Title 22, Title 22

1. Local office. There must be in each municipality a general assistance office or designated place where any person may obtain an application for general assistance during the municipality's regular business hours. A municipality shall designate the daily hours when an applicati…

1. Program required; ordinance. A general assistance program shall be operated by each municipality and shall be administered in accordance with an ordinance enacted, after notice and hearing, by the municipal officers of each municipality. 2. Availability of ordinance. The ordin…

The overseer shall keep complete and accurate records pertaining to general assistance, including the names of eligible persons assisted and the amounts paid for their assistance. Records, papers, files and communications relating to an applicant or recipient made or received by …

1. General assistance required. Municipalities shall provide general assistance to all eligible persons at the expense of that municipality, except as provided in section 4311. A municipality may not move or transport a person into another municipality to avoid responsibility for…

In order to receive assistance from any municipality, the applicant or a duly authorized representative must file a written application with the overseer, except as provided in section 4304, subsection 3. [PL 1993, c. 410, Pt. AAA, §6 (AMD).] 1. Initial and subsequent application…

1. Eligibility of applicant; duration of eligibility. The overseer shall determine eligibility each time a person applies or reapplies for general assistance pursuant to this chapter and the ordinance adopted by the municipality in accordance with section 4305. The period of elig…

Whenever an eligible person becomes an applicant for general assistance and states to the administrator that the applicant is in an emergency situation and requires immediate assistance to meet basic necessities, the overseer shall, pending verification, issue to the applicant ei…

1. Departmental reimbursement. When a municipality incurs net general assistance costs in any fiscal year prior to July 1, 2015 in excess of .0003 of that municipality's most recent state valuation relative to the state fiscal year for which reimbursement is being issued, as dete…

Residents of the unorganized territory shall be eligible for general assistance in the same manner as provided in this chapter. The commissioner shall establish standards of eligibility for the unorganized territory and shall have the same responsibilities with regard to the unor…

Municipalities, as provided in section 4307, shall pay expenses necessarily incurred for providing basic necessities to eligible persons anywhere in the State by any person not liable for their support provided that the municipality of responsibility shall be notified and approve…

1. State departments. Upon the request of any municipal official charged with the responsibility of administering general assistance, the Department of Health and Human Services and any other department of the State having information which has a bearing on the eligibility of any…

Whoever knowingly and willfully makes any false representation of a material fact to the overseer of any municipality or to the department or its agents for the purpose of causing that or any other person to be granted assistance by the municipality or by the State is guilty of a…

All persons requesting general assistance must use their income for basic necessities. Except for initial applicants, recipients are not eligible to receive assistance to replace income that was spent within the 30-day period prior to the application on goods and services that ar…

1. Ineligibility for assistance. An applicant is ineligible for assistance for 120 days in all municipalities in the State when any municipality establishes that the applicant, without just cause: A. Refuses to search for employment when that search is reasonable and appropriate;…

An applicant or recipient must make a good faith effort to secure any potential resource that may be available, including, but not limited to, any state or federal assistance program, employment benefits, governmental or private pension programs, available trust funds, support fr…

A municipality or the State, which has incurred general assistance program costs for the support of any eligible person, may recover the full amount expended for that support either from the person relieved or from any person liable for the recipient's support, their executors or…

1. Relatives liable. A parent of a child under 25 years of age and a spouse living in or owning property in the State shall support their children or husband or wife in proportion to their respective ability. Liability for burial expenses is governed by section 4313. 2. Rental pa…

A municipality or the State may claim a lien against the owner of real estate for the amount of money spent by it to provide mortgage payments on behalf of an eligible person under this chapter on any real estate that is the subject of a mortgage, whether land or buildings or a c…

Any action relative to the grant, denial, reduction, suspension or termination of relief provided under this chapter must be communicated to the applicant in writing. The decision must include the specific reason or reasons for that action and must inform the person affected of t…

A person aggrieved by a decision, act, failure to act or delay in action concerning that person's application for general assistance under this chapter has the right to an appeal. If a person's application has been approved, general assistance may not be revoked during the period…

The Department of Health and Human Services shall, in accordance with this section, share responsibility with municipalities for the proper administration of general assistance. [PL 1993, c. 410, Pt. AAA, §13 (AMD); PL 2003, c. 689, Pt. B, §6 (REV).] 1. Review. The department sha…

Any balance remaining in the General Assistance - Reimbursement to Cities and Towns program in the Department of Human Services at the end of any fiscal year must be carried forward for the next fiscal year.

The department shall use municipal reports, data from the statewide online database required under section 4323, subsection 6 and other metrics to generate a general assistance report to be submitted to the joint standing committee of the Legislature having jurisdiction over gene…