Martinez v. Maher
| Decision Date | 27 February 1980 |
| Docket Number | No. B-78-194 Civ.,B-78-194 Civ. |
| Parties | Judith MARTINEZ and Johnny Doe, by his mother and next friend, Jane Doe, on their own behalf and on behalf of all others similarly situated, Plaintiffs, v. Edward W. MAHER, Commissioner of the State of Conn. Dept. of Social Services, Defendant. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — District of Connecticut |
Robert F. Echols, Marilyn Kaplan Katz, Bridgeport, Conn., Edward Mattison, Tech. Assistance Program, New Haven, Conn., JoAnne Miner, Conn. Legal Services, Danielson, Conn., for plaintiffs.
Paul M. Shapiro, Hugh Barber, Francis J. MacGregor, Asst. Attys. Gen., Hartford, Conn., for defendant.
Two recipients of Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) funds have brought this case on behalf of all Connecticut AFDC recipients who, because they live with a needy relative excluded from the AFDC unit by operation of federal law, make up an AFDC "family of one." Plaintiffs challenge the standards of need that the Department of Income Maintenance (the Department) uses to compute their awards. Plaintiffs allege that the Department's standards violate 42 U.S.C. § 602(a)(24); 45 C.F.R. §§ 233.20(a)(1)(ii), (a)(2)(i), and (a)(3)(ii)(D); and the equal protection and due process clauses of the fourteenth amendment. Pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983, plaintiffs brought this action for declaratory judgment and injunctive relief under 28 U.S.C. §§ 2201 and 2202, claiming jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. §§ 1331 and 1343(3) and (4). The Court provisionally certified the class as described above on June 23, 1978, and granted a number of temporary restraining orders to members of the plaintiff class, ordering the defendant Commissioner of the Department to increase the movants' monthly AFDC grants to $246.70.1 The case was tried to the Court on December 3, 1979.
A. Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC), Title IV of the Social Security Act, 42 U.S.C. §§ 601 et seq. Connecticut participates in the AFDC program, established by Congress "for the purpose of encouraging the care of dependent children in their own homes or in the homes of relatives by enabling each State to furnish financial assistance . . . to needy dependent children and the parents or relatives with whom they are living to help maintain and strengthen family life . .." 42 U.S.C. § 601. In order to qualify for AFDC benefits, dependent children must reside with adult caretaker relatives within a certain degree of kinship. 42 U.S.C. § 606(a)(1). Thus under normal circumstances, an AFDC family unit will consist of at least two individuals, the dependent child and the caretaker relative. There are, however, circumstances under which a single individual may qualify for AFDC benefits by comprising an AFDC family of one.
One of these circumstances arises when a needy dependent child lives with a parent who by reason of support from the child's stepparent is not needy, or with some other non-needy relative who has no legal duty to support the child. The second arises when a needy dependent child lives with a disabled caretaker relative who is receiving Supplemental Security Income (SSI)2 benefits. 42 U.S.C. § 602(a)(24) excludes the SSI recipient from the AFDC unit. The same result obtains where the child is disabled and receives SSI benefits: the adult caretaker relative may still receive AFDC benefits as a family of one. The third instance is a needy dependent child living with a caretaker relative who has failed to comply with the Work Incentive Program (WIN), 42 U.S.C. §§ 630 et seq., or failed to cooperate in establishing paternity pursuant to the Child Support Amendments of 1974, 42 U.S.C. §§ 651 et seq. Such a caretaker relative will be removed from the AFDC grant as a sanction for non-compliance, see 42 U.S.C. § 602(a)(19)(F) and 42 U.S.C. § 602(a)(26), but the needy dependent child will receive AFDC benefits as a family of one. Finally, a pregnant woman whose child will become eligible for AFDC upon birth is eligible for AFDC benefits as soon as her pregnancy is medically verified. See PX 2-5; testimony of Miss Packard.
B. The Plaintiff Class. The plaintiff class in this case consists of all Connecticut recipients of AFDC benefits in the second and third situations above, that is, AFDC recipients living with a family member who is needy but is excluded from the AFDC program either by his or her receipt of SSI benefits or as a sanction for failure to comply with AFDC eligibility requirements.
