Ohioans on food stamps to get $10 checks
Sly fix to boost welfare work rate will allow state to avoid $130 million in federal fines
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With federal approval, Ohio will give $10 a month to working families getting food stamps, allowing them to be counted as welfare recipients.
The state is under pressure to boost the percentage of welfare recipients who are working or enrolled in job training by Sept. 30 to avoid more than $130 million in federal fines.
Under the plan approved by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Ohio essentially would pad its welfare rolls by giving $10 a month to working families receiving food stamps. The move allows them to be counted as working welfare recipients.
If successful, the state’s $7 million investment would help Ohio avoid the big federal fines, starting with a $30 million penalty next fall.
“We have developed a cost-effective plan that will help those we serve find work and become self-sufficient,” said Michael Colbert, director of the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services.
But some question that statement.
Jack Frech, director of the Athens County Department of Job and Family Services Department, called the $10 benefit a stunt.
“It’s a gimmick for the state to meet their work requirement. It provides no significant help to these families,” he said.
“They only seem concerned about meeting the requirement and not so much about the goal of the (welfare) program, which is to help families become self-sufficient.”
Federal regulators, however, say Ohio is free to “experiment” with ways to meet requirements that at least half of adults receiving welfare and 90 percent of those in two-parent households be working or training for a job.
Ohio has missed the target since 2007. As of September, a third of welfare recipients were meeting work requirements.
“We don’t micromanage states’ strategies. We do enforce federal law,” said Kenneth Wolfe, deputy director of communication for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Administration for Children and Families.
But when Massachusetts made a similar effort, it didn’t help much, he said.
“It fell apart because it was costly to administer,” Wolfe said.
In addition to adding working families to the rolls, Ohio’s plan to meet the goals would:
• Require welfare applicants to complete a self-sufficiency assessment before receiving their first assistance check.
• Hire more hearing officers to speed review of appeals by welfare recipients who lose benefits for failing to meet work requirements.
• Create a Web-based system for logging recipients’ work or training activities, making them easier for caseworkers to verify.
Joel Potts, executive director of the Ohio Job and Family Services Directors’ Association, said the plan will help to refocus the state’s welfare program back on getting people to work.
The initial assessment sets an immediate expectation that cash assistance is a temporary benefit and will allow caseworkers to determine more quickly what services individuals need to get back on their feet. The automated logging system will help ensure recipients are meeting expectations, Potts said, while hiring more hearing officers will stop benefits more quickly for those who don’t comply.
Potts acknowledged the concerns about token $10 payments to boost Ohio’s work-participation rate but said the state is in a difficult position with a lot of money at stake.
“The feds allow us to count investments we make in these families,” he said. “We must get 50 percent of the people working. We can complain about it. We can hate it, but if we don’t meet the work rate, we will have a lot less money to work with.”
Frech said Ohio is expecting a lot from people who have so little. Cuts in state aid to counties have forced many to scale back programs to support working poor, such as transportation assistance and child care, making it more difficult for welfare recipients to get and keep jobs and participate in job-training programs.
“We give these people half of what they need to live on and expect them to show up to work every day,” he said. “It’s an impossible situation.”
ccandisky@dispatch.com
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tom traveler (tom-the-traveler)
How about having welfare people vote for democrats. Hey it takes time to cast a vote and then the democrats raise their "wages" (aka welfare) when they win.
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David Scott (davescott)
This is a gimmick, but one that makes sense under the circumstances. The requirements for states to have x percent of aid recipients move to work was written in a time of dropping rolls and low unemployment. States are being asked to do things they can't possibly do in this economy. And federal penalties for states not complying only serve to hurt recipients who are struggling to survive as is.
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Pat Kay (whatsnuts)
Most people don't understand that it was/is the welfare rules that broke family's up in the first place. Our government cannot 'fix" anything. They just keep making it worse. How much is it going to cost to give everyone ten bucks.?
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Brian Dill (BrianDill)
Are we ever going to get to the point where we just say STOP. I have seen too many incidents of food stamp and welfare abuse to every be in favor of one more cent being provided to these self perpetuating moneypits. We have created a generation (or two) of people who really don't think that food is something that they should have to provide for them selves with money they earn working at a JOB. Now we will give them $10 so that we (Ohio) can avoid having federal funding reduced. REDUCE it, cut all these stupid entitlement programs. When the people who use them are forced to find some other way to feed their face, they will do so. Until then they will continue to accept the government's handouts of our money. I have seen the Ohio direction card used to buy crab legs and Tbone steaks, I have seen someone buy $140 worth of halloween candy with it, I have seen a person who couldn't buy dog food using it, purchase groundbeef instead to feed their dog. How stupid are we? I don't want to see people stave, it is just my firm belief that they won't. They just might have to make reasonable choices, just like everyone who earns a living has to do. Somewhere along the way public assistance has become a lifestyle, perhaps not a really comfortable one, but an easy one, and too many people have opted for it. It is past time to put a stop to the free ride.
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Hoot Owl (diablo)
It's about government jobs, jobs, jobs to distribute $10 a month and save millions. Sounds great at first glance, then along comes reality. This could turn in to another bureaucracy to fill thousandsbobtrullender@yahoo.com of cubicles with computers for overpaid government "workers" to chase Social Security numbers, fill out time cards and shop on the internet. Can you say Bureau of Food Stamp Stimulus?
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Bob Beckel (By_George)
Keep those Obama voters happy at all costs.
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Jack Gladney (Tea_Farty)
@Bob - yes, I'm sure the republican house, the republican senate, and the republican governor's first priority is keeping Obama voters happy. Geesh!
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Theresa McMillin (tmcmillin3568)
This is the craziest thing I've ever heard....getting FINED because you didn't use the entire budget?!?!?! Someone should be COMMENDED for this, not punished!!!
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Jamie Campbell (CamCam)
Not to go all "tea party" on everyone, but we shouldn't have to pay $7 million dollars (that the state doesn't have) to get $130 million dollars (that the federal government doesn't have). I say, just let the ODJFS deal with what money they are going to get and let them fend for themselves. Schools do it and they don't have some huge economic windfall when they meet their unattainable goals that were set out by politicians that don't know what they **** they are talking about. Just need to vent.
