ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, August 2, 1996 TAG: 9608020013
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LESLIE TAYLOR STAFF WRITER
Virginia will not have to retool its year-old welfare-to-work plan to suit the federal government's plan to overhaul the nation's welfare system.
Virginia is one of 29 states with programs in place that seek to end people's dependency on welfare that will have the option of continuing those plans as is - at least until their federal waivers that allowed the programs expire.
President Clinton approved Virginia's waiver from federal welfare requirements July 1 of last year, the day the state welfare plan became law. The waiver is good for seven more years.
"The federal bill contains an exemption for states that had comprehensive waivers granted before Sept. 30, 1995," said Scott Oostdyk, deputy secretary of the state Department of Health and Human Resources. "Our waiver allows us to continue for its eight-year cycle."
That does not mean Virginia won't seek to include some of the federal provisions in the state's welfare plan.
"There are some things in the law we may want to consider that may enhance our law," said Martin Brown, spokesman for the state Department of Social Services.
The federal plan would give states block grants to fund their welfare programs. The amount of state allocations would be based on a state's average welfare spending for 1994 or 1995, said Michael Kharfen, a spokesman for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
But Virginia's caseload has dropped. As a result, the state could receive more money for fewer people, said Michael Kharfen, a spokesman for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Resources.
There are differences between Virginia's plan and the federal welfare plan, which the Senate passed Thursday, 78-21.
The Senate, overriding protests that overhauling welfare would run roughshod over the poor, completed congressional action Thursday on a Republican bill to end six decades of guaranteed cash assistance.
The Senate sent the bill to President Clinton, who said Wednesday he will sign it after wavering for weeks and having vetoed two previous welfare bills.
The federal plan sets a lifetime limit of five years of welfare benefits per family. Virginia's plan cuts off benefits after two years and provides a third year of transitional benefits - medical coverage, child care and transportation. Welfare benefits can be reinstated after another three years.
Oostdyk said the state may have to alter that time limit to comply with the new federal five-year limit.
"We have to analyze with the attorney general to see if it applies to Virginia or not," he said. "We don't know yet until we do a legal analysis whether our waiver supersedes that. Under our system, you could go through three cycles before you reach the federal limit."
The federal plan does allow states to cut off the welfare benefits of mothers who cannot identify the fathers of their children. Virginia's welfare plan does the same but interprets failure to provide the required identifying information as noncooperation.
The federal plan doesn't specify cooperation, Oostdyk said. He predicted it would be an issue defined in future legislation. Virginia's paternity policy is facing a legal challenge - a lawsuit by two welfare recipients who have sued the Department of Social Services and its commissioner on the grounds that the policy is unconstitutional.
Virginia's welfare plan:
* Cuts off Aid to Families with Dependent Children benefits after two years from time recipient's locality phases in a plan component that requires work.
* Offers a third year of transitional benefits - child care, medical coverage and transportation. After the third year, AFDC cannot be reinstated for another three years.
* Denies extra benefits to welfare recipients who get pregnant.
* Requires all children of AFDC recipients to attend school.
* Requires women to identify the fathers of their children or lose benefits.
* Requires unmarried AFDC-recipient mothers younger than 18 to stay in school and live with a parent or adult relative.
The Associated Press contributed to this story
LENGTH: Medium: 78 linesby CNB