Welfare Reform Success Threatened by
Proposed Changes to Work Requirements
New work rules, stagnant child care grant create funding disparities
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The future success of state welfare reform programs could be threatened if Congress enacts a recent proposal from the President, the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) said today.
In his testimony before the U.S. House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Human Resources, New York Senator Raymond Meier suggested that state services to support families at work provided under the Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) block grant may have to be scaled back.
"What troubles state legislators about the President's plan is not that it focuses on work but that it will stretch states' resources too thin," said Senator Meier, co-chair of NCSL's Task Force on Welfare Reform Reauthorization. "Due to the fixed amount in the TANF block grant and the current fiscal conditions of most states, policymakers will be forced to cut back on existing programs that support work."
The Administration proposal increases the required number of hours spent in work activities from 30 to 40. The proposal also includes a provision raising the work participation rate states are required to meet from 50 to 70 percent by 2007 and eliminating, over three years, the caseload reduction credit, which allows states to reduced their work participation rate by the decline of their caseload.
The result of the increase, lawmakers predict, will be a shift to focusing on subsidized work activities or community work programs to reach these work rates, rather than helping recipients find private sector work or providing supports for working poor families.
"If our goals are personal and economic independence, then the place to find them is where Americans have historically found them, in private sector employment," says Meier.
Additionally, Meier pointed out that increasing the work rate requirements would also increase costs spent on childcare programs for welfare recipients.
"If parents are required to be engaged 40 hours per week, it is logical to assume that they will need more hours of care for their children," Meier said. "States are extremely concerned that the lack of increased funding of the childcare block grant coupled with the increased work requirements will result in an unfunded mandate on already cash-strapped states."
In 1996, Congress created the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families block grant as part of the welfare reform initiative. The historic agreement entrusted state legislatures with the authority to appropriate the federal funds. The flexibility granted to the states has been responsible for innovative and effective approaches to helping recipients transition from welfare to work.
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NCSL's Welfare Reform Pages
NCSL's Human Services Pages
NCSL's Press Room
For more information contact:
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Gene Rose
NCSL Public Affairs Director
(303) 856-1525
fax (303) 364-7800
gene.rose@ncsl.org
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Bill Wyatt
Public Affairs Manager
NCSL Washington, DC Office
(202) 624-8667
fax: (202) 737-1069
william.wyatt@ncsl.org |
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