CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION

Through the Social Services Block Grant (SSBG) program, the Federal Government disburses funds to States to support social services for adults and children. The report discusses SSBG expenditures and the number of recipients of services during 2005.¹This chapter provides a brief history of the SSBG and summarizes the SSBG reporting requirements of the States.

BACKGROUND

On January 4, 1975, title XX of the Social Security Act authorized a capped entitlement to States for providing social services. Prior to title XX, States received matching Federal funds for specified categories of services, with eligibility for the services limited to receipt of public assistance under several titles of the Social Security Act. Title XX gave States flexibility to offer a wide range of services to a broad population of adults and children. The statute also included requirements for planning, public participation, income eligibility, and administration.

In 1981, Congress amended title XX to establish the SSBG Program. The SSBG gave States greater flexibility in their use of the entitlement funds. States determine what services will be provided, eligible populations of adults and children, locations in which each service is provided, and whether the services are provided by State or local agency staff or through grants or contracts with private organizations.

The Federal Government allocates funds to the 51 States²as block grants to support the delivery of social services. Designated State agencies administer the SSBG program. (See appendix A.) Title XX encourages each State, as far as practicable under the conditions in that State, to furnish services in support of five statutory goals:

• Achieving or maintaining economic self-support to prevent, reduce, or eliminate dependency;
• Achieving or maintaining self-sufficiency, including reduction or prevention of dependency;
• Preventing or remedying neglect, abuse, or exploitation of children and adults unable to protect their own interests, or preserving, rehabilitating, or reuniting families;
• Preventing or reducing inappropriate institutional care by providing for community-based care, home-based care, or other forms of less intensive care; and
• Securing referral or admission for institutional care when other forms of care are not appropriate, or providing services to individuals in institutions.³

FUNDING FOR THE SSBG

The annual appropriation for the SSBG program for 2005 was $1.700 billion. The appropriation for the SSBG program has been at this level since 2002. (In 2001, the annual appropriation was $1.725 billion). (See figure 1-1.)

Figure 1-1 SSBG Appropriation 2001-2005 (in millions)
Year	SSBG Appropriations
2001	$1,725
2002	$1,700
2003	$1,700
2004	$1,700
2005	$1,700

On February 8, 2006, President Bush signed the Deficit Reduction Omnibus Reconciliation Act of 2005 (DRA) into law.⁴The DRA authorizes States to continue to transfer up to 10 percent of their annual Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) Block Grant allocation into their SSBG program through Federal fiscal year (FFY) 2010. Any TANF funds transferred into the SSBG may be used only for programs and services to families with children and a family income of less than 200 percent of the official income poverty line (as defined annually by the Office of Management and Budget).⁵Funds transferred into the SSBG from TANF are subject to the statute, regulations, and reporting requirements of the SSBG. During FFY 2005, 45 States transferred funds from TANF into the SSBG program.

SUPPLEMENTAL HURRICANE RELIEF FUNDS

The 2005 Gulf Coast hurricanes caused historic destruction and loss of life in the Gulf Coast region of the United States. The Federal Government, as part of its commitment to help families affected by these devastating storms, made $550 million available to the States and the District of Columbia through SSBG to provide social services, health care, and mental health services. These one-time supplemental allotments may also be used for costs associated with the repair, renovation, and construction of facilities used to provide these services to victims of the hurricanes. In contrast, regular SSBG allotments may not be used for construction. The $550 million in funding was provided through a supplemental appropriation to the SSBG program.⁶The funds were disbursed to all 50 States and the District of Columbia in February 2006. The allocation amount of these funds to the 50 States and the District of Columbia was based on the percentage of Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) enrollees from each of the storms in a State, multiplied by the percentage of individuals in poverty in the State. Enrollees from Hurricane Katrina were double-weighted. (See appendix B.)

The time period for expending the supplemental funds is the same as that for FY 2006 SSBG State allotments. State allotments must be expended by the State within the current fiscal year or in the succeeding fiscal year.⁷The Notice of Grant Award related to the SSBG supplemental funds states that the award is available for expenditures made in accordance with the State's plan under title XX of the Social Security Act, as amended, for the period October 1, 2005 through September 30, 2006. States must expend the supplemental funds by September 30, 2007. States must submit a 2006 SSBG amended preexpenditure report for the SSBG Hurricane Relief Funds. Of the 29 SSBG service categories, the six top services for which the States plan to use these funds include: case management; health-related services; housing services; transportation; child day care; and other services. Five States have indicated that they would use some of the supplemental funds for construction or repairs to health and mental health care facilities.⁸

SSBG REPORTING REQUIREMENTS

Before a State receives SSBG funds, it must submit a report on the intended use of the block grant, including information on the types of activities to be supported and the categories or characteristics of individuals to be served.⁹This preexpenditure report is submitted annually to the Office of Community Services (OCS), Administration for Children and Families (ACF), U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), which administers the SSBG program and provides technical assistance to the States. States are required to submit a revised preexpenditure report if the planned use of SSBG funds changes during the year.

In addition, HHS regulations require each State to submit an annual SSBG postexpenditure report either 6 months after the end of the reporting period, or at the time that the State submits the preexpenditure report for the next reporting period.¹⁰The States may report data for either the Federal or State fiscal year. States are required to submit information on the services provided, total number of adults and children served, and amounts expended for each service. (See appendices C, D, and E.)

History of SSBG Reporting

Reporting requirements for the SSBG have evolved since 1975. Table 1-1 provides a brief history of the reporting requirements for title XX and the SSBG.

