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March
9, 2005, Senate Finance Committee voted to approve the PRIDE bill
(Personal Responsibility and Individual Development for Everyone)
Article
from the March 11, 2005 edition of the CHN Human Needs Report:
Bipartisan TANF Bill Passes Senate Finance Committee (3/11/05)
Reauthorization
of the Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF)
Educational and Action Packet
February
2005. Advocates are concerned that TANF Reauthorization will
be rolled into the federal budget reconciliation process. To learn
more about this issue and how you can get involved, go to the following
links:
- Lack
of Skills and Education in the Empire State: Low-Income New Yorkers
Need Increased Access to School and Vocational Training Programs
Authored by Bich Ha Pham, Meghan Grant, Kim Gilliland,
Brett Van Zandt and Mark Dunlea
Executive Summary
| Entire Report
| Acknowledgements
- Statement
of Bich Ha Pham, Executive Director,
Hunger Action Network of New York State, New York, New York
Testimony Before the Subcommittee on Human Resources of the
House Committee on Ways and Means
Hearing
on Welfare Reform Reauthorization Proposals
April 11, 2002
Statement
of Principles for Welfare Reauthorization
1.
Revise the goal of TANF to include poverty reduction as a primary
goal, rather than just caseload reduction. Congress should eliminate
"process" measures - such as work participation rates
- and embrace "outcome" measures instead, such as reduction
in childhood poverty rates, increased wage levels and higher family
incomes.
2.
TANF must provide benefits to all families in need. TANF
reauthorization should be a vehicle to provide opportunity and support
to all low-income families, including families now receiving welfare,
low-wage working families who may or may not have received welfare
in the past, two-parent families and immigrant families who are
by statute or in practice denied assistance. TANF should be broadly
available to low-income families to supplement low wages, provide
assistance for parents seeking education and training, and allow
parents raising young children to balance the competing demands
of work and family life.
a.
Eligibility for benefits should be restored to legal immigrants.
Legal immigrants are subject to the same obligations as citizens,
such as paying taxes, and should be eligible for the same public
benefits. Under the TANF rules, immigrants are usually ineligible
for benefits for five years.
b.
All families, including low-wage workers and two-parent families,
should have the right to apply for TANF, and people must be adequately
informed of all services for which they are eligible.
c.
States should be required to develop an index reflecting the real
cost of living for low-income families. A number of states have
increased benefit levels for poor families since 1996. Most states,
however, have failed to increase benefit levels. Changes in welfare
policy since 1996 mean that many families are doing everything they
can and are "playing by the rules," but are still poor.
There is no excuse for states not to set benefit levels based on
real needs and costs, and federal law should encourage states to
do so.
d.
Children's early year's experiences are critical to their physical,
cognitive, and emotional development. There continues to be a severe
shortage of quality out-of-home child care for pre school age children,
particularly for children in low income families. Until quality
out-of-home care can be guaranteed, parents should be allowed to
care for their own children, and to have that care count as satisfying
work requirements.
e.
TANF should be modified to curtail state's supplantation of TANF
funds. A number of states have not used TANF funds to assist eligible
low-income families, but instead have merely supplanted county and
state expenditures on welfare and low-income programs. The end result
has been that families in need have not been receiving the benefit
of all the TANF funds which could go to many needs such as increasing
transitional benefits, training and education, child care and transportation
assistance.
3.
To successfully promote "work" as a path out of poverty,
TANF must be redesigned around the realities of the low-wage labor
market: Low-wages, few benefits, lack of "family-friendly"
policies, high turnover, few opportunities for advancement, and
areas of high poverty and high unemployment hinder the path out
of poverty. Existing federal policies like Unemployment Insurance
and the Family and Medicaid Leave Act do not generally benefit low-wage
workers, and other benefit programs are inadequate to provide the
level of support that families need.
a.
All low-wage workers, including those who participate in TANF-funded
employment programs, should receive a combination of decent wages
and work supports, such as food stamps and child care assistance,
to lift them out of poverty.
b.
