Welfare System
Reform Ensures Recipients Obtain Jobs October 31, 2001
America's welfare recipients are faced with the need to get jobs to survive. This is due to the government changing laws on welfare benefits. In years past, almost anyone could apply for welfare and receive benefits without any problems or investigation. The Welfare-to-Work Act, part of the Clinton legislation, has changed welfare as we know it. This paper presents ethical questions regarding the recipients of welfare reform. Should only divorced parents be allowed to receive welfare or should it be available to young, unwed parents also? Should welfare be used to keep our children out of poverty when hard working parents are at the poverty level? Is the welfare system designed to aid families or support them? It also discusses the changes that have been made over the past five years, where the government expects this reform to be in ten years and what steps are being taken to promote this program. Welfare recipients must now shift from their present thought and attitudes, generally that of a free ride, to the new view of earning a living.
Welfare
to Work Program - Introduction
Welfare recipients are increasingly being viewed as lazy people who are not willing to support themselves. A decade ago, anyone who walked into the Social Security Administration and applied for Welfare or Social Security Income was guaranteed to receive some money. Many people who traveled through low-income neighborhoods, on their way to work, could see their tax dollars hard at work. Many welfare recipients decided that if the state and government were going to pay them, why should they have to work. In 1996, all this had changed. President Clinton signed into law a new Welfare bill that requires welfare recipients who are mentally and physically able to work to get jobs. This new law, which has been in effect now for five years, has exceeded everyone’s expectation and continues to astound skeptics. Over the next decade, lawmakers hope that the percent of Americans receiving welfare will be less that 15 percent. Methods This research paper began by searching the Internet and the World Wide Web. The information on Welfare-to-Work was very wide spread. The number of articles relating to welfare reform is overwhelming. Some articles discussed what the Welfare Reform Act is and what is changing. Other articles identify individual States and how they are making amendments to accommodate their needs. There are many articles that discuss the advantages and disadvantages of the Welfare Reform Act. The articles used in this research paper were found through Internet searches. Elibrary.com, by far, was the most helpful search engine and produced many useful articles. Of them was wtw.doleta.gov, the Welfare-to-Work website. This website enabled this author to find dozens of articles and two points of contact from the Department of Labor. These points of contact, Carol Elias and Nancy Winkler, were kind enough to allow me, during their busy schedules, to conduct an interview. They also gave me two new websites that are specific to Connecticut’s Welfare-to-Work programs. Procedures The articles used for this research paper were collected over a three-week period. After the articles were reviewed, interview questions were produced to further clarify what is being done in the state of Connecticut. After all the references were collected, the information was divided into four different categories of Welfare-to-Work. The first category was training being offered to welfare recipients. The second category was job placement. The third category was transportation and childcare. Finally, the fourth category was teaching the new workers how to keep a job and employer expectations. The articles were then used to construct an outline and data was linked to it. AFDC: Aid to Families with Dependent Children. This program was replaced by TANF. It served the same purpose except AFDC had no time limits on receiving aid. Dress-for-Success: A program that teaches people how to dress and carry themselves for job interviews. Many Dress-for-Success programs have clothes to lend to welfare recipients for job interviews. TANF: Temporary Assistance for Needy Families. A short-term cash assistance program designed to aid families with young children. UPS: United Parcel Service. UPS is a letter and package delivery service with several distribution sights in every state. Welfare to Work: A program that will enable welfare recipients to receive job training for the purpose of enter the workforce. This research was begun by exploring how the Welfare Reform Act changed the rules governing welfare recipients. Most states began implementing this new act well before it was signed into law. Overall, there has been great praise with this Welfare Reform Act. It has greatly exceeded expectations of proponents; even the skeptics are amazed. In January 1993, three million fewer people were on welfare. In the first 9 months of the Welfare Reform, 1.2 million former recipients stopped receiving welfare funds (Casse, 1998). As with any law that Congress passes, there has been opposition. The influx