ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, April 11, 1996 TAG: 9604110011
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-13 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: STEVEN L. MYERS
THERE'S A growing consensus that government should require welfare recipients to take public-service jobs in exchange for assistance. But many also believe the government should provide a safety net for those who are unable to work or find employment to ensure them a reasonable subsistence. Accomplishing these goals will be neither easy nor cheap, and a real commitment to helping poor Virginians is long overdue.
Few politicians have addressed the cost of reforms and their impact on working poor families struggling to meet their financial obligations without welfare. In the 1980s, the income gap between rich and poor families was wider in Virginia than most other states. Between 1980 and 1990, the top fifth of Virginian families' average annual income increased nearly $21,750, while the bottom fifth's actually dropped $1,800. By the end of the decade, Virginia had the eighth largest income disparity between families at the top and bottom.
Despite its relative wealth, Virginia spends far less to assist its poor residents - most of whom are children - than most other states. Only seven states have average family incomes greater than Virginia's, but our state's average monthly welfare payment, $177 for a family with two children, ranks 36th. Because of Virginia's failure to adjust for inflation, the maximum welfare payment for a family of three actually lost 58 percent of its value between 1970 and 1994. Today, welfare payments in Virginia provide less than 30 percent of the income needed to escape poverty. Even when other benefits, such as food stamps, are included, most welfare families in our state survive on an amount that is less than two-thirds of the federal poverty line.
For years, in theory, the state has required most welfare recipients to work. In reality, however, the state has funded employment services, such as job training and child care, for only half of those recipients.
During the legislative debate early last year, proponents of the new welfare legislation promised to more than double the number of employed recipients. Thus far, however, the state has increased its child-care budget by less than 65 percent, making it impossible for many parents to work. Additional funding of at least $6 million per year will be needed to meet workfare goals.
Inadequate child-care funding not only hurts current welfare recipients, but former recipients and working poor families as well. Because of the new law, after one year of transitional child-care assistance, former welfare recipients working in low-wage jobs will be forced to use a subsidized child-care system that is overwhelmed by excess demand. More than 13,000 children are now on its waiting list. In some towns, working poor families will have to wait years for these services.
If the government grants former welfare recipients priority for limited subsidized child-care funds, those working poor families who are denied such subsidies may be forced into the welfare system. Conversely, if the subsidized child-care system cannot accommodate former welfare recipients, they will be forced back on welfare. Either way, the number of Virginians dependent on welfare will increase, and welfare reform will have failed.
The budget cuts the legislature considered early last year also indicate little understanding of the relationship between welfare reform and the working poor. Because part-time and low-wage jobs often do not include health insurance benefits, the prospect of losing Medicaid coverage deters welfare recipients from accepting employment. Even so, Gov. George Allen proposed a budget amendment in 1994 that would have eliminated Medicaid coverage for 36,000 teen-agers in working poor families, forcing many working poor families onto welfare to secure health care for their children. The General Assembly defeated the amendment in 1995, but similar proposals may be offered again next year if Virginia redesigns its Medicaid program in response to changes at the federal level.
As the debate continues, Virginians must measure extravagant claims against the hard reality of limited funding. If we are serious about changing the welfare system, we must support leaders who have the integrity to honestly confront the cost of effective reforms.
Steven L. Myers is a staff attorney with the Virginia Poverty Law Center, a legal-services support center in Richmond.
- Virginia Forum
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