Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, October 13, 1995 TAG: 9510130029
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: ROBERT FREIS STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
That's how much money the county's Department of Social Services says was spent to aid clients - young, elderly, homeless, unemployed and indigent - for the past year.
Of this amount, only $373,450 came directly from local funds. However, state and federal taxpayers were ultimately responsible for the entire amount.
The department's report presents a mixed portrait of how well the county's poorest citizens fared during the period from July 1, 1994, through June 30, 1995.
Food stamp and Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) payments declined slightly. Participation in the county's employment services program, which finds work for welfare recipients, is up.
However, Medicaid payments went up 11 percent, a substantial increase. And Dan Farris, the county's social service director, said he's concerned by a dramatic increases in cases involving abused children and adults.
Overall, Farris said the report reflects "somewhat of a comeback" from the effects of employment layoffs that rocked the area several years ago. "We took a real hit. This shows some recovery."
Nonetheless, several troubling statistics leap from the report's pages:
89 percent of the households receiving AFDC benefits are headed by women.
Stephonia Munson, head of Montgomery County's Human Services Commission, says that figure reflects the continuing disintegration of traditional families, and the impact of irresponsible fathers who abandon their children.
58 percent of AFDC family heads have high school diplomas or some college education.
It's hard even for those with an education to find jobs here, Munson said. Both Munson and Farris say economic development would provide the best remedy by bringing new jobs with good wages to the county.
The average AFDC household has only two children.
The image of the welfare Cadillac mother, with a brood of publicly supported children, has been "really tough to shake," according to Farris. Yet he said the local statistics indicate benefit recipients have small families, like other contemporary Americans.
"They've been a whipping boy," Munson said. "These people live very frugally. If they could, they would do everything in their power to get off welfare. They hate it."
Additionally, adult abuse complaints are up 18 percent, an increase Farris said is partially due to greater awareness of the problem, particularly involving the elderly. Of 382 cases of adult abuse reported, 65 percent of the victims were elderly.
Child abuse complaints were down, but the number of children placed in foster care because they had to be removed from abusive environments increased 28 percent.
Medicaid payments, which are made to health care providers for clients who can't afford to see a doctor, buy prescription drugs or stay in a nursing home, totaled about $13.3 million, by far the highest percentage of benefits paid locally.
Contrasted with the $2.7 million paid to AFDC recipients, Farris said its "interesting" that the present emphasis on welfare reform has fallen on AFDC rather than the more costly Medicaid program.
Montgomery County is not one of the localities participating in the state's pilot Workfare program, which requires that able AFDC recipients hold jobs as a requirement to receive benefits.
However, Farris said the county is moving ahead with its own jobs program, which is designed to help clients become economically self-sufficient.
From July 1994 to end of June 1995 119 "employments" were found for clients, who earned an average hourly wage of $5.42. "That may not sound like a lot of money," Farris said of the wage. But it's higher than the current federal minimum wage of $4.25, which he said means that clients are being placed in better jobs that fast-food or domestic work.
The county prosecuted 33 cases of welfare fraud involving nearly $70,000 in illegally obtained benefits during the period. According to the report, about $38,000 was recovered.
Administrative costs for the county Department of Social Services, which employs 61 full- and part-time employees, totaled $2.7 million.
by CNB