THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, April 19, 1995 TAG: 9504190470
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MATTHEW BOWERS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: COVINGTON, VA. LENGTH: Medium: 69 lines
If you drop out of school, no welfare. If you don't complete a training program, no welfare. If you don't help identify the father of your child, no welfare.
And for most everyone, no welfare for longer than two years.
Those are some of the proposed rules for putting into action what has been called the toughest new welfare program in the country: the Virginia Independence Program.
But along with the new limitations and sanctions are hardship exemptions and special assistance for those welfare recipients who try to find work but cannot.
A 60-page draft of the proposed regulations is to be formally presented today to the state's Board of Social Services, which is meeting in Covington in the mountains of far-western Virginia. After some public hearings, the board hopes to vote on the rules by June, in time for the July 1 enactment into law of the welfare-reform legislation passed by the General Assembly in February and signed by Gov. George F. Allen in March.
David E. Olds, welfare reform project director for the state Department of Social Services, couldn't be reached late Tuesday for comment. But he told a social-workers group earlier this month that the rule-makers weren't looking to cut off recipients who were ``doing everything they're supposed to do.''
In the proposed regulations, a ``hardship exemption'' would be granted to those who, after successfully participating in required training or work-experience programs and fulfilling the other requirements for welfare eligibility, actively look for jobs but can't find one. Job-seekers in areas where unemployment for the prior year or month has been 10 percent or higher would also be eligible for the exemption.
Exemptions also could be granted when recipients are laid off from jobs for reasons unrelated to their performance, or when an extension of benefits for another year would allow them to complete education or training interrupted through no fault of their own.
That's the safety net for the truly needy, as determined by Social Services workers. Those who don't cooperate with the new regulations would get slapped with some stiff sanctions:
A cutoff of Aid to Families with Dependent Children, the main component of welfare payments, to minors - even if they are parents - until they are attending school as required by the law. They still could receive Medicaid and other benefits.
A suspension of payments to an unwed mother for at least a month or until she helps state authorities identify the father of her children.
Suspension of AFDC and food stamps for at least a month or until a recipient agrees to participate in the Virginia Initiative for Employment Not Welfare, or VIEW, training and work experience program. Other components of the plan are better-known, and the proposed regulations reflect them.
The birth or adoption of a child in a family receiving AFDC won't result in increased payments.
Minor parents must live with their parents or guardians in most circumstances.
Except for those who are exempt - in school, say, or the sole caretaker for someone who's disabled - recipients must participate in training, community work or subsidized work in the private sector, in which a paycheck replaces AFDC and food stamps and the employer is paid from a pool of AFDC money.
Local Social Services departments would be required to provide day care and job counseling and search help.
KEYWORDS: WELFARE REFORM VIRGINIA PROPOSED by CNB