DATE: Tuesday, September 30, 1997           TAG: 9709300248

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B7   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS 

DATELINE: RICHMOND                          LENGTH:   61 lines

STATE TO MISS OWN WELFARE-TO-WORK DEADLINE, BUT WILL HIT FEDERAL GOAL

Virginia will fall short of the first federal target for moving welfare recipients into jobs this week, a situation state officials said reflects the difficulty of overhauling welfare even during a time of strong economic growth and falling caseloads.

Federal law requires that by Wednesday, all states have put to work at least one adult in 75 percent of two-parent households - traditionally the easiest cases to employ and a small fraction of overall welfare rolls.

But Virginia has moved only about 60 percent of such households into jobs in its two-year-old program, said Scott G. Oostdyk, deputy secretary of health and human resources. The state easily will achieve a broader federal goal: to put adults from 25 percent of all welfare cases into jobs, job training or community service.

Virginia is one of nearly two dozen states that say they probably will not meet the deadline for two-parent households, a failing that could subject the state to an $8 million federal fine.

Meanwhile, on Wednesday, Virginia will phase in its welfare-to-work program statewide, ushering in mandatory work and two-year time limits on cash aid to the final one-third of its cases.

Gov. George Allen (R) said Monday that although the results on cases involving two-parent households are disappointing, there is some good news. The number of two-parent families on public assistance has tripled, to 780, since Virginia eliminated the financial disincentive known as the ``marriage penalty'' that encouraged couples to separate, at least on paper, to maximize aid payments.

Before leaving on a two-week trade mission to Japan, South Korea and Taiwan, Allen also noted that cases with two-parent households make up less than 2 percent of the state's 48,000 cases. The rest overwhelmingly are single mothers and their children.

``I don't think the fact that that part - 1 1/2 percent of the entire caseload - should (lead people to) ignore the tremendous success, in that our welfare rolls have dropped 38 percent since we passed our welfare law in Virginia,'' Allen said.

Oostdyk called the 75 percent federal work requirement ``somewhat arbitrary.''

``Because the bar is set higher for the two-parent families, it requires states to focus very microscopically on those units,'' Oostdyk said. ``The long-term effect is, you may drive away the father you spent so much time getting into the household.''

Since April 1995, Virginia's welfare rolls have dropped by more than 25,000 cases. The state has put adults in 10,000 other cases to work.

Michael Kharfen, spokesman for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, said most states that miss federal targets may seek exemptions from fines. But he said states should not seek excuses from accountability, especially since they sought flexibility in determining how welfare dollars are spent.

Combined with a freeze of federal payments to the Temporary Assistance to Needy Families program at more generous 1995 levels, Virginia taxpayers have reaped $110 million in savings.

But changing welfare has not been cheap. Over that period, Virginia has spent $44 million for benefits such as child care and transportation subsidies to help welfare parents go to work and has directed an additional $67 million in federal aid toward the effort.

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