Welfare in Maine after ’96 reform act

Editor’s Note: This is the final story in the Bangor Daily News’ five-part series examining Maine’s welfare programs, the services they provide, and their costs. Today’s wrap-up story looks at how Maine has fared in instituting the mandates of the federal Welfare Reform Act of 1996.

It has been more than 10 years since then-President Bill Clinton signed into law a piece of legislation that became known as the Welfare Reform Act.

The bill, officially known as the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996, provided a mandate for states to begin reforming their respective welfare systems. Since each state was given flexibility to implement its own policies, each has varied considerably in its successes or failures.

So where does Maine stack up in the first 10 years of welfare reform?

According to recent data from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the Pine Tree State is no worse off than most of its New England counterparts but still has work to do.

The data focused on recipients of Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, or TANF, the largest federal assistance program and the one most identified with the term “welfare.” TANF was created out of the Welfare Reform Act, replacing Aid to Families with Dependent Children as the national assistance program devoted to helping children.

Maine appeared to do well in reducing its number of TANF recipients in the last 10 years, but still lagged behind the national average. In 2006, 25,509 Mainers received TANF benefits, a 55.4 percent decline from more than 55,000 in 1996. Nationally, however, the number of TANF recipients dropped from 12.5 million in 1996 to 4 million in 2006, a 67.6 percent decline.

Among 50 states and the District of Columbia, Maine ranked 40th. Among New England states, only New Hampshire (43.1 percent) had less of a decline than Maine.Another category where Maine lagged behind the nation was TANF work force participation. Maine ranked 39th with just 26.6 percent of TANF recipients holding steady jobs, compared with 32.5 percent nationally, according to the DHHS statistics. Of other New England states, only Connecticut fared better at 30.8 percent. Massachusetts was dead last at 13.6 percent.

The TANF data were the basis for a study by the Heartland Institute, a conservative-leaning think tank based in Chicago, that ranked Maine 38th overall in effectiveness for welfare reform policies and anti-poverty initiatives. Under solely welfare reform policy categories, the report ranked Maine 26th.

The Heartland Institute study considered not only DHHS statistics, but also other information on states’ policies such as work requirements, cash diversion, and family cap provisions, three voluntary state policy initiatives that the institute strongly advocates.

For instance, Maine is one of 37 states to mandate work requirements immediately and therefore scored well under the study. Some states, including Rhode Island and Vermont, don’t require TANF recipients to work until 18 months after they first receive benefits. Maine also is one of 37 states to have a cash diversion program, which allows states to keep people off welfare rolls by paying a lump sum of money one time to cover a certain hardship such as a sudden job loss. This option is designated for those who do not need long-term help. New Hampshire and Massachusetts do not have cash diversion programs.

Family cap provisions were created to guard against families continuing to have children in order to receive additional assistance. Maine is one of 28 states that does not have family cap provisions and consequently scored poorly in the category, according to the Heartland Institute. Connecticut and Massachusetts are the only New England states to adopt family caps.

The study further assessed states both on lifetime limits for TANF benefits and sanctions for violations of compliance.

Again, states varied considerably on a lifetime limit for TANF, from as low as 24 months to as high as 60 months. Maine is among all but 10 states that stop TANF benefits for most recipients after five years. Massachusetts is the only state that does not have a lifetime limit.

Recent statistics from the Maine Department of Health and Human Services indicate that more than 70 percent of Maine’s TANF recipients receive benefits for one year or less, and about 85 percent receive benefits for two years or less. About 4 percent have received benefits for more than five years; the majority of those are families who are headed by an adult who is permanently disabled.

Barbara Van Burgel, director of the Office of Integrated Assistance and Support at DHHS, said that of the approximately 74,000 people who have received TANF benefits in Maine since 1996, about 63,000 left the program and did not come back.

Sanctions for noncompliance of TANF requirements also differ from state to state. Some states have full sanctions, meaning a TANF check was withheld after the first infraction. Other states had graduated sanctions, which withheld checks only after multiple infractions. The remaining states, among which Maine was included, had partial sanctioning, which held back the portion of TANF benefits for adults but allowed adults to keep what was set aside for their children.

“This report card provides policymakers with a road map to successful anti-poverty efforts,” said Gary MacDougal, who directed research for the Heartland Institute study. “While the federal government gave great flexibility to the state, it is up to the states to take advantage of that.”

Christopher St. John, director of the Maine Center for Economic Policy, said that while the data used in the Heartland Institute study are accurate, its conclusions are decidedly subjective.

“They’ve made, it appears, an ideological decision on what policies are important and then rated states on those policies,” St. John said.

“[The report] makes assumptions about connections between particular policies and results,” he said. “I suspect that our perceived lack of success has much more to do with the general economy in Maine than specific welfare policy.”

BDN writer Rich Hewitt contributed to this report.

erussell@bangordailynews.net

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