Vol. 74/No. 17      May 3, 2010

Since December 2007 the number of people in the United States receiving Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) cash benefits has increased less than 10 percent, even though official unemployment nearly doubled and the number of people receiving food stamps grew by more than 40 percent.

This is a direct result of a law signed by former president William Clinton in 1996 as part of his pledge to “end welfare as we know it.”

The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act imposed a lifetime limit on welfare benefits of five years, along with other restrictions aimed at pushing people off welfare. Shortly before leaving office, Clinton boasted that 8 million people had been cut from state welfare rolls—a 60 percent drop.

The 1996 law also allows states to impose even stricter time limits. Many states have done so, including Rhode Island, which in 2008 lowered the lifetime limit to 48 months, with no more than 24 months of aid in any five-year period.

In testimony before Congress, Elizabeth Lower-Basch from the Center for Law and Social Policy noted that there is a wide variation and some states increased the numbers receiving benefits. But “even the states with the largest increases are serving far fewer families than they were prior to [the 1996] welfare reform,” she said.

The federal welfare setup “explicitly rewards states” for cutting the number of people receiving assistance, Lower-Basch pointed out.

Only 22 percent of children in families that are under the official poverty level nationwide receive TANF assistance today.

The New York Times interviewed single mothers in Rhode Island who are losing benefits due to the cutoffs.

“It’s very difficult to find any job,” said Coralis Concepcion, whose TANF payments for herself and three children ended January 31. Concepcion said she had turned in more than 200 job applications last year.

“It’s horrible,” Meagan Fontaine, who has two young children, told the Times. “I apply for 45 jobs in a week. You don’t get calls back, or you get an interview but no job. Employers are so picky. They can pick anyone they want in these hard times.” Fontaine’s welfare benefits will end soon.

As the economic crisis continues the number of people needing government assistance has increased. According to a just-released report from the U.S. Census Bureau, 24 percent of U.S. households received some form of “means-tested benefits” in the third quarter of 2008, compared to 16 percent in 1984. This includes those receiving food stamps, reduced-price school meals, and Medicaid.

In one indication of the depth of the crisis, a January 3 article in the Times reported that some 18 percent of those who receive food stamps, about 6 million people, have no other income.

Meanwhile, New York City officials have revived a plan to make homeless people with jobs pay rent for staying in shelters.

“Open-handed handouts, we know, don’t work,” Deputy Mayor Linda Gibbs said April 13, referring to the rent plan. “We’re not doing this to close budget gaps. It’s really the principles … involved.”

Under New York’s “principles” homeless workers will have to pay as much as 44 percent of their income in rent, according to the Daily News.  
 
 
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