Because education and training lead to higher wages, TANF must encourage
and support education and training as viable ways for low-income
families to move out of poverty. Participation in education and
training programs (including literacy, ESL, high school/GED, two-
and four-year college, vocational training, work-study and internships)
should count as work. Participation in these activities should be
supported with payment of training related expenses, such as carfare
and child care costs. The 30% cap on the number of families who
may be engaged in education and training and count towards a state's
work participation requirements should be lifted. The one-year limit
on vocational training for parents should be eliminated to allow
parents adequate time to complete education and training. TANF families
should be given the right to pursue these education and training
options.
c.
In an economic downturn, some job seekers will be unable to find
employment. When parents who have exhausted TANF benefits are willing
and able to work, but no job is available, the appropriate governing
body should either provide them with temporary employment or continue
to provide assistance. A new program should be created that provides
publicly financed wage paying jobs to parents with limited skills
and work experience. Such programs in Pennsylvania, Washington and
elsewhere have proven to be an effective model for enhancing employability
and skills and provide a needed buffer in areas of high unemployment.
Such a program will be especially valuable in rural and urban areas
and on Native American reservations.
d.
Raise the federal minimum wage. The way to help people not only
move off of welfare, but stay off of welfare, is to promote family-sustaining
wages. One step in the right direction is to increase the federal
minimum wage so that work results in enough to provide a family
with a decent standard of living.
e.
Create a children's allowance and a caregiver's allowance (refundable
tax credits for those caring for children or others, including elderly
parents)
4.
Punitive measures that harm families must be replaced with measures
that help families move out of poverty.
a.
The federal time limit clock should stop, or exemptions be granted,
for families who "play by the rules," are in compliance
with work requirements, or who are caring for young, sick, or disabled
children or disabled household members. In general, Congress should
consider extending or eliminating the five year time limit on benefits
since it fails to reflect the characteristics of the individual
participants or the local labor market.
b.
Exemptions should be increased for families with significant barriers
such as domestic violence, physical disability or mental health
disability, illness and/or substance abuse. The provisions of the
Americans with Disabilities Act should be enforced. Establish a
new system that rewards states that do the best job of training
caseworkers to screen, refer and serve clients with significant
barriers.
c.
Many states now deny aid to some needy children as a penalty for
their parent's engaging in conduct of which the state does not approve.
It is wrong to deny children benefits for their basic needs based
on their parent's conduct We also oppose denying benefits to children
borne while their parents are receiving welfare.
5.
The funding level of the TANF block grant should be maintained
at present levels with an automatic cost of living adjustment. Though
welfare rolls have fallen, income support and related child care
funding needs still far surpass the funding that is available from
the federal block grant. States are also exploring a variety of
innovative approaches to better assist individuals in moving from
welfare to work, and funding for such efforts should not be curtailed
at such an early stage. In addition, the recent attacks of Sept.
11th increase the likelihood of an economic downturn in the near
future, with a resultant increase in the number of individuals and
families needing assistance. TANF should require a minimum grant
level that all states must adopt to lessen the economic struggles
of poverty-stricken families.
6.
Value and support all families regardless of marital status.
The
government should not be in the business of legislating morals and
trying to influence personal relationships conducted within the
realm of privacy of ones life. We oppose government preference to
married couples and government policies that penalize non-married
individuals in the distribution of benefits. We also oppose any
policy that results in the creation of a two-tiered system for married
and for unmarried individuals and disparate policies for the groups.
Instead, TANF goals must be to promote economically stable households,
whether there is one or multiple adults in the household, regardless
of marital status. Domestic violence prevention should be funded,
rather than marriage promotion.
Hunger Action is conducting statewide organizing and advocacy around
reauthorization. We also co-coordinate the Welfare
Made A Difference National Campaign and the NYC Welfare Reform
Network's Federal Issues Committee. Please contact us at (518) 434-7371
or (212) 741-8192 to sign onto our welfare reauthorization campaign.
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