Shrinking Welfare Rolls Tell Only Half the Story

Economically, "the sun has shone on Wall Street, but it has been cloudy and sometimes rainy on Martin Luther King Street," said Mississippi state Sen. Willie Simmons at the Summit on the State welfare reform panel. Mississippi, like many states, has unspent funds, rainy day funds and surpluses that need to be expended to improve the quality of life for former welfare recipients in Mississippi — one of the poorest states in the nation and one of the hardest hit by welfare reform initiatives. Right now, little account is being taken of what happens to those who leave welfare rolls, often without the resources or skills to also leave behind lives of poverty.

National analysis compiled by the Children’s Defense Fund (CDF) and the National Coalition for the Homeless shows that while people are leaving the TANF (Temporary Assistance for Needy Families) rolls, they have jobs that pay minimum wage at best and many classify their jobs as temporary, noted panelist Debbie Weinstein, Director of the CDF’s Family Income Division. To date, only a small fraction of welfare consumers found new jobs above-poverty wages, many are losing income or not finding steady jobs and many families are not getting basic help such as childcare or medical coverage to enable them to work. The U.S. Conference of Mayors reported that the number of people depending on emergency food assistance has increased in the 34 cities it surveys; nine cities reported that the increase was due to welfare reform.

There are steps that can be taken to prevent recipients leaving welfare rolls from `falling off the map’ and to help them move toward self-sufficiency. Federal welfare-to-work grants help states and non-profits develop programs to ease the transition to financial independence for former recipients. The Charitable Choice program of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA) allows churches to provided services that help individuals make the transition from TANF.

State `rainy day’ funds and other funding sources must be utilized to address the growing need of families moving off welfare rolls for communities to prosper.