of former welfare recipients into the low wage labor market will decrease wages by 12% in that section (Miller, 1998). In the workforce, there is only one job for every two people who will be looking for work (Azcarate, 1998). The critics are determined to convince the American people that without a massive infusion of Federal funds, the nations poor are headed toward deprivation and suffering. Fortunately for the country, the facts suggest otherwise (Casse, 1997). Welfare Reform law is trying to put an end to federal entitlement to cash assistance. In the past, eligibility for assistance was easy. Anyone meeting the minimum income requirements would be automatically qualified. Any single or divorced parent fell into this category. Under the new law, each state determines eligibility and is given a block grant, permitting them to design a cash-assistance program as they see fit. This new law established a five-year lifetime limit on cash assistance and a two-year limit on receiving assistance without working, thus ensuring that welfare cannot become a way of life. Finally, the law requires each state to design work requirements as part of its welfare program. By the year 2002, states will need to show that at least 50 percent of those receiving welfare are involved in some form of work or training in exchange for benefits (Casse, 1997). There is a surplus of money in everyone’s pocket due to this program. The Government is spending less money on Medicare. States are spending less money on welfare and diverting it to training projects for welfare recipients. The three billion dollar excess that the government has is going to the states for roads, schools, daycare and elderly services, just to name a few (Winkler, 2000). In order to make this new Welfare Reform work, states had to implement some programs to aid the welfare recipients and train them to, not only get jobs, but also keep the jobs that they have. Initially, states seek to raise the level of self-esteem for all welfare recipients. Then, they are guided through identification of personal skills and career goals with an establishment of a career goal time line. Next, with partner agencies, the state assists with the identification and removal of barriers to job skills training, education, community service, daycare provider information and transportation (Winkler, 2000). To show how the states are helping their cause, this is divided into four sections and will explain how each section is fulfilling the Welfare-to-Work role. Training Training is the most important aspect of the Welfare-to-Work program. There are 90 programs broken down into 13 program groups and further broken down into 3 program categories (Connecticut Department of Labor, 2000). The most common of the training programs are taught at our local high schools and community colleges. The classes run from one-week for radiation safety to 72-weeks for an auto mechanic (Connecticut Department of Labor, 2000). The price for these courses range from 300 dollars to 5,000 dollars. Each state runs their program differently, but all states pay for these classes to qualified applicants. Some classes have prerequisites such as speaking English, high school diploma (or equivalent) or certain basic skills (Connecticut Department of Labor, 2000). Unfortunately, some applicants neither qualify for these programs nor do they care. There are programs that will enable applicants to qualify and 90 percent of them utilize these programs (Wiggett 2000). In the state of Connecticut, the welfare caseload has decreased by 18 percent. In the first six months, 18 percent of the welfare recipients had full time employment; 22 percent were in training or were looking for a job; 19 percent were pursuing adult education; 6 percent had obtained some form of employment mixed with training (Casse, 1997). Families that did not meet the state minimum income standards could apply and receive welfare. Under the new system they can receive training in the same field or a different field in order to obtain a higher paying job. As the numbers show, the Welfare-to-Work training program is working and is showing no signs of slowing down. Along with new employment comes a new medical benefit. As with any new job, it takes three months as a full time employee to be able to receive insurance benefits. For this reason, Medicare benefits do not cease or be reduced until the former welfare recipient is able to purchase insurance through the employer. Most part-time employees are involved in training programs and will eventually transition over to full-time employment. Part-time employees still retain Medicare benefits until they can become full-time employees (Winkler, 2000). After the welfare recipients have been trained, they need to find employment to earn a living. Before being sent out the door, one last benefit is explaining conduct at a job interview. This is accomplished over a four-week period using lecture, handouts, videos and guest speakers (Winkler 2000). This four-week seminar is very beneficial to new workers because it gives them several practice runs before actually going to an interview (Winkler, 