Under general policies established by the State Board of Control, the Commissioner of Institutions and Agencies is authorized, directed and empowered to issue, or to cause to be issued by the appropriate departmental officers or agencies, all necessary rules and regulations and administrative orders, and to do or cause to be done all other acts and things necessary to secure for the State of New Jersey the maximum Federal financial participation that is available with respect to a program of assistance for the blind and otherwise to accomplish the purposes of this act, including specifically the following:

(a) To assure that the program shall be in effect in all counties of the State and be mandatory upon them;

(b) To assure that all individuals wishing to make application for assistance for the blind shall have opportunity to do so, and that assistance shall be furnished with reasonable promptness to or for all eligible individuals;

(c) To provide that, in determining need for financial assistance and the amount of assistance to be granted, there shall be taken into consideration all other income and resources of the person seeking or receiving assistance, except that, in making such determination, there shall be disregarded the first $85.00 per month of earned income plus 1/2 of earned income in excess of $85.00 per month, of such person, and there shall further be disregarded, for a period not in excess of 12 months, such additional amounts of other income and resources in the case of an individual who has a plan for achieving self-support approved by the county welfare board, as may be necessary for the fulfillment of such plan;

(d) To provide safeguards which restrict the use or disclosure of information concerning applicants and recipients to purposes directly connected with the administration of the program;

(e) To assure that all persons to or for whom assistance is being paid under the provisions of this act shall not receive, during the same period, any other financial assistance from this State or any political subdivision thereof, with respect to any maintenance requirements or other items for which allowance is made in the assistance grant paid pursuant to this act;

(f) To prescribe appropriate services which shall be made available by or utilized by the county welfare boards for the purpose of helping needy blind individuals to attain self-support or self-care, including particularly the services of the Commission for the Blind, and requiring every county welfare board to promptly report to such commission every individual coming to its attention who is known to be or is believed likely to become permanently blind, and to prescribe administrative and procedural methods assuring opportunity for the commission to review all such cases to make appropriate recommendations, and otherwise to participate in the planning and providing of special services for such cases;

(g) To assure that payments of assistance will be denied or promptly terminated with respect to any person who publicly solicits alms by wearing, carrying or exhibiting signs denoting blindness, or carrying receptacles for the reception of alms, or doing same by proxy or by begging from house to house.

L.1962, c. 197, s. 43.