ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, December 6, 1996 TAG: 9612060037
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: RICHMOND
SOURCE: WARREN FISKE STAFF WRITER
``IT WILL BE EVERYWHERE in ten months,'' Gov. George Allen said of a program he called a big success.
Welfare changes will come to the Roanoke Valley next fall, 18 months earlier than expected, Gov. George Allen announced Thursday.
Saying localities are "champing at the bit" to begin the 11/2-year-old program, Allen launched an ambitious plan to phase in the work-for-benefits plan throughout Virginia by Oct. 1. Original plans called for the program to be fully implemented by April 1, 1999.
"Because of the great success we've been enjoying, I am revising the timetable," Allen said during a speech to several hundred social service workers from across the state. "It will be everywhere in 10 months."
The program requires people to work in order to receive Aid to Families with Dependent Children benefits. It allows people to receive only two years' worth of benefits during any five-year period.
About one-third of the state - mostly rural areas - has been phased into the work program since it began in July 1995. Other aspects of the change, including a cap on benefits when new children are born and a requirement that fathers be identified, have been in effect throughout the state since the onset.
Allen said the program reduced the state's welfare costs by $24 million in its first full year and is expected to save another $77.5 million over the next two years.
The governor said he will recommend that $875,000 of the savings be spent next year to implement a debit-card system for food stamp recipients. Allen also said he will seek appropriations from the General Assembly to expand a computer program that helps administer welfare overhaul and to intensify a public campaign urging fathers to remain with their families.
About 10,000 welfare recipients are currently in the program. Allen said about 4,000 are employed in public sector jobs that pay average wages between $6 and $7 an hour. Many of the rest are performing public service while seeking jobs.
Allen said the program has altered the nature of social service work. "It's really turned into a job placement agency," he said.
The governor said many localities urged him to speed up the program. One reason, he said, is that it will qualify localities for $2.9 million in additional state support for backups to working people such as transportation and child care.
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