Welfare cut would imperil children, agencies warn

Contra Costa Times ^ | 1/11/7 | Sara Steffens

[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.

[Mashood]

If they want to participate in the program, they have to comply with its rules.

[headsonpikes]

welfare itself endangers children

Bingo! It's an essential part of the State's War On Humanity.

[raftguide]

"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"

Idea: If parents can't properly take care of their kids, take their kids away from them and place them where they can be properly taken care of.

[raftguide]

"Oh, she meant the gavel was for the children... run kids


Should all be wearing T-shirts: "Survivor...My Mommy Didn't Choose Abortion!"

[Scotswife]

Yes - in a perfect world.
The world of foster care, DSS, and welfare is far from perfect.
Unfortunately there are no easy answers.

[calcowgirl]

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.

In other words, PARENTS, who refuse to work to meet the requirements for assistance, could starve their children or lose their home.

The ball is in your court parents. Get to work.

[BlackbirdSST]

How 'bout cutting it off to the ILLEGALS, RINOuld? Blackbird.

[traviskicks]

    Here is a picture of Jesse Jackson marching with N.O.W. (National Organization of Women, a liberal feminist group) members against Welfare Reform, along with the results of the reforms they opposed. State Reform took effect around 1992-1994 and the National Bill was passed in 1996. The Republicans swept the house in 1994 promising a ‘Contract with America’. People are the same the world over. It is the political structure and governmental interference that make all the difference. Get Government out of people’s lives and they will succeed. To believe people cannot succeed without government ‘help’ is to subscribe to what has been called, ‘the soft bigotry of low expectations’. The reason they aren’t succeeding is BECAUSE of the government help, which only serves to subsidize poverty and single motherhood! For some reason, saying these things and passing bills that help millions of people out of poverty is said by the left to be ‘cruel’, ‘hardhearted’ and even ‘racist’.

[libs_kma]

"re: using prisoners for transplants..."

Well, why not? Bubba used Arkansas prisoners for blood and sold it to Canada...