10/15/2007
New Haven Register
State in quandary over fuel aid, citizenship
Mary E. O’Leary, Register Topics Editor

NEW HAVEN — The state Department of Social Services is investigating whether it can mandate that administrators of the federal heating aid program be required to seek the Social Security numbers of applicants.
It is expected, however, to revise the current directions to ask applicants if they are citizens.

A memo sent out by DSS Commissioner Michael Starkowski Sept. 25 to the executive directors of community action agencies instructed them to require the Social Security number and to ask the question about legal status as they began this month to take applications for the $41 million program.

The nonprofit community action agencies, under contract to DSS, vetted 100.000 requests for fuel assistance last year and allocated the funds to low-income residents throughout the state. Federal benefits are not available to illegal immigrants.

The memo was issued the same day Attorney General Richard Blumenthal sent a 15-page letter to Starkowski on various aspects of the federal Low Income House Energy Assistance Program.

But while states that allocate the funds directly are required "to determine and to verify" an applicant’s legal status, nonprofits can’t be required to do so, according to Blumenthal.

"After our opinion, any question posed about citizenship or immigration status as an apparent condition for receiving assistance would certainly be problematic. It would seem to contradict directly the statute we interpreted," Blumenthal said Friday.

The attorney general said he had "a strong feeling that that guidance may be revised by DSS in light of our opinion."

DSS spokesman David Dearborn said the memo remains in effect, but it is expected to be updated.

"We hope to have clear authoritative guidance to the community action agencies, hopefully by the end of next week," Dearborn said, "that will provide all the information they need and that includes pulling back on that one part of his memo that the attorney general noted ... is not permissible."

The spokesman said it may be replaced with a statement up front to all applicants that the benefits are not available to noncitizens.

The three legislative committees which review the state’s application for the $41 million failed to amend the plan last week, as suggested by Starkowski, that would mandate that all applicants produce Social Security numbers to assist in fraud prevention.

DSS also wants to implement a system for verifying the Social Security numbers, which it would do once a week. Emergency fuel allocations needed before that time would still take place.

Dearborn said they are looking to determine if they can do this unilaterally, plus also pro-rate fuel assistance to mixed households of citizens and non-citizens, another amendment that was not adopted.

"It is kind of an unprecedented situation. Normally, the committees approve the plan and there is a unified approach by the state of Connecticut. This is kind of a fractious approach that is not optimal, but hopefully will be resolved," Dearborn said.

Opponents of the amendments did not think they were necessary. The issue came up for discussion after it was determined that some applications had "placeholder" numbers, in the field where a Social Security number should have been.

A recent review by Connecticut Association for Community Action found 330 applications with the fake Social Security numbers out of 100.000, or some three-tenths of 1 percent, but how many of the 330 actually got aid is being determined.

Juliet Manalan, spokeswoman for CAFCA, said if there is any problems with fraud it is people not being honest about their income, rather than their legal status.

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