Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, June 23, 1995 TAG: 9506230051
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Medium
The money will be used to pay day-care costs for the children of working welfare recipients, and to pay for job training, education and programs to find jobs and place recipients in them, Martin Brown, spokesman for Secretary of Health and Human Resources Kay Coles James, said Wednesday.
Twenty-five localities are phasing in the new programs in the fiscal year that begins July 1. They will share the state money.
The reforms call for most welfare recipients to work for their benefits while preparing to support themselves. Welfare benefits would be cut off after two years, but one year of ``transitional'' aid, with child care, transportation and medical coverage, would follow.
The General Assembly earmarked $10.5 million to underwrite the program's start-up costs. An undetermined portion of the state's $9 million child-care fund also will be used to help parents training for jobs or working.
Brown said first-year costs are lower than anticipated. The excess appropriated by the General Assembly will be used in the program's later years, he said.
The funds are being allocated according to costs for the services in those regions as follows:
Fauquier, Rappahannock, Culpeper, Orange and Madison counties, where the program will begin July 1, will receive a total of $952,243.
Bedford, Campbell, Amherst and Appomattox counties and the Lynchburg, where the program starts Oct. 1, will share $1,738,803.
Wythe, Bland, Grayson, Carroll, Washington and Smyth counties and Bristol and Galax, which start the program Jan. 1, will share $708,571.
Loudoun, Prince William, Fairfax, Arlington counties and Manassas, Manassas Park, and Alexandria, scheduled to start the program April 1, will receive a total of $4.4 million.
by CNB