Alliance for Children and Families Responds to Welfare Reform Agenda

2/27/2002

From: Karl Robe of the Alliance for Children and Families, 800-221-3726 or 414-359-1040, e-mail: krobe@alliance1.org

WASHINGTON, Feb. 27 -- Contrary to popular belief, most welfare recipients want to work and be responsible. While welfare reform has dramatically reduced the number of people receiving public assistance, real improvements to the welfare system will not happen until America shifts focus from caseload reduction to poverty reduction.

"The President says he wants substantial authority at the local level but with authority comes responsibility and accountability," says Peter Goldberg, Alliance for Children and Families president and CEO. "In many of our welfare offices across the nation near lawlessness exists among caseworkers who prefer a diversionary method of helping impoverished families where families are not being alerted to available support services."

"Former welfare recipients must know about access to continued services such as medical, food stamps and child care," Goldberg continued. "And states must track these people to ensure they are on their way out of poverty, not just in exile."

Over the last two years the Alliance, a leading advocate representing more than 350 nonprofit agencies serving impoverished children and fragile families in more than 2,000 communities, has conducted revealing research on the experiences of individuals affected by welfare reform.

Faces of Change, a compilation of more than 200 first-hand accounts of current and former welfare recipients provides an in-depth look into the lives of low-income individuals, their families and their quest for self-sufficiency.

This study supplies the basis for the following recommendations the Alliance finds crucial to building a road out of poverty during the welfare reauthorization debate.

1. Connect the Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) program specifically to addressing the needs of children. -- Studies indicate children and adolescents are negatively affected by the welfare reforms implemented in 1996.

2. Refocus the TANF program from caseload reduction to poverty reduction by establishing state performance measurements. -- Over the last four years caseloads declined; however, many who left welfare for work still live below the poverty line. -- Target the TANF block grant toward reducing families living in poverty and moving more families to self-sufficiency. -- The federal government must emphasize the importance of poverty reduction during the next phase of welfare reform by linking state performance to the number of families who move beyond the federal poverty threshold or who achieve self-sufficiency as determined by each state's self-sufficiency standard, not caseload reduction.

3. Maintain or increase the current $16.8 billion allotted to the TANF block grant and sustain the Maintenance of Effort requirements. -- Despite declining caseloads, the need for current federal and state funding levels remains. -- Many working families are still living far below the poverty line and rely on government aid to make ends meet. -- Furthermore, many of those who have not been able to exit welfare face significant or multiple barriers that require more intensive assistance. -- Congress should increase the TANF block grant to help states meet these poverty challenges. At the very least, states will need to maintain federal and state funding levels to better address the needs of low-income families.

4. Adopt a balanced work-first principle to increase and strengthen education and training opportunities and promote sustained employment. -- Welfare reform has demonstrated that work can provide opportunities and training to successfully move families off welfare. -- Unfortunately, many who continue to receive public assistance lack the education and skills necessary to find living wage employment. -- Most low-wage jobs do not provide the on-the-job training required for advancement. -- The path out of poverty requires an employment-based strategy that includes education and training.

5. Encourage states to promote access to benefits, especially for families making the transition from welfare to work. -- States vary in performing outreach efforts to increase awareness and access to federally funded benefits. -- The federal government should provide additional funding and/or establish incentives to make increased participation rates a priority. (The reauthorization of the Food Stamp Program during this period presents a further opportunity to better coordinate how benefits are administered.)

6. Provide resources to increase child care capacity, including funding for the Child Care and Development program and expanding training for child care workers. -- Access to child care is a crucial component of enabling a parent to find or maintain employment and end welfare dependency.

-- Only 15 percent of all families eligible for child care under the Child Care and Development Fund receive child care subsidies. -- Unstable child care arrangements and concern about their children's well-being places additional stress on parents. -- Federal government should create minimum national standards for the provision of child care through state agencies.

7. Affirm the crucial role of transportation in the successful transition from welfare to work by pursuing policies that address the transportation needs of low-income families, including supporting access to viable public transportation and car ownership. -- A 10-year evaluation of the Alliance's Ways to Work program, a provider of small loans commonly used for automobile purchase or repair, mortgage or housing expenses, or child care by low-income families, shows transportation is key to helping people keep their jobs and stay in school. -- Less than 1 percent of Ways to Work borrowers became "new" users of public assistance since getting their loans. -- Studies also show Ways to Work borrowers can average a 20 percent increase in household income.

We all have a role to play in helping low-income and welfare families succeed. The first step is to listen to them and their stories. To access the Faces of Change and read statements by those affected by welfare reform, visit http://www.alliance1.org or call 1-800-221-3726 and ask for Karl Robe, director of public relations, at extension 3689. Ways to Work information also is available.