ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, September 20, 1996 TAG: 9609200061
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LESLIE TAYLOR STAFF WRITER
Leighton Langford, director of the Bedford County Department of Social Services, wasn't quick to embrace Virginia's plan to move people off welfare and into the work force in two years.
There were jobs to pin down, transportation to find for welfare recipients who had no way to get to those jobs, attitudes to change.
But "it's worked better than I had thought," Langford said Thursday. "At least it's giving people incentive to find work."
Langford has watched Bedford and Bedford County's Aid to Families with Dependent Children caseload drop about 6 percent since the state's welfare plan became law in July of last year. AFDC is the nation's primary form of welfare.
Langford said he is "almost positive" the decline can be attributed to the plan's work component - VIEW, an acronym for Virginia Initiative for Employment not Welfare.
VIEW, which requires welfare recipients to find jobs within 90 days, is being phased in region by region. It took effect in the Bedford/Lynchburg region last October.
About 280 welfare recipients in Bedford and Bedford County are participating in VIEW, Langford said. Almost 200 are in some kind of employment, the majority earning $4.50-4.75 an hour.
Statewide, more than 1,600 welfare recipients now work for their benefits. And according to the Virginia Department of Social Services, the AFDC caseload statewide has dropped 10 percent.
In the 31 localities where VIEW has been phased in, the AFDC caseload has declined 14 percent. In those 104 localities where VIEW has not been phased in, the caseload has dropped 9 percent.
"We can say that the decline in those localities that have implemented VIEW is greater than the rest of the state," a department source said. "That's an indication that VIEW has been a factor."
But it isn't VIEW alone, the source said. The state's welfare plan contains many strict conditions. If recipients don't adhere to them, they are sanctioned, their benefits cut off and their cases closed.
Among those conditions are establishing paternity, keeping children in school and ensuring that parents who are minors are living with their parents or legal guardians.
"And one would say that good economic times would have also been a factor," the source said.
In Roanoke, the AFDC caseload dropped from 1,931 in July 1995 to 1,748 in August 1996. In Roanoke County, it dropped from 302 in July 1995 to 269 in July 1996. In Montgomery County, from 551 in July 1995 to 493 in June 1996.
And VIEW - the welfare plan's work component - isn't scheduled to hit the Roanoke region until 1998.
"I'm not sure we can just say across the board that welfare reform's reducing caseloads," said Betty McCrary, director of the Roanoke County Department of Social Services. "What it can be attributed to, I'm not sure."
Bruce Stultz, chief eligibility supervisor for the Roanoke Department of Social Services, said the city's decrease could be simply a matter of people finding jobs. The VIEW program hasn't been phased in yet, so there is no ticking clock hanging over recipients' heads. And recipients' failure to follow other conditions of the welfare plan has had limited impact in the city.
"The economy's not terribly bad," he said. "Just going to work alone can take people off the system."
An employment services program operated by the Montgomery County Department of Social Services has pulled people off the welfare rolls for several years, said Dan Farris, department director. This year, the program placed 155 AFDC recipients in jobs paying an average hourly wage of $5.71, Farris said.
"We haven't gotten to the VIEW portion of the welfare plan," he said. "But we have been active in getting people training, education and job placement."
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