Won't somebody please think of the children?!?!
Posted on 01/11/2007 7:37:54 AM PST by SmithL
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's call to cut off welfare assistance to children whose parents fail to meet work requirements could place thousands of East Bay children at risk of hunger and homelessness, critics warn.
The penalty, known as "full family sanctions," has been imposed by many other states since welfare reform began 10 years ago.
California's CalWorks program allows children to continue to receive a reduced level of aid even if their parents are sanctioned for failing to show up for job-search clubs or participating in other mandated work activities.
"The program itself was founded on the premise that the children shouldn't be punished with economic insecurity for the failure of their parents," said Wendy Therrian, Contra Costa County's director of Workforce Services.
Without CalWork's safety net, she said, "virtually anything could happen to the family structure -- including homelessness."
"It's a major concern for us," Therrian said.
In December, 8,956 families were enrolled in Contra Costa's CalWorks program, which comprises 4,824 adults and 15,789 children.
The typical family here -- a single mother with two young children -- receives a monthly grant of $723.
When a parent is sanctioned, that amount drops to $584.
In Schwarzenegger's plan, the family would get nothing.
The governor also wants to impose a five-year limit on "child-only" CalWorks assistance, available when parents are undocumented immigrants, have drug felonies on their records or are otherwise ineligible.
Together, the changes would save $324.4 million during the 2007-08 fiscal year.
The threat of losing all cash assistance would motivate welfare recipients to find work, helping California meet tough new federal requirements, the governor contends.
Opponents say families have more complicated reasons for not complying with work requirements.
An outreach project by the East Bay Community Law Center found that among parents sanctioned by the Alameda County welfare department, about one-third had limited English proficiency and were unable to understand county notices, said Ed Barnes, the center's supervising attorney.
A third had disabilities or other limiting conditions.
The governor's budget also proposes suspending a scheduled CalWorks cost-of-living increase, saving $140.3 million.
Other areas of the health and human services budget would see increases.
The governor proposes spending $32 million to add 73,900 children to the Healthy Families Program.
Nearly 800,000 children remain uninsured in the state, and Schwarzenegger has said getting health care coverage for all of them is a top priority.
Half of the uninsured children qualify for programs such as Healthy Families and Medi-Cal but are not enrolled for a variety of reasons.
State officials say they hope changes in enrollment procedures next year will result in more children joining Healthy Families.
The governor also proposes spending $8.8 million to hire 15 employees to implement a new prescription drug program, and $217 million to provide cost-of-living increases for elderly, blind and disabled recipients of Supplemental Security Income and State Supplementary Payments.
To boost the state's response to outbreaks of E. coli and other foodborne illnesses, the governor recommends adding $2.1 million to a newly created Department of Public Health.
"This funding will expand the number of trained investigator teams to examine illnesses and outbreaks and enhance the state's capacity to test food and environmental samples," Schwarzenegger said in a statement.
Won't somebody please think of the children?!?!
They need to return to the country where they understand the language and apply for welfare.
He wants to take away welfare from American citizens to finance the health insurance of illegals. Why not just put up billbaords in Mexico asking illegals to come to California?
Let me get this straight... illegals get free health coverage and a huge tuition package, but no license;
Citizens who have children with disabilities (one third), get cut?
Next, he'll want to use the disabled for spare parts or mercifully put them down with the Euthanasia lobby along with the elderly (yep, and their big money push towards embryonic stem cells and selling fetal tissue will turn CA into North Korea re: using prisoners for transplants and Lord knows what).
No, I don't have a tin foil hat on.
Sure, we all feel for the kids but something has to break the cycle. As it is, generation after generation and it'll never end.
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
Minimum Wage Increase will imperil teens and children, but you don't see any newspaper headlines about that, do you?
And they say illegals don't draw welfare! Their children are eligible. Does anyone actually think that the checks are cashed by the children and the monies then spent by them?
The illegal parents are on welfare via their anchor babies.
RE:
The governor also proposes spending $8.8 million to hire 15 employees to implement a new prescription drug program, and $217 million to provide cost-of-living increases for elderly, blind and disabled recipients of Supplemental Security Income and State Supplementary Payments.
Problem is...
Many get their children SSI by claiming they are speech or mentally impaired, even if they're not, they have what we call in NY an IEP, the IEP is taken to the Social Security office to apply for benefits. Meanwhile, the child tests as normal, just monoligual Spanish. Too late, process has been started and SS accepts the IEP (legal document), hence monthly check. I've seen it in action.
Let's be careful not to blame their sorry-a$$ parents for not taking care of them....or for having 4 more after they realized they couldn't afford to support the first one. (That damn stork!)
(My mistake, the gavel is for our children)
welfare itself endangers children.
The children most at risk for abuse are those who have an adult male present in the home other than their biological father (mommy's new boyfriend)
welfare encourages out-of-wedlock motherhood.
Men who have no emotional/biological bond with the children enter the picture and that is when the rate of abuse skyrockets.
I belive that $217 mil is for the state taxpayer funded social security program....which is for illegal immigrants!
http://www.nilc.org/ciwc/ciwc_ce/ciwc_capi_q&a_0405.pdf
Betcha didn't know about this program didya? Hardly anyone does. Just drag grandma over the border from Mexico and sign her up.
Good grief. These people really need to update their whine list.
Sanction the parents and remove the child. The child can be supported at a foster home until the biological parents find suitable employment.
unfortunately they're getting neglected and abused in the foster homes too
Even more impetus for the biological mother to find gainful employment.
"Even more impetus for the biological mother to find gainful employment."
yes. unfortunately many of the women involved aren't using logic or placing their chilrens' needs ahead of their own.
Let Mexico take care of them.
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