THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, February 15, 1996 TAG: 9602150358
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A6 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MATTHEW BOWERS, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 76 lines
``Welfare'' isn't always a monthly check. And it's not always about people who aren't working.
It also can be prescription medicine for a sick baby. Coaching for job interviews. Reduced-fee day care. Food stamps. For people who work full-time or more.
These are some of the services the government provides to families who straddle the poverty line, or need a short-term boost. Because of low pay or skimpy benefits, these families seek help to keep afloat, or to prevent them from falling into total reliance on the government.
These aren't the stereotypical ``welfare families'' of nonworking, nonmotivated people often castigated by reformers as symptoms of a system gone bad. But these workers are on the dole in varying degrees nonetheless, even though many are doing just what society tells them they're supposed to do: work.
And the number of these families isn't small, even in a relatively affluent city like Virginia Beach.
``I do know that there are a great number of people who work very hard and work full time, but they still need child care,'' said Nancy H. Hinch, a supervisor with Virginia Beach Social Services. ``We see it every day.''
Hinch said working full time - sometimes working more than one job - is no guarantee of financial stability; they see lots of people with jobs.
``But it's low paying, and sometimes no benefits,'' Hinch said. ``The benefits are very difficult, because with children in the family, with no medical benefits, it's very scary.''
One example of the need: Hinch's agency recently was providing day-care assistance to 787 children of parents who were working and not ``in the system'' of full welfare benefits.
Another 744 families - including about 1,100 children - were on a day-care waiting list, which isn't publicized because there aren't enough funds to serve everyone who wants it.
``That's an unadvertised waiting list of working poor,'' Hinch said.
Another Virginia Beach social-work supervisor has noticed a ``real increase'' this decade in people seeking emergency assistance who aren't otherwise welfare recipients - working folks who ``just couldn't quite make it.''
Eunice B. Whitehurst said most tell her staff that they don't want to ``get on the system.'' Most only need a one-time boost to, say, cover that month's rent and forestall eviction. Many are young adults just getting started.
``It might be someone who was just recently unemployed or laid off, and might have an illness and need a prescription filled,'' Whitehurst said.
``We try to do what we can, to help them preserve some of their dignity, and they're on their way.''
Such emergency help went to 2,107 Virginia Beach families in the last fiscal year, Whitehurst said. That was about the same as the previous year, after a couple of years of increases, she said.
Various grants and contributions from individuals and churches make up the emergency fund. One Bible school class collected $1,200 in pennies for prescription medicines. The social workers themselves have held bake sales and flea markets to raise money.
Congressional Quarterly reported in November that 10.1 million American workers live below the poverty line, and 2.4 million of them have full-time jobs.
The Census Bureau reported that 40.8 percent of poor Americans 16 and older worked in 1994, with 10.5 percent working year-round, full-time.
Even adequate food can be out of the reach of many workers. A 1995 survey for the U.S. Conference of Mayors showed that one-third of American adults requesting food assistance were employed. In Virginia in fiscal year 1994, almost twice as many working people collected food stamps - 350,460 - as did those living solely on welfare.
The government-established poverty level for a family of four is an annual income of less than $15,141. A family of four is eligible for food stamps in Virginia if it makes less than $19,704 a year.
A full-time job at the $4.25-an-hour minimum wage pays $8,840 a year. by CNB