Hard Choices: State Struggles with New Welfare Rules

By Dan Gorenstein on Monday, April 17, 2006.

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Life for people who receive monthly welfare checks in New Hampshire is about to change.

Earlier this year Congress tightened requirements to the welfare program called Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, or TANF.

Now state officials must find a way to work within the more restrictive rules, and continue helping people out of poverty.

New Hampshire Public Radio's Dan Gorenstein reports.

In a word, New Hampshire's current TANF program is flexible.

Thanks to a number of federal waivers New Hampshire can spend more time helping people find work.

That could come in the form of job training, life skills, or substance abuse counseling.

Starting this fall, fewer people will be eligible for those types of activities.

Instead they must be engaged in what the federal government defines as work: internships, subsidized employment, or a traditional job.

Maryann Broshack developed the state's original TANF program some ten years ago.

T.27
:04 the basic difference is that the new TANF reauthorization concentrates on participation rates. And it was always our belief that participation rates never proved that you had a good program....

But as one state official said there is a new business environment around welfare.

The federal rules will require 50% of the state's 3200 recipients to work 30 hours a week.

That means about 650 more of people on TANF must find more traditional forms of work.

But who should it be?

Currently, a whole host of people are exempt from the work requirements.

Mothers with children between the age of 1 and 2.

Pregnant mothers.

Students who have spent more than 12 months in vocation classes.

New Hampshire TANF Director Terry Smith says there's no consensus on which group should be moved into the workforce faster.

11:21 we have one advocate in the community who is very firm that children ought to be at home with their mothers. On the other hand, if you exempt those people, then you have to squeeze the people who are left in that pool even harder. So the question is which populations are you going to squeeze?...those are the tough choices we are going to have to make.

Public policy director for the Coalition Against Sexual and Domestic Violence Linda Griebsch says the pressure to turn recipients into workers will mean putting people to work before they're ready.
And that she says, leads to dead-end jobs.

3:47 I am very concerned. I am concerned about what this is going to do to people. and ohw it's going to change our ability to move people forward.

Sara Bennett runs a job-readiness program for people on TANF.

She says just because the federal government tells the state to meet the 50% work requirement, doesn't mean it's going to happen.

:24 right now there are a lot of places not willing to take on volunteers, not necessarily, we just don't have the job openings in NH to accommodate that bubble moving into the workforce.

On top of those concerns, the New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services expects transportation and affordable daycare to make it very difficult to comply with the new rules.

Commissioner John Stephen has estimated the state must come up with nearly 3 million dollars to cover the cost of daycare if it plans to get more people working 30 hours a week.

If the state fails to meet the new requirements it risks losing up to 4 million dollars in federal funding.

Federal law requires the state to meet the new targets by October 1st.

For NHPR News, I'm DG.