Daley v. State Department of Social Welfare

THE COURT.

— Petitioners are recipients under four state programs of adult to the Blind, Aid to the

[802]

Partially Self-Supporting Blind, Old Age Security and Aid to the Disabled. They seek a writ of mandate to compel the State Department of Social Welfare and its director to pay monthly aid amounts 'conforming with statutory directions for annual adjustments to méet changes in cost of living.

The facts are undisputed. On August 30, 1968, the Director of. Social Welfare adopted a regulation fixing cost-of-living increases in the monthly grants to become effective December 1968. In computing the increases he. applied the percentage increase in the Consumer Price Index for California issued by the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics, but adjusted the increase downward by excluding the “medical care component.” Exclusion of increases in the cost of medical care from the Bureau of Labor Statistics figures permitted a $4 increase in the monthly grants, in contrast with the $6 increase payable under the blind aid programs and $5 under aged and disabled aid programs had the full percentage been applied.

The department takes the position that exclusion of the medical care factor is permitted by the governing statutes. Petitioners contend that nothing in the statutes allows the exclusion and that recipients are being underpaid.

All four of the statutory programs embody the following basic declaration: “Thé amount of the grant . . . shall be adjusted annually by the department to reflect any increases or decreases in the cost of living occurring after [a specified ‘base’ date]. The average of the separate indices of the cost of living for Los Angeles and San Francisco, as published by the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics, shall be used as the basis for determining the' changes in the cost of living.” (Welf. & Inst. Code, §§ 12150,12650,13100,13701.)

In the aged aid and the two blind aid statutes (§§12150, 12650, 13100) the basic declaration is followed by this statutory formula: “Whenever the cost of living increases or decreases by -a percentage which when multiplied by one hundred fifteen dollars ($115) [$100, in the aged aid program] results in a product of one dollar ($1) or more, this product adjusted to the nearer dollar amount shall be added to or subtracted from the monetary amount specified .... The resultant sum shall be declared by formal action of the department to be the monthly grants payable . . . . ”'