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Center for Social Policy
McCormack Graduate School
University of Massachusetts Boston
100 Morrissey Blvd.
Boston, MA 02125-3393
Phone: (617) 287 5550
Fax: (617) 287 5544
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Welfare Rules Fail Activists' Reality Check
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Author(s):
Brenda J. Buote, Globe Staff
Source(s):
Boston Globe, Page: 1 Section: Globe North
Date: October 10, 2002
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As a single mother, Sabrina Webby spent years struggling to make ends meet, cashing state
welfare checks for a chance to make a better life for herself and her young daughter. By
chance, she met an advocate for the poor at a Malden shelter who became a friend and
mentor, and convinced Webby to go back to school and earn a college degree.
It took nearly six years of struggle, of schlepping her child to study groups at Bunker
Hill Community College and getting by on scant public assistance, but today Webby is off
welfare and working full time, helping other families end the cycle of poverty. She owns
a two-family home in Everett and commutes to Boston, where she works as a community
organizer for Homes for Families, a nonprofit organization that strives to end family
homelessness. As an activist, she has been closely following the debate on Capitol Hill
over welfare reform. As a former welfare recipient, she has some sage advice for federal
lawmakers: Get real.
"People think that a job is an easy answer, that instead of welfare people should just
go to work," said Webby, who is now in her early 30s and has two children. "But there
are so many other issues. Child care. Transportation. Your child's health. Your own
health. For people who have an education, who have things pretty well together, it's
tough. For those who are homeless and trying to work, raise their children, and look
for housing, it is nearly impossible."
Webby attributes her own success to the fact that she was able to receive welfare
benefits while working part-time and attending classes. As part of this year's
reauthorization of a 1996 federal welfare law, President Bush wants Congress to require
welfare recipients put in a 40-hour work week, compared with the 20 hours the
Commonwealth now requires. Under the president's plan, welfare recipients would have
just three months to overcome personal barriers to employment. After that, only 16
hours of job training or education would count toward the full-time work requirement.
The president's goal is to have 70 percent of all welfare recipients working full time
by 2007.
A laudable goal, perhaps. But is it realistic?
In the suburbs north of Boston, advocates for the poor argue that many of the state's
neediest families would be unable to meet the proposed demands.
"I feel this would make already punitive legislation more punitive," said Nancy
Schwoyer, executive director of Wellspring House in Gloucester, a community-based
organization that strives to address the needs of low-income families. "It's inhuman
to expect a head of household who is on welfare to work 40 hours a week, given the
stress that this would place on families. Already, there aren't enough day-care slots
to meet demand, and often times the jobs that pay enough aren't near public
transportation."
Today, only 6 percent of the state's 46,035 adult welfare recipients hold jobs, and
91 percent are exempt from work requirements. Roughly 30 percent of those who are
exempt have a documented disability. Many others are caring for children under the
age of 6.
State officials have said it would be impossible for the state to meet the president's
proposal without restructuring state law, spending additional state dollars and
reordering priorities at the Massachusetts Department of Transitional Assistance,
which provides training and services, such as child care, for those clients most
prepared for jobs.
Between February 1995 and January 2002, the state's welfare caseload dropped 55
percent, from 102,993 to 46,035 adults. State officials credit the decline to a strong
economy, an emphasis on job search and training, and time limits that restrict many
welfare recipients in the Commonwealth to 24 months of cash assistance in a five-year
period.
State officials have said the high percentage of the caseload that is not required to
work reflects the fact that the rolls are down dramatically since 1995, leaving on
welfare the neediest and hardest to employ.
Bush's plan would abolish the federal waivers that allowed nearly 20 states, including
Massachusetts, to experiment with welfare changes before the federal law was enacted.
In 1995, the state requested and was granted a waiver to set up its own rules. Under
this year's reauthorization, Bush wants Congress to rescind those waivers, forcing the
state to move funds out of transportation, education and training programs and into
services for harder-to-place welfare recipients. Federal lawmakers have until Dec. 30
to take action.
"The waiver has allowed Massachusetts to take into consideration the particular
resources and ways in which the policies can be implemented in a practical way,"
said Donna Haig Friedman, director of the Center for Social Policy at the McCormack
Institute at UMass-Boston. "If there's a one-size fits all policy implemented across
the whole country, particularly if it requires 40 hours of work a week, we already
know that will not work - the 20-hour work requirement is difficult for many families
to actually carry through on. It's a complete setup for failure in which families and
children end up paying the price."
Some local activists said that Bush's plan could force some parents to leave their
children in unsafe or unhealthy day care situations in order to meet the demands of a
full-time work schedule, particularly given the fact that many entry-level jobs require
employees to work second or third shift, when child care is nearly impossible to
find.
"Bush's plan is very troubling," said Beth Hogan, executive director of the North Shore
Community Action Program, an agency that advocates for the poor and helps about 10,000
people each year through job training programs, among other services. "We'd like to see
education and training count toward the work requirement, and a guarantee that welfare
recipients can continue to receive subsidies until they can move along a career path
and earn a living wage."
With rents up nearly 40 percent in the Greater Boston area since 1995, Hogan noted that
many families are paying as much as $1,200 a month for a modest two-bedroom apartment.
"Even if you're making $9 an hour, you're still going to be struggling to make ends
meet," Hogan said. "Education and training is going to be the linchpin to moving people
out of poverty."
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