Roadblock to higher ed for welfare recipients

Changes in welfare coming
Peggy Kreimer, Cincinnati Post, Sept. 30, 2006. News, pg A1.

Welfare recipients who have been getting cash and child-care benefits while pursuing bachelor's degrees in college could have a harder time furthering their education under new welfare regulations that go into effect on Sunday.

The changes attempt to standardize the welfare system across the country and impose stricter regulations on welfare recipients.

Welfare Reform in 1996 made sweeping changes that limited the time people could receive benefits to 60 months each and required recipients to work or do work-related activities to qualify for benefits, among other mandates.

The changes this year more narrowly define what is considered work or work-related and increased oversight and documentation rules.

One of the biggest changes relates to schooling.

Welfare reform allows recipients to go to school and count that as a work activity. The new regulations still allow vocational training, GED classes and classes in pursuit of an associate's degree, but the limit on education hours that can be used as work hours now runs out long before someone can get a four-year degree.

The old rules also allowed students to count study time as a work-related activity, said Kevin Holt, section chief in the Workforce Development at the Hamilton County Department of Jobs and Family Services.

Under the new rules, the only way welfare recipients can get child care vouchers for study time is if that study time is supervised.

Welfare agencies in Ohio and Kentucky are working with vocational schools and colleges to set up supervised study halls.

But many students will not be able use them, said Lisa Prewitt, who works with assistance programs in Northern Kentucky for the Kentucky Department for Community Based Services.

"These people have children they have to care for at home," Prewitt said. "At lot of their study times were probably at night, after the kids went to bed. These are single parents. They can't leave to go to a supervised study hall."

Prewitt said Kentucky has encouraged welfare recipients to try to get four-year degrees, which boost their earning power.

Under the old rules, welfare recipients in their third and fourth year of college must put in a total of 30 hours of work a week, but can count the education for 10 of those hours.

"Now the people who are in college will have to do 10 more hours of work a week," said Prewitt. In the past, time studying could count for some of the work.

"We took their word for how much study time they put in," Prewitt said.

That time now has to be verified by an official study monitor.

The welfare regulations allow child care vouchers for use during approved work or work-related activities. That's still available, but only for approved activities.

"People who used to get child care while they studied won't get that now, unless they're in supervised study," said Holt.

In Hamilton County, 51 students are pursuing advanced degrees and will be affected by the new regulations.

Some students have decided to stay in school and find more work to meet the required hours, Holt said. But he expects some will quit college because of the new regulation.

Prewitt said she anticipates most Northern Kentuckian welfare recipients who are in college will try to continue, and social workers have been working to arrange on-campus jobs to meet the new regulations.

"The emphasis is on short-term vocational training, getting GEDs, getting associate degrees and getting a job," Holt said.

The changes in education rules are the most dramatic, said Holt.

"The fundamentals have not changed," Holt aid of the new welfare regulations. "What's changed is how we measure and what counts as work."

The welfare benefits themselves will not make anyone wealthy, said Holt. The cash benefits are only available to households with children. They are part of a support package that can include reduced housing costs, food stamps, child care and job training.

As for the monthly cash assistance level, a two-person household gets $336 a month in Hamilton County and $225 a month in Northern Kentucky.

For three people, the amount is $410 in Hamilton County and $262 in Northern Kentucky.

One of the biggest changes in the original Welfare Reform was the way states participated. Each state gets a set amount of federal dollars and the states have substantial control over how that money is spent, based on local needs.

One region might funnel large amounts into child care, while another focuses on education or transportation.

States also had different ways to measure compliance, which made it difficult to compare effectiveness across the nation.

Prewitt said some of the new regulations will end up cutting people off from benefits sooner. Others could cut some slack for participants.

"Most people are required to do 30 hours of work a week and we could not give them credit for missed days. Now they are allowed two unexcused absences a month," she said.

The new verification rules require participants to provide pay stubs or attendance sheets proving they did the work activity they claim.

Under the old regulations, a caseworker might not verify employment for six months, said Prewitt. Now caseworkers will verify once a month.

"We've had policies that were easily manipulated. That was frustrating to workers," said Prewitt. "I think the policies now are much clearer. We'll be able to make the clients accountable."

One change that could be painful to some clients is a different way of counting self-employed work. Instead of counting the number of hours worked, the allowable work hours are based on how much money the recipient makes.

"We have people who say 'I'm working 40 hours a week babysitting my sister's kids. She pays me $50 a week,'" Prewitt said.

The new formula deducts expenses, like the cost of providing lunch, and divides what's left by the minimum wage. So deducting $10 for a week of lunches, the babysitter would get credit for about eight hours of work, not 40, said Prewitt.