Special section on
welfare-to-work:

This article originally appeared in the May-June 2001 issue of the Children's Advocate, published by Action Alliance for Children.

Is welfare-to-work working?

Federal "welfare reform" is up for renewal next year--and advocates for low-income families say some big changes are needed

By Jean Tepperman

ALICIA HERNANDEZ was receiving CalWORKs for herself and her daughter while she attended Cabrillo Community College in Santa Cruz. CalWORKs paid for child care, books, and transportation. Most important, says Hernandez, was the fact that she got her full welfare check plus all her earnings from her work-study job. (Usually a person's welfare check is cut when earnings increase.) Now Hernandez is working full-time in Cabrillo's support center for CalWORKs students, earning enough to support her family without welfare.

CARL STEWARD was "six units away from an A.A. degree" in information systems at Grossmont Community College in San Diego when he reached CalWORKs' two-year time limit. The welfare department stopped paying for his books and transportation and told him to quit school and get a full-time job. With an A.A., Steward says, he would be able to get jobs that pay $15 to $20 an hour. The degree would "get me to the point of self-sufficiency so I'll never be on the welfare rolls again."

NATASHA STINSON, who receives CalWORKs for herself and her three children, credits CalWORKs in Los Angeles with helping her find several security-guard jobs—but the jobs were all temporary. Now she's working as a receptionist, a job she found herself. But through all her jobs, her income has remained so low that she continued to receive welfare.

The stories of Hernandez, Steward, and Stinson illustrate some of the complex issues of "welfare reform," the 1996 federal law that requires most parents receiving welfare to spend 32 hours a week working or preparing for work. Under CalWORKs, the name for welfare reform in California, parents must sign and follow "welfare-to-work" plans and are entitled to services like subsidized child care, job-search aid, transportation, and counseling, if they need them in order to work.

Next year the federal welfare-reform law is up for renewal, so advocates and lawmakers are taking another look at how it's been working.

For many families, the welfare-to-work policy has been successful. A new study by the thinktank RAND, What Has Welfare Reform Accomplished? reports "strong evidence that [welfare reforms of the '90s] reduced public assistance participation and increased family earnings."

In California, since welfare reform

• The number of families on welfare has dropped 27 percent
• The percentage of welfare parents who are working has grown from 19 percent to 40 percent—work plus welfare gives families more income than welfare alone.

Problems remain

But critics of welfare reform point to some troubling facts.

When welfare recipients get jobs, they are usually still poor.

• Many earn so little they are still eligible for welfare. In Los Angeles, 85 percent of CalWORKs clients who get jobs stay on welfare; their average wage is $6.81 an hour. And every month of cash aid still counts against their five-year lifetime limit.

• Even when people earn enough to leave welfare, their average incomes are still below the poverty line, according to a new report by the federal General Accounting Office.

Welfare reform has pushed many families into deeper poverty.

• Only half the people who leave welfare have jobs. Some of the others can depend on family members, but many are "out there floundering, sinking deeper into depression and poverty," says Martina Gillis, executive director of the Coalition for Ethical Welfare Reform in San Francisco.

• Many families' welfare checks are cut further by "sanctions," (see "Sanctions" cut income for many) punishments for failing to comply with a welfare requirement. The "sanction" is subtracting the parent's share from the welfare check. About 13 percent of CalWORKs parents are on "sanction" status.

Most parents on CalWORKs are not receiving support services.

• Only about one in five is receiving subsidized child care. Many parents can't take jobs because they can't get child care. Even though the state government has provided enough funds, some parents can't find child care in their areas, some can't find care during the hours they work, sometimes there are long delays in getting subsidy payments (see L.A. family child care providers: Group action resolves payment problems).

• Only about one in five are receiving transportation assistance.

• Services for mental health problems, substance abuse, and domestic violence meet only a tiny fraction of the need. A recent study by the California Institute for Mental Health found that in two California counties, more than half the parents on welfare had problems with mental health, substance abuse, or domestic violence. But less than five percent of CalWORKs parents receive services for these problems.

• More than half the parents on CalWORKs lack a high school degree. Many have limited English skills. But less than three percent of CalWORKs parents are enrolled in "adult basic education," which includes most GED and ESL students.

Statistics from the California Department of Social Services and Equal Rights Advocates.

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Hilda Rivera: "I said, 'Please, I want to study.'"

"I come from domestic violence," says HILDA RIVERA, a San Diego mother of two. "My husband was always drinking and using drugs and he beat us. Many days I had to escape from him and go the shelters with the girls. Then I discovered he was abusing my daughters. That's when I stopped going back."

Welfare workers arranged for Rivera to attend English as a Second Language classes for a year, then required her to look for a job. She was offered a factory job that started at seven, two hours away by bus. She turned it down "because I was worried for my daughters," since child care centers didn't open early enough.

