Welfare and the Effect on Children

Aired October 26, 1999

This is INFOhio After Nine, I am David C. Barnett, bidding you greetings on this 26th day of October, 1999, and as you've been hearing over the past few months on this program, October 2000 is going to bring some dramatic changes for thousands of Ohioans on the welfare system. This morning, as a part of our series on "The Changing Face of Welfare," we're going to examine the people on public assistance who aren't talked about all that much: children. Kathleen Wells of Case Western Reserve University will join us in the studio in a few minutes and tell us about these children, who they are, what their situation is exactly, after we take a look at some of the realities of the people. We've heard so much this past year about adults dropping off the welfare rolls in Cuyahoga County, and there's usually two reasons for this. Either the welfare clients have found a job, or they've failed to comply with training regulations or other welfare-to-work rules. But many observers say children can fall through the cracks, as we learn from 90.3's Lorna Jordan.

Lorna Jordan–Cuyahoga County's Children Services deputy director Jim McCafferty says they know families are dropping off the welfare rolls, but it's unclear what happens to children in this situation.

Jim McCafferty–We know that the numbers of people who are leaving the welfare rolls, that it's supposedly working, but we don't know what happens to these people when they leave. They may have a job initially, we don't know how many maintain a job over a long time, how many of them leave the state of Ohio and go somewhere else, how many of them are living under a bridge somewhere. What I don't think we know at this point is, OK, these people are leaving the rolls, where are they going and what happens, are they getting jobs, having a better lifestyle, or is something else happening? With welfare reform hitting in October of 2000, and 16,000 families losing their benefits, the children of 8,000 of those families end up on the child welfare system.

LJ–McCafferty says they're also concerned about the impact these changes will have on his organization.

JM–One fear we have is does the child welfare system become like a secondary income source? Does a parent who has no way to feed their kids, voluntarily or involuntarily end up turning to this system for assistance. We don't really have financial assistance per se on a month-to-month basis for families, so you begin to look at the rest. The neglect comes in other things, why wasn't a parent in three years not able to get a job or become self-sufficient? Are there mental health issues, are there substance abuse issues? You begin to look at those and the question becomes whether the children can be safely maintained in that environment.

LJ–Mark Real of the Children's Defense Fund Ohio agrees there could be a problem for people with children trying to get off the dole.

Mark Real–We've not yet made the transition from a public assistance system that served principally very poor families who are not part of the workforce to a new system that is principally serving families who work, but who are often still very poor.

LJ–Real is worried about the deadline a year from now, when most clients are likely to lose their benefits.

MR–There are still families left on public assistance where the parents are not in a work or training program. That's a big concern because Ohio has a three-year time limit, and over half of the families left on public assistance in Cleveland could hit their time limit next year between October and the first of the year. Now that doesn't have to happen, they could get jobs now, and there is a serious effort underway, but the percentage-over half the children left on public assistance in Cleveland are in those families where if you look at Cincinnati and Dayton, it's about a fourth, so the need in Cleveland is much greater.

LJ–While many working families are finding welfare reform difficult, so are extended families trying to take care of children. Claudia Colton is the co-director of The Center on Poverty and Social Change at Case Western Reserve. Colton points out there's a special group of children that will continue to receive benefits. She's referring to children living with grandparents or other relatives.

Claudia Colton–There is one category of children who are not affected by the new welfare reform program, and that is children who are in child-only cases. In other words, if they're in a welfare case, and there is no adult beneficiary on that case, that case is not subject to time limits or work requirements. About a third of the cases in Cuyahoga County, maybe a quarter to a third, are not subject to time limits because they're made up of children only.

LJ–Despite all the possible negative effects that children could encounter, Colton finds one positive aspect for kids that live in welfare homes. She says children benefit when there mothers get a job and self-esteem grows.

CC–Over and above the benefits of getting earnings, and there's an interesting study, not going on here, but around the nation, that are showing some positive benefits of work for the mental health of the mother who has been on welfare in particular, for her sense of independence and feelings of self-confidence and competence. When women can get sustainable employment, employment in which there's some chance of keeping up or improving in their earnings and working conditions, that does seem to be a positive benefit.

LJ–As a result, there are some good things happening to children of parents dropping off the welfare rolls, but there's always a danger they'll suffer as a result of their parents remaining on the dole. For INFOhio, this is Lorna Jordan In Cleveland.