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01-24-2005

Page history last edited by PBworks 17 years, 5 months ago

January 24, 2005

WITH WORK, ROMNEY HELPS WELFARE RECIPIENTS GET ON THEIR FEET

Aligns state welfare program with federal requirements to prevent loss of funds

 

Governor Mitt Romney today announced new changes to the state’s welfare program with a view toward helping people lead independent, fulfilling lives and escape what he called the “poverty trap.”

 

As part of his spending plan for Fiscal Year 2006 that will be filed on Wednesday, Romney will propose increasing and expanding the work requirement for welfare recipients to bring it in line with stricter federal standards in use by virtually every other state in the country.

 

To help more welfare recipients transition to work, the Governor’s budget will also propose higher levels of spending on childcare and transportation as well as education and job training.

 

“People want a chance to work so they can build self-sustaining lives instead of relying on a welfare check that will keep them trapped in poverty,” said Romney. “By providing support services and incentives where necessary, we want to give welfare recipients the opportunity to achieve independent and fulfilling lives.”

 

In 1995, a limited work requirement was introduced to the state welfare program for families – known as Transitional Aid to Families with Dependent Children (TAFDC). The next year, President Clinton signed welfare reform legislation that included tougher requirements, but the more lenient Massachusetts program continued to operate under the terms of a 10-year waiver. With the waiver expiring at the end of September, Romney said major changes must be made to come into conformance with the federal standards or else the Commonwealth could risk losing millions of dollars in federal welfare reimbursements.

 

Under the current system, only 20 percent of adults on welfare in Massachusetts are working, the third smallest number of any state.

 

Romney’s plan brings the state work requirement in line with the federal program by making adults with children at least one year old subject to work. Under the current Massachusetts program, able-bodied recipients with children two years old or under are exempt from the work requirement.

 

Under the Governor’s proposal, welfare recipients with children between the ages of one and five will be required to work at least 20 hours a week. Recipients who have children age six or older will be required to work at least 30 hours a week. Currently, recipients with children between the ages of two and five work 20 hours a week; between the ages of six and eight, 24 hours a week; and age nine or older, 30 hours a week.

 

The type of work counted toward the requirement has not changed. In addition to employment, work may include on-the-job-training, vocational education up to a year, job search up to six weeks, community service and education/job training if it is directly tied to employment.

 

Massachusetts is one of only five states without a lifetime time limit in which recipients may collect benefits. Under Romney’s proposal, the state’s welfare eligibility will continue to be limited to two years in a five-year period, but the state will also adopt the federal government’s five-year lifetime limit.

 

“The welfare policies that Massachusetts instituted in 1995 were ahead of their time. But, the times have changed and we now lag behind the rest of the nation,” said Romney. “To help welfare recipients change their lives for the better, we need to update our laws.”

 

When Governor Weld signed welfare reform into law in February 1995, there were nearly 103,000 families receiving assistance. Today, because of the life transforming effect of work, the welfare rolls have declined to 48,516 families.

 

Romney’s plan also rewards recipients for working, allowing them to keep at least one-half of their earned income before seeing a reduction in their monthly welfare benefits. Some recipients can currently keep half of their income, but most can keep only one-third.

 

To support the families who will now be subject to the expanded work requirement, Romney’s budget will include an additional $8 million for welfare education and training programs, another $6.4 million for increased childcare demand and $1.9 million to hire more caseworkers for the screening and assessment of welfare recipients. In addition, transportation services will be available to ensure they are able to get to work, childcare and training.

 

 

 

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