Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, December 16, 1994 TAG: 9412160064
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: VIRGINIA EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MARGARET EDDS STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Medium
Ask Lydia Millington and Lisa Wade.
Both are single moms and former welfare recipients who are now working, and both have a lot to say about the realities of life in the welfare trenches.
Both women like the provisions that would make fathers more responsible for children. Both doubt that limiting welfare payments will do much to stem teen pregnancy. And both want Virginians to know that a lot of hard-working people who are good parents have collected welfare checks from time to time.
But when it comes to the major provision of the Allen plan, cutting off money to most recipients after two years, the women speak with different voices.
A mother of three, Millington, 22, sat on the Empowerment Commission that came up with the plan unveiled Thursday. She thinks a little kick in the pants may be just what many welfare recipients could use to get them motivated.
"We cannot allow people to sit around and get master's [degrees] on AFDC anymore," said Millington, referring to Aid to Families with Dependent Children, the nation's major welfare program.
Wade agrees that the threat of a financial cutoff could spur some people to action. But she voices grave concerns about what would happen to the children of those who don't find jobs when benefits end in two years.
"Me, I know how to go on because I have a lot of positive people in my life," said Wade.
But some others, "I'm afraid they'll be doing what they have to do" to get money. "Killing, robbing, putting their children out on the block [as prostitutes]," she said.
"I know there's going to be a lot of people out here homeless ... and they're talking about child abuse now, well, it's going to be something."
Both are working - Millington as a receptionist in Health and Human Services SecretaryKay James' office and Wade through Americorps, a federal program - but both know how difficult it is to find private sector jobs, the kind Allen prefers.
Millington, who dropped out of school after becoming a mother at 15, went to community college while on AFDC. But for a year after getting an associates' degree, the best job she could find was waiting tables. Her big break came last summer, when she called James' office after reading about Allen's welfare plans.
Wade, 31, dropped out of school when she was 17 and in the ninth grade. Since her first child was born in 1986, she has had a half-dozen low-wage jobs and has been on and off welfare. She has no car, and day care and medical costs have been regular threats to her security.
For now, however, Americorps is her savior, with $4.50 an hour, day care and medical benefits.
by CNB