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Zanesville
Times Recorder
Welfare
rolls shrinking because of work rules
by Benjamin Lanka
Sep 28, 2012
Despite
campaign claims that work rules for
welfare have been gutted, thousands of Ohioans have left the program's
rolls largely
because of those rules.
An
analysis by The Dayton Daily News found the
No. 1 reason people went off welfare is because officials are taking a
harder
stance on requiring people to perform work activities as required under
law.
That includes work, community service or job training for at least 30
hours per
week.
In
Muskingum County, the drop in welfare
participation bested that of the state.
In
the 12 months ending in July, the number of
Ohio households receiving welfare dropped by nearly 21 percent. There
were
73,451 Ohio households in the program in July, costing $27.3 million
for that
month, the most recent data available. The cost in August 2011 was
$34.5
million in Ohio for the federal program.
"The
work requirement in Ohio is laid out
both in federal law and in state law, and those have not changed," Ohio
Department of Job and Family Services spokesman Ben Johnson told the
newspaper.
The
program, known now as Ohio Works First, has
come under attack during the past few months. Republican Mitt Romney's
campaign
produced commercials accusing President Barack Obama of gutting the
welfare
work requirements created in the 1990s.
The
U.S. House voted before its recess to
rescind guidelines introduced by the Health and Human Services
Department giving
states more flexibility in how they administer welfare-to-work
requirements.
Republicans say the guidelines are an attempt to undermine work
requirements,
but the bill has little chance in the Senate.
Obama
has labeled such characterizations false
and said the changes came in response to governors wanting more
flexibility in
the program. He said the flexibility was allowed for states that
increase the
amount of people on welfare who are working.
Roxane
Somerlot, director of Marion County Job
and Family Services, said the work requirements have not gone away from
her
office, and in fact are a common reason why people don't sign up for
the
assistance program. She said her department informs people they must
work at
least 30 hours for what amounts to less than $3 per hour in subsidy.
"It's
obvious if you're able to work and
ready to work, even a minimum wage employment would be a better option
for your
family," she said. "We get actually that very comment almost every
day."
Read
the rest of this article at the Zanesville
Times Recorder
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