Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, March 19, 1994                   TAG: 9403190069
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Medium

WELFARE SHIFT WOULD NOT MOVE MOST

After five years and $15 billion in new services for the poor, only a fraction of all parents on welfare would be nudged into the work force under the Clinton administration's draft strategy.

President Clinton promised during his campaign to require all able-bodied recipients to take a job after two years on the rolls.

His aides, however, have drafted a plan that initially exempts two-thirds of all parents on welfare from any time limits or work requirements, covering only those born after 1972.

And it takes years before significant numbers of welfare recipients are pushed into a private job or a subsidized work program.

At the end of the plan's first five years, just 200,000 of the estimated 1.67 million families who will be covered by the new welfare system will either leave the rolls because of various reforms in day care, welfare and health care, or have a parent working in a subsidized job.

The administration argues that it is smarter, in an era of scarce resources, to move carefully and target its reforms on the youngest mothers with the highest risk of long-term welfare dependency and the greatest potential for turning their lives around.

The White House has promised to unveil its welfare plan in April, but no decisions are final. Several contentious issues remain unresolved, and the administration has yet to decide how to finance the overhaul.

Under the draft, states are given two years to set up new education, training and work programs before the clock on time limits starts ticking. Time limits would start to affect parents in 1999.