"I argued with [welfare workers]," Rivera says, "I said, 'Please, I want to study for a GED and be a teachers' aide.'" She won permission to attend a basic child care training program, then enrolled in Southwestern Community College.

When CalWORKs started, welfare workers again pushed her to go to work. She finally got permission to continue school but also had to get a job, so she works at Kentucky Fried Chicken about 15 hours a week. She also takes her daughters to counseling and makes frequent clinic visits with one daughter who is chronically ill.

All that left no time for homework until her daughters went to bed. Still not comfortable in English, Rivera says, "It takes me the whole night because I have to translate everything from Spanish to English. I spend eight hours on every assignment."

With the help of the Supportive Parents Information Network (SPIN), Rivera persuaded welfare workers to allow her to remain in school until she gets an A.A. degree, which will probably raise her future pay from $7 an hour to $12 or $13. And SPIN helped her get a temporary psychological exemption from the 32-hour requirement, so she can take fewer classes at a time.

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Yolanda James: "A roller-coaster ride."

YOLANDA JAMES, a Los Angeles mother of three, is attending high-school equivalency and computer classes. She and her children, ages nine, seven, and four, live in a three-bedroom house with another single mom and her four children—nine people in all.

James lost her apartment when she received a welfare "sanction" for failing to attend a supervised job-search program last May. "They cut my check from $768 to $645 a month," James says. "It was terrible. I had to move out of my own place and move in with a roommate and I've been on a roller-coaster ride ever since."

In September her full check was restored when her education plan was finally approved. At the same time James applied for a child care subsidy, but it didn't come through until March. "In between I had three different child care providers, but each one I had to leave because they didn't get paid. I still owe them money," she says.

Sometimes her older children can attend a free after-school program, "but only when I can get them there or my brother can pick them up. The transportation is difficult—and I have yet to get a bus pass!" The girls are now "off track" at their year-round school. "Right now my brother's girlfriend is watching them until I get out of school at noon."

Recently, however, James' welfare worker told her she would have to get a job in the afternoons, because her school program was only 20 hours a week—CalWORKs clients are required to participate in "work activities" 32 hours a week. James is looking for an afternoon job and hoping that if she doesn't find one, the welfare program will allow her to look for work in the afternoons so she can stay in school.

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"Work first" vs. education and training

The federal welfare reform policy is "work first"—get parents into jobs as fast as possible. Many advocates say it would be better if parents could use their time on welfare to get the education they need to get a better job.

CalWORKs first requires parents on welfare to put in three or four weeks of supervised job search. If they get a job, they can't turn it down without "good cause." Only if they can't find a job may they attend an education or training program—unless they were already enrolled in school before starting the welfare-to-work process.

"With the work-first approach and an abundance of low-wage jobs, people have been getting jobs, but it's rare for them to move up the wage scale," Frank Mecca, executive director of the County Welfare Directors Association, told a legislative hearing in February. Better jobs require more education. Low-income single parents already struggle with child care and transportation, Mecca said. "And to work all day and then go for training in the evening is an unreasonable thing to expect of people facing hurdles most of us couldn't fathom."

In its national study of families on welfare, the Children's Defense Fund found that the only group that escaped poverty by working was parents with a two-year post-secondary degree.

Only about 18 percent of California welfare parents are getting training or education, far below the federal cap of 30 percent. Groups of low-income parents like Supportive Parents Information Network (SPIN) in San Diego and Low Income Families' Empowerment Through Education (LIFETIME) in San Francisco and San Jose (see Advocates for low-income parents) provide information and advocacy for welfare parents who want to get more education or training.

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"Sanctions" cut income for many

Say you're a parent on welfare and you don't show up for a required meeting, or don't participate in a supervised job search, or turn down a job offer. Unless you show you had "good cause," you will receive a "sanction." Your monthly check will be reduced by your share of the grant. For example, if you have two children and live in San Diego, your regular check is $645 a month. A sanction would cut that to $520.

About 13 percent of CalWORKs families are on "sanctions." Advocates say many of these parents have limited understanding of English and didn't understand what the welfare department's letters were requiring them to do. Many others did not receive needed support services, from GED programs to child care to mental health services.

Advocates for low-income people can provide dozens of examples of people they say received sanctions unfairly:

• An L.A. legal services lawyer tells of a woman who spoke no English and had learning disabilities. She was in a training program at Goodwill, but received a sanction because she had not reported to a job-search activity after receiving a letter about it. Goodwill staffers noticed that the woman was fainting from hunger—she was using the little money she had to feed her toddler.

• San Diego parent advocate Carmen Perez tells of two women sanctioned when they didn't attend required job-search activities because they couldn't find child care. One had received a list of child care providers but the closest was an hour away by bus; the other had a son with asthma—no child care providers were willing to take him, although federal law prohibits such discrimination.

• A Los Angeles parent on welfare was sanctioned for failing to attend a job-search activity—but the letter telling her to attend the program arrived after the date she was to start. Advocates say many sanctions result from such mistakes.

