THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, January 3, 1997 TAG: 9701030465
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY GARY D. ROBERTSON, ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: RALEIGH LENGTH: 81 lines
North Carolina's crackdown on welfare recipients just got tougher: now the state must also follow new federal rules if it wants to receive block grants for its welfare program.
But since the state already restricts welfare with its own Work First program, many of the new federal rules will not affect the state's participants.
Most of the 96,000 families who receive cash assistance through Work First already have work or training requirements and time limits on benefits.
Lori Johnson, a 27-year-old single mother from Washington County, found a job while in Work First last summer.
``It's a good thing because it will help people experience what I've felt,'' said Johnson, an office employee at a prison farm in Creswell. ``I've been able to do things for myself and not have to rely on someone else.''
But advocates for the poor say the new rules are bound to hurt children, immigrants and single adults, especially when the next recession comes.
``In the short run it won't so bad. But in about a year, it will be very harsh,'' said Sorien Schmidt, a public-benefits attorney with the N.C. Justice and Community Development Center. ``I think we're showing a general abandonment of those who are less fortunate.''
The new federal welfare reform law allows minimum work requirements and time limits for welfare recipients, but states are allowed to make those conditions tougher. North Carolina and several other states decided to do so.
Work First, which replaced Aid to Families with Dependent Children in July 1995, makes welfare recipients find employment or short-term job training within 12 weeks of entering the program or lose some of their benefits. That limit is far less that the two-year requirement required by the federal law.
Other facets of Work First also supersede the federal law, including personal responsibility contracts and a cap on family benefits for children born 10 months after a family enters welfare.
``We have one of the strongest, toughest and most comprehensive programs in the country,'' said Peter Leousis, an assistant secretary in the Department of Human Resources who developed the Work First program.
But the federal laws mean new burdens.
First, a five-year lifetime benefit limit is added to the state guidelines for most Work First families. New, legal immigrants are banned from receiving cash assistance for the first five years in the country. That could hurt the growing number of Hispanics in the state.
And single, able-bodied adults can receive only three months of food stamps every three years, affecting up to 35,000 North Carolinians, state officials said.
``I think that will be a major problem in high-unemployment areas where finding work is so hard,'' said Schmidt, the public-benefits attorney.
The state also will have to give the federal government census-type figures every month to track case families. And the federal rules narrowly define what job training will meet the requirements. For instance, literacy skills training doesn't count, Leousis said.
``You can't be a machinist if you don't how to read directions or read plans,'' he said.
State officials say the decline in welfare case numbers proves the program works. The number of families on the rolls have dropped from 113,500 in June 1995 to just over 96,000 in November.
But lawmakers and social service advocates critical of Work First say a good economy could be causing the drop in caseloads in North Carolina and other states. And if the economy turns bad, the caseload may increase.
Leousis said that Work First is not perfect and that more statistics are being generated to better measure the program's effectiveness.
Finding work remains difficult in places like Washington County, with a jobless rate higher than the state average. It took Lori Johnson, the prison office worker, five years to get off welfare, all the while looking for steady work. And child care and transportation are hard to come by. ILLUSTRATION: DOES THE PROGRAM WORK?
State officials say the decline in welfare case numbers proves the
program works. The number of families on the rolls have dropped from
113,500 in June 1995 to just over 96,000 in November.
But lawmakers and social service advocates critical of Work First
say a good economy could be causing the drop in caseloads in North
Carolina and other states. And if the economy turns bad, the
caseload may increase.
KEYWORDS: WELFARE REFORM NORTH CAROLINA