ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, January 31, 1997 TAG: 9701310057
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LESLIE TAYLOR STAFF WRITER
If you're able to work but don't and you apply for food stamps, don't expect as much help with your groceries from taxpayers.
Under the new federal welfare policy, the biggest part of which becomes effective today in Virginia, residents can receive food stamps only three out of 36 months.
And residents convicted of a felony drug offense after Aug. 22, 1996, are permanently ineligible for food stamps and what used to be Aid to Families with Dependent Children but has been renamed Temporary Assistance to Needy Families.
The days of limitless welfare benefits are over; a person can receive no more than five years of TANF benefits in his lifetime.
"We'll implement the [new policy] as well as we can," said Corinne Gott, superintendent of the Roanoke Department of Social Services. "Once it's the law, it's the law. We won't know the consequences until we've lived with it awhile."
The new welfare measure - the Federal Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act - was signed into law in August, ending the federal guarantee of cash assistance to the poor and turning welfare programs over to the states.
Robert Metcalf, Virginia secretary of health and human resources, is scheduled to announce state implementation of TANF today. The new program will be funded with a $158.2 million federal block grant.
Martin Brown, spokesman for the Virginia Department of Social Services, said the block grant represents the AFDC funding the state received from the federal government in 1994.
"It's based on our 1994 caseload, which was higher then than it is now," Brown said. The state may be receiving more money, he said, "but it's being put to use. We have services, such as transportation and child care, that we didn't have to provide in the past."
Virginia was ahead of the federal welfare curve by about 15 months. In July 1995, a state plan became law that cut off AFDC after two years and required recipients to begin working for their benefits after 90 days.
The plan gives people one year of transitional transportation, child care and medical benefits, then requires recipients to stay off the welfare rolls for two years. They then can reapply for benefits, if they choose, for another two years.
Virginians, however, cannot cycle on and off welfare forever. Benefits are limited to five years in a lifetime under the new federal policy.
The plan's work component will be phased into the Roanoke region Oct.1, requiring about 1,000 welfare recipients to work for their benefits.
For the past week, Bruce Stultz has been sifting through a nearly inch-thick stack of TANF papers that are to replace those in the old AFDC manual.
"It's really just a matter of policy," said Stultz, who is eligibility supervisor for the Roanoke Department of Social Services. "It doesn't take an all-out case review, a mass review of what we've got on record. We'll review cases and implement the policy at the time of recertification or when we're reviewing eligibility for benefits."
Other new welfare policies:
* Individuals convicted of fraudulently representing an address to receive benefits in one or more states are ineligible for TANF for 10 years.
* Social services departments can give law enforcement officers the addresses of fugitive felons who are in violation of parole or probation.
* Failure to cooperate in pursuing child support will result in a 25 percent cut in benefits or termination of benefits.
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