Welfare families still live on edge Effect of reforms studied in Maine

AUGUSTA – Five years after landmark federal welfare reform legislation, many Maine families continue to experience financial hardship, according to a report to be released today by the Maine Center for Economic Policy.

In her study, “Welfare Reform: Lessons from Maine,” the center’s Lisa Pohlman examined the economic circumstances of Maine families who were on welfare when the 1996 legislation was passed and offered recommendations.

Last year, after surveying 4,000 families who were receiving Temporary Assistance to Needy Families at the time of the 1996 legislation, Pohlman found that two-thirds of the 748 respondents were off welfare and most of them were working.

But many of their jobs didn’t include benefits, their average pay was only $8 an hour, and their median household income was only $17,610.

“Despite significant work effort,” only half saw their wages increase, Pohlman said.

Those with college degrees were in better circumstances, earning a median wage of $9.24, she said.

A third of those still on TANF were working but with very low wages. More than half said that they or their child had a health problem that limited their ability to work.

Many moved in and out of the labor market because of problems with child care and transportation, she said.

Pohlman said Friday that she wasn’t surprised to find that families who had left welfare are still struggling. Welfare reform legislation “wasn’t based in economic reality,” she said.

“You can’t send people who have low education and few work skills out into the work force and expect that they’re going to advance quickly and not end up back on TANF,” she said.

The new welfare policy emphasized personal responsibility by promoting work, reducing births and encouraging marriage. People were able to get help with child care and health care so they could get jobs more easily. State and local governments were given more control over welfare than ever before.

Welfare reform was successful in that it dramatically reduced the number of people on welfare, Pohlman pointed out.

But if the objective were to help families reach economic self-sufficiency and to reduce poverty, the survey indicates that welfare reform hasn’t been a success, she said.

The Bush administration’s plan for reauthorizing the legislation sounds like 1996 again, Pohlman said.

The president is emphasizing getting people to work instead of addressing the persistent poverty of people who left the welfare rolls.

“The focus of the current debate should be how to address the critical needs of the families that remain on TANF, with multiple barriers to employment, and the persistent poverty of many of those who have left TANF,” she said.

In her report, Pohlman recommends an increase in the TANF block grant that the state receives from the federal government, and “greater flexibility” so that states can help families deal with employment barriers, including health issues and the lack of transportation and child care.

For example, people have told her that while they have child care subsidy vouchers, no programs in the area will take them, Pohlman said.

She also proposed increasing access to postsecondary education through efforts such as Maine’s Parents as Scholars program, increasing health insurance coverage for low-income workers, strengthening the food stamp and unemployment insurance programs, raising the minimum wage and instituting paid family leave.

Increasing access to postsecondary education also would go a long way in helping people become self-sufficient, said Pohlman. She proposed an affordable, accessible community college system so that people “wouldn’t find [college] so overwhelming.”