The Federal welfare program, Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF), has not kept up with the growing number of poor people in need of assistance. The Obama stimulus plan included $5 billion to help states cover increasing TANF costs expected with the recession, but only $1 billion have so far come through.
TANF rolls fell continuously from 2006, when President Clinton's welfare reform tightened eligibility restrictions, all the way until July 2008 - more than a year after unemployment rates started heading upward. Now TANF numbers are climbing rapidly. Given the onerous restrictions, stingy payments, and heavy social stigma, this truly reflects the desperation of those with nowhere else to turn.
Source: My chart from U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, various tables.
The Wall Street Journal suggested three reasons TANF enrollment was slow to respond: (1) The extension of unemployment benefits by Congress, which are easier to collect and pay better, for those who lost jobs; (2) the concentration of job losses among men, while most TANF families are led by single mothers, and; (3) the low income eligibility cutoffs, many of which haven't been adjusted upward in years, and other eligibility hurdles that make other forms of assistance more available. The Food Stamp program, on the other hand, has proven more responsive, adding nearly 10 million people since December 2007.
I previously wrote:
From 1996 to 2007, the number of single-parent families with children living below the poverty line fell by a whopping 2.5%. Who says there's no progress in America? During the same period, however, there was a 60% drop in the number of families receiving welfare under TANF. Some of them got jobs during the roaring 1990s, and some of them got the boot when they reached their term limits.
Isn't it better (for government) to be working day & night to get the economy growing again, so that companies feel confident enough to return to hiring?
Rather than bemoan the lack of welfare dollars, how about some forward thinking:
1) Eliminate the Federal minimum wage - the higher the wage floor is set, the more expensive labor becomes & the less likely the very people needing welfare assistance will be able to find a job. This leaves more flexibility to the states to determine their citizens needs.
2) Postpone health insurance reform and cap & trade bills until the economy is on solid footing and revisit them then. These legislative threats simply discourage companies from hiring.
3) Suspend the collection of SS & Medicare taxes for 1 year (pay benefits out of the accumulated trust funds for a year) - BWAHAHAHA! Just kidding on that one, we all know there ain't no trust funds, just an ever faltering Ponzi scheme.
4) Shrink the size of government and the productive capacity it robs from the economy; to start, eliminate the depts of Energy, Labor, Education and HUD (I'm dreaming here)
Regardless, turning to the failed policies of the past is no way to solve joblessness and underemployment.
I wonder how many families are living under conditions of extreme poverty in this country now. What has been happening all along to people depending on social help to get by. Who takes care of the children while these people work for very little money, I wonder.
What if the government were 60-70% of its current size, and the money that reduction represents were back in the hands of the citizens who produced it? How many more jobs might be available?
How much more money might people be willing to donate to charities to help the poor, had not the government taken it first?
What pointless questions that indicate a total lack of understanding of the many tragedies that can befall families. What a shame.
Those who fight for amnesty and fight against e-verify are helping to end all the welfare programs.
Under the program you are compelled to do a documented job search for 30 hours a week or lose your benefits, not just limited to TANF, but your food stamps and Medicaid are also on the line. So you get onto the welfare rolls only to be eliminated from them for noncompliance or by getting a minimum wage job......
There is a benefit for unskilled workers in a normal economy, but when there are six people for every job in America right now.......
Since they are unemployed and receiving assistance, shouldn't they be spending all their waking hours looking for work? 30 is lenient.
The hours are judged very strictly. You only recieve credit for the time you spend filling out the applications, travel time is scrutinized ridiculously.
How many applications does it take to make that 30 hour mark? At 15 minutes each that is about 120 applications a week, Do you live near 120 businesses that are hiring every week?
Also there is the putative side of it, 30 hours a week times 4 weks is 120 hours, and at $200 a month for TANF that comes to about $1.60 an hour. That means the entire amount is spent on travel expenses.
You have no idea, other than your blatant and callous disregard for the poor.
By one interpretation, welfare is paying mothers to do the productive work of raising children - work that benefits everyone, hopefully. I'm pretty happy with that as a spending priority (especially given the alternatives).