Congress is expected to update the 1996 welfare reform legislation in the coming weeks. That law gave states greater flexibility in their effort to move people from the welfare rolls to the workforce. New Hampshire officials say the reforms are working and they?re asking the federal government to renew the state?s program. But is the program actually working? NHPR?s Dan Gorenstein reports.
Sandra Jones calls welfare reform in New Hampshire a success. She?s the Director of Step-By-Step, a program of Second Start, a private non-profit program designed to move the unemployed from welfare to work. Jones has perspective. She was around before the federal government transformed welfare into Temporary Assistance to Needy Families, or TANF. Jones says Step-By-Step clients tell her all the time that services have improved their lives. It makes sense to Jones, just given the changes made at the unemployment office.
2:30 before TANF, what was known as unemployment office, a place where few people would go to seek out services. And if you would go, you would see a card with a job title, and you would have to seek out a person to tell you where that job was, and when it was open. Now it is a center of computers, printers, and fax machines, and all things that help people find work?before you had to pull teeth to do what was best for your family. And now there are brochueres explaining exactly what it is you can access to better yourself.
Jones says the new system offers support and accountability. Back in the mid-90?s state officials began sculpting a program they hoped would help recipients overcome barriers to work. Like half the states in the country, New Hampshire officials offer residents five-year lifetime limits on assistance instead of two. The federal government requires recipients work 30 hours a week to get assistance. But with a federal waiver, New Hampshire can offer a market basket of activities that would meet the work requirements. For example, getting a GED, counseling, or extended job-training classes all count as work in New Hampshire. Jones says philosophically, it?s an entirely different way to look at welfare.
2:08 they are now developing their services for citizens of NH, versus people on welfare. Unfortunately, when you say people on welfare, they come with a stigma, and begin to think they are here to abuse the system, or they are lazy, or they don?t have the ability to find a job, and when you start looking at them as people who have hardships, and people who have struggles, you find a world of difference for those folks.
But is there a world of difference asks Jonathan Baird, an attorney with New Hampshire Legal Assistance. As someone who represents disgruntled TANF recipients, Baird hasn?t seen the proof.
3:15 I don?t think enough information has been released. There has been a study going on at UNH about welfare reform, hardly any information has been released. The success has been widely touted, but we don?t have hard data or numbers to demonstrate what the success has been. In some sense, this has been a leap of faith to say there is a great success story.
5 years ago HHS contracted with the University of New Hampshire to study the effectiveness of the program. Numbers have come in slowly. Which is why some welfare advocates echo Baird, saying the state has offered little evidence to suggest its success. But HHS family assistance director Mary Anne Broshek says she?s seeing encouraging signs.
:12 ?we started reform in ?96, we had over 8000 cases, and now we are under six thousand. We had a much higher percentage of people who are receiving assistance are working. It has gone from 8% to 15%. We know that they are making more in earnings, going from 400 to 700?we know that the amount of time a person spends on assistance, it has gone from 43 months to 34 months. We have put 13 thousand people into jobs. And we know that our overall wage that we are putting people in has gone up two dollars an hour.
Nationally and locally, skeptics argue a drop in caseloads is not a sign of reform success, but the result of a booming economy. And other critics like Attorney Baird say welfare to work can mean poor paying jobs and little hope.
1:44 My experience has been the state has pushed people into getting a job, any job. No matter what the benefits are. The state expresses concern about getting people into better paying jobs, but the clear emphasis is to get people to work. The positive side of that is people are learning good work habits. The problem is if you are in a low paying job, your opportunities for advancement are not good.
But HHS?s Mary Anne Broshek points to the nearly $8 and a half dollar an hour wage most TANF recipient?s received at their first job in 2001. Also, Broshek says clients are finding service and industry jobs. But the director admits the state needs to improve its data collection, to determine TANF?s effectiveness.
:00 some of the things we want to do: improve our performance measures. Get a better handle on what happens to people when they leave assistance,
But Baird questions if the work-first model is the best way to improve people?s lives, long-term.