Sam Mistrano, executive director of the Human Services Alliance of L.A., says before CalWORKS imposes a sanction, a sympathetic social worker should visit the family to see what the problem is. He says the visitor should not be from the welfare department, though. Many parents on welfare fear the purpose of a home visit is to look for evidence—of welfare fraud or child neglect—to use against them.

For a list of California groups advocating for low-income families and information on their proposals for changing welfare, see Advocates for low-income parents.

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Parents on welfare: Know your rights

• Single parents are exempt from work requirements if their child is under a certain age set by the county, ranging from three months to one year.

• Parents are exempt from work requirements if child care is not "reasonably available."

• Parents should be able to get subsidized child care for all welfare activities, including orientation, job search, and counseling.

• If a language is spoken by more than five percent of the clients in any office, those clients have the right to services in their own language (see Getting to health care: speaking your language).

• If parents are already enrolled in an education or training program before they sign a welfare-to-work plan, they can remain in that program for 18 months to 2 years rather get a full-time job.

• If parents aren't proficient in English or lack a high school degree, they have the right to attend an English class or GED program.

• Parents should receive the supports they need to go to work or school—transportation, child care, books, etc.

• Parents can "cure" a sanction by meeting the requirement or convincing the welfare department that they have "good cause" for refusing.

• If the welfare department does something a parent feels is wrong, the parent has the right to request a hearing and to continue receiving a full welfare check until the matter is resolved.

For more information, see Advocates for low-income parents.

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Padres en asistencia pública: Conozca sus derechos

• Los padres solteros están exentos de requerimientos laborales si su hijo/a se encuentra por debajo de la edad establecida por el condado, la cual varía entre los tres meses y los doce meses.

• Los padres se encuentran exentos de requerimientos laborales si no cuentan con cuidado de niños "razonablemente disponible".

• Los padres han de poder conseguir cuidado de niños subsidiado para todas las actividades vinculadas a la asistencia pública, incluyendo orientación, búsqueda de trabajo y asesoramiento.

• Si un idioma es hablado por más del cinco por ciento de los clientes de una oficina determinada, dichos clientes tienen derecho a gozar de servicios en su propio idioma. (ver Acceso a los servicios de salud: hablando su idioma)

• Cuando los padres se encuentran enrolados en un programa de educación o entrenamiento con anterioridad a su ingreso en el plan de beneficencia-al-trabajo (welfare-to-work), éstos pueden permanecer en el programa mencionado, en vez de conseguir un trabajo a tiempo completo.

• Si los padres no dominan el inglés o carecen de un diploma de escuela secundaria, tienen derecho a asistir a clases de inglés o a un programa GED.

• Los padres han de recibir el apoyo necesario para poder ir a la escuela o al trabajo-transporte, cuidado de niños, libros, etc.

• Los padres pueden "curar" una sanción cumpliendo el requerimiento necesario o convenciendo al departamento de asistencia social de que tienen una "buena causa" para negarse.

• Si el departamento de asistencia social comete alguna acción que los padres sienten que no está bien, tienen derecho a requerir una audiencia y continuar recibiendo un cheque completo de asistencia hasta que el asunto en cuestión sea resuelto.

Para más información, en inglés, ver Advocates for low-income parents.

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Advocates' agenda

Advocates for low-income families' state legislative goals for this year include:

• AB106 (Cedillo): Would provide a refundable "earned income tax credit," taking hundreds of dollars off the tax bills of low- and moderate-income families and sending a check to families with incomes too low to pay taxes.

• AB144 (Cedillo): Would allow families applying for welfare or food stamps to deduct the value of at least one car plus the value of any other car used for work or education from the resources considered in deciding whether the family is eligible.

• AB 767 (Goldberg): Would allow some people convicted of drug felonies to receive welfare benefits if they met certain conditions, such as successfully completing a treatment program.

• AB380 (Murray): Would allow CalWORKs parents who are attending school to count one hour of study time for each hour of class time toward their required 32 hours of work activity.

• AB989 (Chan/Cedillo): Would continue providing food stamps and disability or old-age income for legal immigrants who entered the county after August, 1996.

For information on the campaign to reform federal welfare law and a list of groups advocating for low-income parents in California, see Reforming welfare reform

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Recent reports on welfare include:

Cruel and Usual: How welfare "reform" punishes poor people, by Rebecca Gordon, Applied Research Center, 510-653-3415, www.arc.org

Families Struggling to Make It in the Workforce: A Post Welfare Report, Children's Defense Fund, 202-628-8787, www.childrensdefense.org

Reauthorization of the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families Block Grant: Issues and Options From a California Perspective, California Budget Project, 916-444-0500, www.cbp.org

What Has Welfare Reform Accomplished? by Robert Schoeni and Rebecca Blank, RAND, 310-393-0411, www.rand.org

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