[D]isabled Vermonters on the Reach Up program will continue to get full benefits from the state for another 60 days.
The extension is the latest development in a class action lawsuit brought by Vermont Legal Aid to halt the rollout of a policy that would cut the amount that some 860 families receive each month from a benefits program for low-income families.
Under the proposed policy, if an adult member of the household receives supplemental security income (SSI), a federal disability benefit, the family would see a $125 cut to payments from Reach Up.
Legal Aid asserts that the cut discriminates against people with disabilities and is unconstitutional. Christopher Curtis, an attorney for Vermont Legal Aid, calls the cut a “poor tax.”
Legal Aid filed the lawsuit on July 23, shortly after notices went out to hundreds of families that they their monthly benefits would be reduced.
Following a hearing in U.S. District Court in Burlington last week, lawyers with Legal Aid and the Vermont Attorney General’s Office, which is representing the state in the case, agreed to delay the cut by another 60 days.
“We are very pleased that our clients and other affected beneficiaries can expect to receive their regular benefit amounts for October and November,” Curtis said in a statement Friday. “Our goal is to stop this benefit cut – this ‘poor tax’ – from harming low-income families with disabilities who cannot afford it. This temporary agreement will come as a welcome relief.”
In early August, the cut was delayed by 60 days to give lawyers time to prepare arguments.
Lawmakers approved the change in policy as part of an effort to close a budget gap for fiscal year 2016. The Reach Up cut was expected to save the state $1.66 million.
According to Sean Brown, deputy commissioner of the Department for Children and Families, which handles the Reach Up program, said that the change in policy would make Reach Up more similar to the department’s other benefits programs, all of which use the SSI benefit in calculating income eligibility.
Meanwhile, Brown said the department expects that the delay in the implementation of the reduction will have an impact on Reach Up’s budget.
“We’re looking at it as an upward pressure to be included in our budget adjustment request,” Brown said, referring to the mid-year legislation that adjusts the state budget.
Brown does not yet know how much above budget Reach Up is likely to be, and he noted that the next steps in the court case will have an impact.
“There are still some unknowns there,” Brown said.
