation. The material facts are those which would reflect the true circumstances of the applicant’s position and which would, therefore, determine eligibility for any state or federal assistance program. The reasoning of the California and Washington intermediate appellate courts and of the Supreme Court of Indiana1 in refusing to allow alleged eligibility under another AFDC program as a defense to a charge of wrongful receipt of AFDC benefits under their respective statutes is inapplicable here. Those states did not have the broad statutory offset provision that Minnesota has in section 256.98. Cal.Welf. & Inst.Code § 11483 (West, 1980); Wash.Rev.Code Ann. § 74.08.331 (West, 1982); 1936 Ind. Acts, ch. 3 § 116, repealed by 1978 Ind. Acts, § 1216, P.L. 2. Further, none of the recipients in those cases made an offer of proof of eligibility under another AFDC program, as did the recipient in the case before us, but rather argued that the burden of proving ineligibility was on the state.
There are three basic AFDC programs: Absent Parent, Unemployed Parent, and Incapacitated Parent. They are all administered through the same offices, using the same personnel to determine eligibility and authorize grants. Had Ibarra applied and qualified for the Unemployed Parent program, her family would have been receiving AFDC benefits, dollars that come from the same source as the dollars she did receive. Section 256.98 allows the county to recover assistance payments made to a person who was not entitled to them. The statute in no way limits the term “assistance.” If the Ibarra family qualified for the Unemployed Parent program, it was entitled to assistance in a determinable amount. That amount must be subtracted from the assistance received to determine guilt and recovery under the statute.
This interpretation of section 256.98 does not place a burden on the state to prove that anyone charged with wrongfully receiving assistance was ineligible for assistance under any other state or federal program. This interpretation simply makes an offer of proof by the recipient as to his or her eligibility for another program admissible to prove the amount that must statutorily be offset from the amount that may be recovered from the recipient. The burden of showing eligibility for another program is on the person who wrongfully received benefits. Any other interpretation, under these circumstances, would serve only to punish children, for whose benefit AFDC programs exist, because their parents lied in order to qualify for assistance under one *134program while remaining ignorant of the existence of a program for which they did in fact qualify. When that ignorance is the product of failure of the agency to inform, whether intentional or only negligent, the effect of punishment on needy children is too harsh. Perhaps Elizabeth Ibarra should be punished for lying to obtain AFDC Absent Parent benefits. Her child should not have to share that punishment, where, had her mother been fully informed and applied for the Unemployed Parent program, the family would have received a higher level of assistance had it been eligible.
I would hold that the trial court erred in refusing Ibarra’s offer of proof that her family was eligible under another AFDC program during the time she wrongfully received benefits under the AFDC Absent Parent program. Both eligibility for and the amount that would have been received under the Unemployed Parent program were admissible to show the amount to offset against the amount incorrectly paid that may be recovered under section 256.-98. I would remand for determination of eligibility and calculation of the offset. If the amount Ibarra would have been entitled to receive is at least as great as the amount she did receive, the conviction would be reversed.

. People v. Carlson, 76 Cal.App.3d 112, 142 Cal.Rptr. 638 (1978); State v. Warren, 25 Wash.App. 886, 611 P.2d 1308 (1980); Beech v. State, 162 Ind.App. 287, 319 N.E.2d 678 (1974).