TOPEKA, Kan. -- Kansas has eliminated a $25-a-day limit on ATM withdrawals with cash assistance cards.
The move comes over concerns from U.S. officials about the part of a larger effort to ensure poor families use their benefits for necessities and not alcohol, gambling or luxuries such as concerts or tattoos.
The state Department for Children and Families announced Tuesday that it was rescinding the cap before it was put into effect for 15,000 poor residents receiving cash assistance each month. Secretary Phyllis Gilmore said the state agency received an email Monday from a division of the U.S. Health and Human Services Department, saying the limit appeared to prevent poor families from having "adequate access" to their benefits.
Legislators approved the limit in April as part of a broader measure rewriting rules for cash assistance. Copies of emails obtained by The Associated Press through an open-records request show U.S. officials had questions weeks ago about how the limit would affect poor families. In June, state lawmakers passed a follow-up measure giving Gilmore the authority to raise or rescind the limit.
The cap was aimed at preventing recipients from converting their benefits to cash to get around limits on how the assistance could be used. But even some Republican lawmakers who support a limit acknowledged that $25 was too low.
Gilmore noted that her agency did not propose the $25 limit. Department for Children and Families officials have been trying for weeks to assess whether U.S. officials opposed it enough to threaten to withhold more than $100 million in federal welfare funds from Kansas.
"It was distracting from the good parts of the law," said state Sen. Michael O'Donnell, a Wichita Republican who supported a $60-per-day limit and said lawmakers might reconsider the issue next year.
The first welfare measure included a list of items for which benefits can't be used and places where cash assistance can't be spent. The list remains in place and includes alcohol, tobacco, gambling and sexually oriented materials, as well as entertainment. Cash assistance also can't be used in nail salons or spas, on cruise ships, or at tattoo or body-piercing parlors.
Critics argue such policies are punitive. They said the cap on ATM withdrawals would force families to make many trips to ATMs and incur fees each time to pay expenses such as rent or utility bills.
"I'm glad to see that the federal agency has weighed in quickly so that we avoid unnecessary costs and unnecessary burdens for Kansas families," said Shannon Cotsoradis, president and chief executive officer of Kansas Action for Children.
A Section on 08/05/2015