Nearly a year ago, the District implemented a 60-month time limit on welfare benefits. More than 6,000 families who had been on the rolls for more than five years saw reductions in their checks as a result.
Further reductions set to go into place Oct. 1 would take another bite out of benefits, leaving some families with monthly checks of as little as $260.
Now poor families, their advocates and two city council members are asking for a reconsideration of the policy. They say they are worried that continued benefit cuts could harm very poor families, particularly thousands of poor children, who depend upon the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families or TANF to meet their most basic needs.
The move to reduce benefits was intended to encourage welfare recipients to find work. They are expected to get help in the transition from welfare to work from the city. But a redesigned TANF employment support program charged with assessing each family’s needs and problems and guiding parents into job training, education and job seeking activities has taken longer to get underway than was originally anticipated.
According to DC City Council member Jim Graham, only a fraction of the District’s 18,000 TANF families have been assessed and referred to an employment service provider, and that it would be unlikely that many of them will be referred before the benefit cuts go into effect in October.
“Many of the families who receive TANF benefits for longer than 60 months are facing multiple severe barriers to employment,” said Graham. He and Council member Michael Brown co-introduced the TANF Time Limit Amendment Act of 2012 which they say would better align time limits with the new employment program. It would replace the system of graduated reduction in benefits now in place with a simpler 60-month time-limit that would go into effect on Oct 1, 2013 and would broaden exemptions to include beneficiaries affected by disabilities and domestic violence.
“I think we all can agree that the goal of promoting self-sufficiency, but the implementation timeline of the current policy does not achieve that goal,” said Graham during a March 22 hearing on the act.
Angela Anthony, recipient of TANF and mother of three, testified at the hearing. As of March 2011, she received $528 per month. After the 20 percent cut in April last year, Anthony’s income was reduced to $438. If cuts continue, in October her income will be reduced to $314.
“I want to thank you for being here because, believe it or not, there are a lot folks in our city who believe you do not exist,” said councilmember Michael Brown to Anthony.
The 1996 welfare reform law known as the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act placed a new emphasis upon reducing welfare dependency and stressing the movement of recipients into jobs.