2000). This also stresses the importance to making a positive first impression for the new employer (Elias, 2000). Childcare and Transportation The two most difficult burdens to overcome are childcare and transportation. The states do not have childcare services for former welfare recipients. As much of a burden as this is, communities are pulling together and setting up childcare facilities. The former recipients that could not afford daycare can bring their children to a community center and pay according to a sliding scale. They pay a small percentage of their gross pay and they have to set aside some time to help out one or two days a week. Also, many churches are pitching in and setting up groups to run their childcare facility. Many people volunteer their time for this cause along side former welfare recipients. This has proven to be the biggest asset to the former recipients (Leonard, 1998). Transportation is another obstacle to overcome. The need to get new employees to their jobs was a concern. Bus companies have added new routes to accommodate the new workers. Most bus companies offer free fare to former welfare recipients but some bus companies have even gone the extra mile. Some have busses that cater to former welfare recipients. UPS, who employs over 8,200 former welfare recipients, has purchased a fleet of busses in some major cities to bus their new employees to and from work (Leonard, 1998). Not only did the need for transportation to get to work exist, but also a need existed for transportation to get to the training for the new job. This is still a problem and is being resolved. No one considered this when devising this master plan. It was assumed that if they wanted to be trained, they would make it there on own. Also, most welfare recipients were involved with a training program mixed with a part-time job (Elias, 2000). Employer Expectations The most important aspect of any job is keeping it. States offer Job Search Skills Training Workshop that emphasizes employer expectations. During this two-week class, employees learn through the use of lectures, handouts, videos and guest speakers about the “business culture”. Business culture deals with expectations of co-workers, supervisors and employers. This leads to the identification and development of the skills necessary for success in the workplace and how this success leads to job retention and promotion. There is a module on managing personal finances which includes the setting of long-term and short-term financial goals, developing a household budget, record keeping for tax purposes, credit use and reasons why to use credit and where to bank (Winkler, 2000). This is a very intense course and is something that most people today should attend even though they did not come from welfare. One thing is perfectly clear. If someone wants to get off of welfare or keep from going on welfare, there is no excuse to remain on the program. Government, State and local districts are bending over backwards to keep the Welfare-to-Work program running prohibiting people from making welfare a way of life. With this in mind, people need to realize that this welfare reform is not going away and welfare recipients need to realize that they need to help themselves before anyone can help. States need to communicate better because there are still welfare recipients moving from state-to-state in order to collect benefits without ever having to work. They can start training programs in each state, but never look for a job causing states to “waste” money on them instead of on people that are willing to try. Nowhere in this research did any information on a central tracking system arise to prevent this from happening. This is an area that needs immediate attention and further research is needed. Transportation needs to accommodate welfare recipients better during their training phase. I do not agree with the statement “if they want the training, they would get there on their own.” Provisions must be made to accommodate the whole process and not just the portions that are being handled by the employers and the transportation companies. Miller, W. H., (1998, January 5). Disputing Clinton: critics say reform hasn’t worked (Labor movement says administration numbers are wrong)., Vol. 247, Industry Week, pp. 14. Casse, D. (1997, January 9). Why Welfare Reform is working., Vol. 104, Commentary, pp. 36. Leonard, B. (1998, May 1). Welfare to Work: Filling a tall order., HR Magazine. The crunch comes for welfare reform. (1999, March 20), Vol. 350, The Economist. Federal Document: Welfare Reform: assessing the effectiveness of various Welfare-to-Work approaches. (1999, September 20). Government Accounting Office Report. Getting to know your Welfare-to-Work customer. (1998, October), Issue #1, Ideas that work. Getting to know your Welfare-to-Work customer. (1999, September), Issue #9, Ideas that work. Rowland, J. and Wilson-Coker, P. (2000, January), The Status of Child Care in Connecticut. Winkler, N. (2001, October). Interview Elias, C. (2001, October). Interview Wiggett, N (2001, October). Interview
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