Getting a Job Before the Welfare Deadline

Aired September 29, 1999

This is INFOhio After Nine, I am David C. Barnett, welcoming you to a Wednesday, September 29th, 1999. During the course of this pledge-free hour, we're going to examine where we as a state, as a region, stand in reforming welfare. You've heard reports on 90.3 about "The Changing Face of Welfare," how it's changing in Ohio, and this morning, we're going to give you a two-year progress report. We'll hear about a local welfare-to-work program that claims great success, after we take a closer look at that calendar. This Friday marks the two-year anniversary of the welfare reform mandate in Cuyahoga County. By this time next year, people who have been on public assistance for three years will no longer get a government check. While the numbers of people receiving help through job training and placement are up, there are still thousands of people who may not be able to get a job in time by this time next year. Our series on "The Changing Face of Welfare" continues, as 90.3's Yolanda Perdomo reports on the race against time to get people off the rolls.

Yolanda Perdomo–In Cuyahoga County, there are approximately 24,000 Ohio Works First cases, the name of the program given to those who receive monthly welfare checks. The county handled twice that many cases just seven years ago. Cuyahoga County Commissioner Jimmy Dimora credits the eleven neighborhood centers in Northeast Ohio for helping to get the rolls down.

Jimmy Dimora–With this kind of assistance, locating these centers in the areas where the people are heavily populated that we serve, it makes it very convenient, very accessible, very easy for them to get to, rather than having them come to downtown and trying to accomplish their goals. We believe that with this assistance and this kind of help, we will be successful in our goal of trying to eliminate welfare as we know it today, and then, once we are successful and we hit the October 2000 deadline, our goal is to continue the neighborhood centers and work with the people that are low-income people and try to give them the necessary tools to get them better acclimated to better jobs, higher pay, and make them competitive in today's job market.

YP–But those centers may not be able to help everyone who is on welfare. Dimora says that's where the alliance comes in. With the help of Cuyahoga County, the alliance was formed in August with the intention of reaching the hardest-to-place recipients, those with physical and mental impairments, and those who have been on the rolls for years. The alliance is a group of six social service agencies, including the Salvation Army and the Urban League, whose objective is to reach those folks so they don't fall through the cracks.

JD–They will try and work, bring these people into the fold, into the process, people who have maybe been down on government, bad attitudes, maybe not thinking that they have pride or confidence. The alliance is on a performance contract. They don't get paid unless people work. Once they work, then they get paid accordingly to so many days on the job, up to 180 days, and we feel very confident that we will be able to take the vast majority of these people and be successful.

YP–But even if they don't reach every person needing assistance, the federal government will give the county a 20% escape clause. That means Washington won't eliminate assistance for a thousand people deemed too difficult to place in the workforce by the October 2000 deadline. Elaine Gaugheny is the Executive Officer for Interagency Affairs for Cuyahoga County's Work and Training Department. She says the welfare program will also exist after October 2000 for those who've had a job during any part of a three-year period.

Elaine Gaugheny–Food stamps goes on, Medicaid goes on, but the cash will stop for those who have been on public assistance every single month since October 1st, 1997. 36 months, it will stop. There will be no check in October of next year. The Ohio Works First program, OWF, is 36 months of eligibility, lifetime. Then there must be 24 months independence, without attachment to the public assistance program. After that, there is a potential for 24 more months of benefits, but that depends on certain criteria, and the state has not identified that criteria because we haven't come to that point yet. The welfare benefits are limited by the federal law to 60 months, so there is a window of opportunity.

YP–Another issue complicating the welfare-to-work program is tracking. While some are given a hand with job-related training and placement programs, others who leave the system are never heard from again, and the county wants to curb the number of people who disappear off the radar to better monitor the progress of the welfare-to-work program. Cuyahoga County is contracting Case Western Reserve University to help track those who are out of the system, regardless of whether they're working. However, despite efforts to track or place recipients in the workforce, for many, the issue remains-there are only 12 months left before public assistance is no longer an option. For INFOhio, I'm Yolanda Perdomo in Cleveland.