3:08 The work first model doesn?t insure people get out of poverty, possibly just recycles people in poverty. With out a chance to get a higher education, people are just going to have low paying jobs with no benefits.
Dianna Garrow?s current experience serves as an example.
When the single mother in Manchester began receiving assistance in ?99 Garrow already had a plan for her and her newly born son.
7:15 reading the paperwork I received, I was under the assumption that I could receive TANF benefits for 5 years. I was working myself up to get my education. Felt the first two years home with him was appropriate, and the next three years, I could pursue my education, thinking I was going to have my TANF benefits for the remainder.
She was wrong. Garrow says her caseworker told her she has to find 30 hours worth of work a week after she completes a six-week computer-training course. And since she wants to pursue a career in office administration, her caseworker suggested a clerical position. But given that she still hunt and pecks at the computer, Garrow says it?s going to be a hard next few years.
2:20 ?I feel I would only earn 7-8 dollars an hour, and I feel that wage is not going to support my son and I?2:45 for me to go to college, to get the training I need, to go into office administration is important b/c I can earn a higher hourly wage.
Garrow says, at the end of her six-week course, she?ll begin looking for work. It may be office administration or her old stand-by waitressing, she doesn?t know. She just wants something that fits around the time her son is at day-care. She says she will also squeeze in school, even if it?s part-time.
But at HHS, Mary Anne Broshek says the state did not design a programs that would support TANF recipients going to college.
:00 it was a conscious decision not to do long term educational programs. That we were not going to do college degrees for people who were on public assistance. We were talking about what kind of education and training people needed to help someone get the best job they could get. And adding training and education once they got the job to a continuation of that.
Listening to 22 year-old Jessica, a single parent living in Concord, and sees that TANF has improved her life. She described meeting her counselor her first day at Step-By-Step.
9:23 I came to her and said I dropped out of school, I am a single parent, I don?t know what I want to do, please help me. So we sat down, came up with a plan. Lots of stuff I wanted to do. I thoroughly researched every career I wanted to do. Not what she wanted me to do, not what my mother wanted me to do, what I wanted. I decided I wanted to become a medical assistance.
While Jessica prepares herself for a career, the state sends someone in her situation, single-parent, one child, a $531 dollar monthly check. The average TANF grant is about $470 dollars. That goes along with food stamps, Medicaid, and childcare. For Dianna Garrow in Manchester, her monthly check means being a regular at the St. Vincent DePaul resale shop.
2:13 we don?t buy new clothes. We never buy new clothes. Haven?t bought new clothes since I have been on TANF. St. Vincent Depaul, I go down there buy smethign for 1-2 dollars, and that?s where we get our clothing?I buy my socks down there, my bras down there, bedding, it doesn?t feel good?why doesn?t it feel good? B/c you are buying used underwear. I don?t like that. Used bras. Used bedding. Clothing I don?t mind, when it comes to more personal items it just doesn?t feel good.
While Garrow says it?s hard living off her assistance package, she?s confident a better day is coming.
So is Jessica in Concord. And the 22-year-old says she got support.
14:35 ?they have been my backbone the past couple of years, there have been times when I am ready to give up, well I?ll just go get a job getting six dollars an hour, have to decide between dinner and electricity. They just say you don?t want this. Really think about what you want for you and your child.
It?s those conversations Jessica has with her counselors at Step-By-Step that convinces Mary Anne Broshek the word ?welfare? fails to describe the new system.
2:02 I don?t even think we should call it welfare reform. I think we should say we have developed a public assistance program that helps people become self-sufficient. It?s an employment support program and it covers all aspects of people?s lives.
Congress is taking up reauthorization of welfare reform soon. The Bush Administration is pushing legislation that would restrict state flexibility and increase work requirements. New Hampshire officials are joining other state governments, calling for a plan that allows states to continue crafting their program to move people from assistance to employment. For NHPR News, I?m DG.
Delicious
Digg
Reddit
Facebook
Google
Yahoo