---
title: O.C.G.A. § 49-4-52. Eligibility for assistance under this article.
collection: code
id: 49-4-52
cite_as: O.C.G.A. § 49-4-52 (2025)
canonical_url: https://georgiacommons.org/code/49-4-52
md_url: https://georgiacommons.org/code/49-4-52.md
text_url: https://georgiacommons.org/code/49-4-52/text
source_url: https://www.legis.ga.gov/api/document/docs/default-source/joint-features-document-library/t49-t50-ch1-12-(v38)-2023-pdf.pdf?sfvrsn=60c992b5_0#page=96
date: 2025
status: active
corpus_version: 2025-supplement-89aa39ab3c68
license: CC0-1.0
publisher: Georgia Commons, an independent project of Georgia Civic Data. Not the State of Georgia. Not legal advice.
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version: the only printed version
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current_through: Including Acts of the 2025 Regular Session of the General Assembly
heading_path: SOCIAL SERVICES / PUBLIC ASSISTANCE / AID TO THE BLIND
---

# O.C.G.A. § 49-4-52. Eligibility for assistance under this article.

(a) Assistance shall be granted under this article to any blind person who:

(1) Does not have sufficient income or other resources to provide a reasonable subsistence compatible with decency and health, except that, after March 1, 1961, in making such determination, the first $85.00 per month of earned income plus one-half of earned income in excess of $85.00 per month shall be disregarded;

(2) Has been a bona fide resident of the state for not less than one year;

(3) Is not receiving old-age assistance; and

(4) Is not publicly soliciting alms in any part of this state by the wearing, carrying, or exhibiting of signs denoting blindness, by the carrying of receptacles for the reception of alms, by the doing of such acts by proxy, or by begging from house to house.

(b) Inmates of any public institution meeting the requirements of subsection (a) of this Code section may be granted assistance, provided such public institution has entered into an agreement with the Department of Community Health to determine an inmate’s eligibility for assistance and services. Such agreement shall require the public institution or medical institution providing services to such inmate to provide the Department of Community Health with the required monetary payment to match the federal matching funds as set forth in federal law for the services received.

## History

Ga. L. 1937, p. 568, § 3; Ga. L. 1952, p. 233, §§ 4, 6; Ga. L. 1961, p. 415, § 1; Ga. L. 1965, p. 385, § 19; Ga. L. 2018, p. 550, § 3-6/SB 407.

## Law Reviews

For article on the 2018 amendment of this Code section, see 35 Ga. St. U. L. Rev. 45 (2018).