An indigent Holocaust survivor eking out a meager existence is denied health benefits because he receives a meager restitution payment. It sounds like an O. Henry story gone horribly wrong. But it has been known to happen.
A federal law enacted in 2001 exempts restitution payments to survivors or their heirs from factoring into taxation or federal benefit programs, such as Social Security. But some state-only programs were untouched — until now.
Gov. Gray Davis this week signed a bill penned by Assemblywoman Wilma Chan (D-Alameda) bringing California into compliance with last year’s law.
“Basically, this has the state conform with federal law. The only action the state had taken before was just payments for the purpose of income tax. It did not include heirs, it did not include…restitution being counted against people who apply for benefits,” explained Chan of her bill, AB 989. “What this bill does is conform state law with federal law so our state taxes, the regulations, will be the same.”
David Lash, the executive director of Bet Tzedik, a legal service for low-income seniors, called Chan’s bill “near and dear.”
In the 1980s, he successfully represented a Holocaust survivor who was denied Social Security benefits because of restitution payments of $250 a month. He described AB 989 as “a huge help” for his clients.
“Depending on how you qualify a survivor, there are between 14,000 and 20,000 in California. Virtually all are elderly, many are very poor. Not penalizing them in [qualifying] for state programs, not penalizing them by taxing these monies — every little bit makes a difference in their ability to live a subsistence life or not,” he said.
The bill is “vital to the concerns of poor people of the state and poor, indigent Holocaust survivors who have waited so long for some justice.”
Julius Drabkin, an 83-year-old survivor in San Francisco, said he felt gratified by the bill’s passage.
“I am feeling nice; it is a good feeling that it has gone through, sure,” said the native Latvian. “The suffering, for what I went through, this had to be so.”
Other San Francisco Holocaust survivors are more skeptical.
“In my opinion, this wasn’t absolutely necessary. Tax forms for the state follow the federal government, so there’s no exemption line or deduction line on the state tax form [for restitution payments]. But I also think the law doesn’t do any harm, because the administration might well change that,” said Jerry Rosenstein, a 75-year-old native German and survivor of several concentration camps.
“It probably wasn’t completely necessary, but on the whole, I think it’s OK.”
Louis de Groot, who spent the war in hiding in Holland, worried that the general public might get the impression survivors are receiving lavish restitution payments, when, in reality, they are almost uniformly miniscule “and you have to give blood before they’ll give you anything,” he said.
Text explaining the bill claims that California programs such as CalWorks (a welfare-to-work program for those under age 65), Cal Grants (a grant program for college students) or IHSS (In-Home Support Service) did not previously exempt restitution payments from income calculations.
Cherie Golant, coordinator of the Holocaust survivor program at the S.F.-based Jewish Family and Children’s Services, said she’d be very surprised to find any survivors applying for CalWorks or Cal Grants, but acknowledged that survivors’ heirs might do so.
She suggested that since not every “line worker at the state level” might have been aware of state and federal laws regarding restitution payments, Chan’s bill could help to prevent wrongful denials of care.
“Anyone who’s wrongly denied MediCal, we always get that straightened out,” she said. “But it takes longer than people would like. Usually people get to the bottom of their resources,” she said, before they file for such services.
In addition to AB 989, Davis also signed two other Holocaust-related bills into law.
AB 1758, penned by Assemblyman George Nakano (D-Torrance) extends to 2010 the statute of limitations to recover artwork stolen by the Nazis.
AB 2003, authored by Assemblyman Paul Koretz (D-West Hollywood), establishes a “Center of Excellence on the Study of the Holocaust and Genocide,” which will be housed at Cal. State Chico. The center aims to provide teachers with the knowledge and training to effectively teach California’s students about historical atrocities.