Posted on 01/16/2007 4:53:06 PM PST by shrinkermd
Last week, the board got some answers. In 2006, 739 of Hennepin County's 11,000 MFIP recipients worked for no pay as a condition of continuing to receive welfare benefits. They worked an average of four to six weeks apiece at a long list of local nonprofits. Hennepin County contracts with an outside agency to provide the placements. (Under a separate program, the county spent $600,000 subsidizing the wages of another 200 MFIP recipients who were having trouble finding jobs.)
Thirty-two of the people performing unpaid work were eventually hired by the agencies where they were working. Results for the rest were mixed: 28 percent went on to part-time work at an average wage of $9.51; 36 percent went to work full-time (more than 32 hours a week); 7 percent saw their benefits reduced for failing to do enough; and the other 30 percent or so were unable to keep working because of family or medical issues or chemical dependency.
Because of new rules imposed on states by the federal government, this year, welfare rights advocates and state lawmakers say, the number of people pushed into unpaid work stands to mushroom.
Workfare, as the practice of requiring people to work for benefits is known, is hardly a new idea. When Congress passed the landmark 1996 welfare reform, they created a series of rules regarding the duration of benefits for individuals and the number of recipients who had to be moved into the workforce. Minnesota chose to meet the federal requirements by providing extra support to families during the process, in the hope that they would become truly independent and not just cycle back onto the rolls whenever they stum
(Excerpt) Read more at citypages.com ...
If you are on welfare it is natural for an employer to look at you funny.
In the Twin Cities we have a serious shortage of low-skill labor, though the job market is tougher in the rural areas.
In the Twin Cities, there really is no excuse not to be able to find a low-skill job, absent health or child care problems.
One of the implications of the article seems to be that when the minimum wage goes up, fewer hours will be required.
ping
"In 2006, 739 of Hennepin County's 11,000 MFIP recipients worked for no pay"
I couldn't get past that line. If they are on welfare they ARE getting paid for doing the work, it is just not direct payment.
Unbelievable that someone would state such a quote, however it's believable that in MN there are those who actually feel that what is given to them in their time of need is free and not redistributed.
Cash flow for the county of Hennepin is 3rd only behind the state of Minnesota and 3M....
ping...
"Hennepin County's 11,000 MFIP recipients worked for no pay"
Now, if it only said: " 11,000 Hennepin County prisoners
worked 60 hour weeks removing grafitti from public and private
property".
Then, the people paying for these 'feel good' programs would
see some benefit.
Yeah, I can read between the lines.
I have long searched for it, and now found it: this is the single most gloriously stupid sentence I've ever read in my life.
Its idiocy is so perfect as to almost be mystical. How the author wrote this without immediately ascending to Nirvana, I'll never understand..
Used to be Northwest Airlines.
Nice to see that there are some people there with the sanity and guts to speak the plain truth.
To say they worked for no pay is inaccurate, as this single sentence shows. It would be nice if this journalist believed in reporting accurately.
Why does this person insist on calling this "unpaid work"? For crying out loud, AREN'T THEY GETTING WELFARE???!!!!
Fewer than 7% of the county's 11,000 people on welfare were given the opportunity to work an unpaid 4-6 week internship. As a result, approximately 2/3 of those people eventually obtained full or part-time jobs. Sounds like excellent results for people who were formerly living off the taxpayers.
We've finally found the wisdom of China's employment system, and it's alright to continue employing thousands of middle class American women to break families. [...little irony and sarcasm on the praise of feminist policy and mention of "wisdom."] We added speed to the process, though, by sucking hordes of anti-American people in from other countries to displace Americans.
Al Checci comes to mind...
There is no right to welfare. The fact that it exists is an affront to all who work to provide for their own sustenance.
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