Miss Caroline Packard, the Director of Program Planning for the Department, testified at trial that there is no easy way to determine the numbers or identify the members of the plaintiff class. There are at present approximately 2200 AFDC families of one in Connecticut, of which the majority are children living with non-needy caretaker relatives. Miss Packard testified that the only way to identify the members of the plaintiff class would be to obtain a computer printout of the 2200 families of one and then examine each case file to determine that recipient's living situation. Miss Packard also testified that the class membership is extremely fluid.
C. Connecticut's Flat Grant System and the AFDC Family of One. The Department computes the standard of need and awards benefits in the AFDC program according to a "flat grant" system. The amount a family receives under this system is based solely on family size and geographic location.3 The present monthly flat grant figures for families of one to six persons are as follows:4
Region A Region B Region C
Family of 1 134.70 115.47 113.97
2 358.03 309.19 309.19
3 443.57 379.74 373.97
4 517.06 445.92 433.79
5 583.02 509.89 493.96
6 651.61 576.43 560.65
The flat grant continues to increase with the addition of a family member. In Region A, for example, the average increase for each additional family member from a family of two upward is approximately $62.00. And as the table above clearly shows, the increments from the family of two amount upward are relatively uniform. The difference between the family of one grant and the family of two grant, however, is approximately twice the average amount of the other increments.
1. History of the Family of One Grant. Before 1972, the Department calculated AFDC awards on the basis of individual need. In 1972, the Department established the present flat grant system by averaging the awards for the families of each size. The sample group from which the present AFDC family of one grant was derived consisted solely of single recipients who were needy children aged 4 to 12 living with a non-needy parent and a step-parent who was not liable for the child's support. Testimony of Miss Packard; Stipulation filed 12/22/78; Defendant's Answer, ¶ 1.
Miss Packard testified that the Department's grant to children in these circumstances reflected the benefits and reduced needs resulting from the fact that the household was shared with non-needy persons. The Department based its determination of the standard of need in such cases on proration of the expenses of the entire household and on the economies of scale of a larger household.
In all the other sizes of AFDC families, on the other hand, most of the families sampled for purposes of establishing the flat grant rates had to bear the costs of establishing and maintaining a household solely from the AFDC grant. The grants established for these families therefore represented an average of the needs of these "independent" AFDC households, whose grants reflected no proration, and the needs of some shared households.
Thus at the time the flat grants were established, the amounts for all the family sizes were determined with the same degree of rationality. At that time, however, the plaintiff class did not exist, since the SSI program and Child Support Amendments did not come into existence until 1974.
2. Application of the Family of One Grant to the Plaintiff Class. In the sanction situation, that is, where the caretaker relative is excluded from the grant for failure to comply with WIN or to cooperate in establishing paternity, the Department reduces the grant to the amount established for the next smaller family size. Thus if the mother of three needy children is sanctioned, the AFDC award falls from $517.06 to $443.57, a reduction of $73.49. Similarly, if a mother with two needy children is sanctioned, the AFDC award falls from $443.57 to $358.03, a reduction of $85.54. However, if the mother or other caretaker relative of one needy child is sanctioned, the AFDC award falls $223.33, from $358.03 to $134.70.5
The same analysis applies to the case of an AFDC child with an SSI caretaker relative, although the figures differ slightly because the SSI recipient receives $208.20. In the case of the caretaker relative with three needy children, the family income is $134.71 more than the AFDC award for a family of four ($443.57 + $208.20 - $517.06). In the case of the caretaker relative with two needy children, the family income is $122.66 more than the AFDC award for a family of three ($358.03 + $208.20 - $443.57). However, if the caretaker relative of one needy child receives SSI benefits, the family income is $15.13 less than the AFDC award for a family of two ($134.70 + $208.20 - $358.03). Miss Packard testified that the Department decided that awarding the existing family of one flat grant to an AFDC recipient child in this situation was appropriate because such a child's situation was the same as that of a child living with a non-needy relative and one who was not liable for the child's support, in that in both cases the child benefits from the lower needs of shared households, and the...
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