Table 1-1 History of Title XX and SSBG Reporting Requirements
1975	Reporting requirements for title XX included the Social Services Reporting Requirements. States submitted quarterly and annual reports that included unduplicated counts of recipients by service, by eligibility category, by expenditure of funds, by method of provision, and by title XX goal, as well as special reports on child day care.
1981	The SSBG retained the original title XX requirement that each State must report biennially on activities carried out under the SSBG, including the purposes for which funds were spent and the extent to which expenditures were consistent with the State's preexpenditure report.
1988	The Family Support Act of 198811added specific reporting requirements for the SSBG, which required each State to submit an annual report containing the following information: The number of individuals served with SSBG funds, by the type of service, and by the number of children and the number of adults; The amount spent for each type of service; The eligibility criteria used for each service; and The service delivery methods used by public and private providers.
1990	HHS published a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on April 5, 1990, to implement the new reporting requirements enacted in the Family Support Act of 1988.
1993	HHS issued a final rule on November 15, 1993, to implement annual reporting requirements for the SSBG program. It also included uniform definitions of services.
1999	HHS issued a final rule that amended the SSBG regulations. Each State must submit a preexpenditure report 30 days prior to the beginning of the fiscal year for which SSBG funds will be used. Each State must submit the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Standard Form 269A, which is a financial status report, within 90 days of the end of the grant period. This form is submitted to HHS.
2001	OCS issued an Information Memorandum instructing the States to include the expenditure of funds transferred from TANF into SSBG in the "Expenditures -- SSBG" column of their postexpenditure reports.
2002	OMB approved a revised postexpenditure reporting form with new instructions (OMB No. 0970-0234, Expiration Date March 2005). States used this form to report data for 2002-2004.
2005	OMB approved a revised postexpenditure reporting form with new instructions (OMB No. 0970-0234, Expiration Date May 31, 2008). States used this form to report data for 2005.

Services Funded by the SSBG

The 1993 regulation, noted above, included uniform definitions for 28 social services. These definitions do not constrain a State's use of SSBG funds or restrict the services a State may provide; rather, they provide guidelines for reporting purposes. If a service falls outside of the 28 definitions, States report the data under "other services."¹²

The 29 service categories (28 social service categories plus the "other services" category) are listed below.

States vary in how they use SSBG funds and what services they provide due to the considerable flexibility of the SSBG. States use the SSBG to supplement other funds or to fully support the delivery of a service.

DATA ITEMS

The following data items provided the basis for the analyses presented in this report.

SSBG Expenditures

For the purposes of this report, the term SSBG expenditures refers to the sum of two columns of data on the postexpenditure report--expenditures of the SSBG allocation and expenditures of the funds transferred into the SSBG from the TANF block grant.

• SSBG Allocation. States reported dollars from the SSBG allocation spent for services and administrative costs.¹³
• TANF Transfer. States reported any expended dollars transferred from the TANF block grants into SSBG.¹⁴

Other Federal, State, and Local Funds

States reported the total amount of other Federal, State, and local funds spent for each service supported with SSBG funds.

Total Expenditures

Total expenditures is the sum of expenditures for SSBG-supported services. It includes SSBG expenditures, as well as other Federal, State, and local funds.

Figure 1-2 illustrates the relationships among the data items.

Figure 1-2 Expenditure Terminology

Number of Recipients

States reported the total number of adult and child recipients for each service category funded in whole, or in part, with SSBG expenditures. In addition, States were asked to report on adult recipients in two categories--age 59 years and younger, and age 60 years and older.

• Children. States reported the actual or estimated number of children who received each service.¹⁵
• Adults Age 59 Years and Younger. States reported the actual or estimated number of adults age 59 years and younger who received each service.
• Adults Age 60 Years and Older. States reported the actual or estimated number of adults age 60 years and older who received each service.
• Adults of Unknown Age. States reported the actual or estimated number of adults who received each service for whom age data were unavailable. For States in which age categories for adult recipients were only partially available, this item is the total number of adult recipients less the number of adult recipients for whom age is known.

Appendix F contains State data pages, which present the annual expenditures, number of recipients, contact information, and additional notes on reporting methodologies for each State.

Validation

Data from the State postexpenditure reports were entered into a database and validated to identify errors or inconsistencies. All States were contacted to resolve any data issues and to verify their definitions of data items. In addition, States were given the opportunity to explain divergences from the reporting requirements. These explanations are included as notes to the State data pages.

Table 1-2 displays all data items used for analyses, specifies whether the States reported the item or it was calculated during data validation, and indicates the specific validation issues addressed.

Table 1-2 SSBG Data Items and Validation Rules
Expenditures
Data Items	Reported	Calculated	Data Calculation And Validation
SSBG Allocation
TANF Transfer
SSBG Expenditures			SSBG expenditures were calculated as the sum of SSBG allocation and TANF transfer. If these data were missing, data in all other fields were deleted.
Other Federal, State, and Local Funds			If these data were missing, the State was omitted from analyses comparing SSBG expenditures to expenditures of other sources of funds.
Total Expenditures
Recipients
Data Items	Reported	Calculated	Data Calculation And Validation
Total Recipients			If data on recipients were missing, expenditure data were accepted and included in the analyses, but the State was asked to provide an explanation for the missing data. Despite the variations in methods for determining recipient counts, data from all States were included in the analyses.
Children
Adults Age 59 and Younger			If data for these categories were missing, all adults were counted as adults of unknown age.
Adults Age 60 and Older
Adults of Unknown Age			Adults of unknown age was calculated as the sum of children, adults age 59 and younger, and adults age 60 and older, subtracted from total recipients.