wfn.org | Welfare policy falls short for new workers, church officials say

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March 20, 2002  News media contact: Linda Bloom7(212)870-38037New York
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NOTE: A photograph is available with this report.

By Carol Fouke*

WASHINGTON (UMNS) - Inadequate support of welfare-to-work efforts is leaving
new workers poorer than when they received public assistance, according to
church representatives meeting recently to discuss welfare policy changes.

A hundred church people from 26 states spent March 13-15 in the nation's
capital to press for policy changes that would help ensure that everyone who
can work moves successfully from welfare to employment. Conference
participants affirmed the "benefit to the entire community of helping people
move from welfare to work when possible and appropriate." But they expressed
concern about inadequate support for such efforts.

Their meeting, sponsored by the National Council of Churches (NCC), was a
mix of Bible study, policy analysis, strategy development and appointments
with members of Congress to share their concerns as 1996 welfare policy
changes come up for review and reauthorization.

"We as the faith community have something special to say," said Kay Bengston
of the Lutheran Office for Governmental Affairs in Washington, a conference
speaker. "While statistics are important, we can approach the issues from
values and not just statistics.

"When you talk with your members of Congress," she said, "don't be afraid to
tell them you are here because of your faith, and that faith causes you to
care about poor people."

Under 1996 welfare changes, many people have lost supportive services
essential to maintaining their households, said conference participants.

Participants included faith-based social service providers, public policy
advocates, denominational staff with domestic poverty portfolios and
representatives of state and local ecumenical agencies and community
ministries. Several current and former recipients of public assistance also
brought their personal testimonies.

Many new workers have jobs that do not provide a family-sustaining wage
and/or health insurance, but have lost cash, housing, child care, food
assistance or other benefits that sustained them while on welfare. Access to
drug, alcohol, mental health and domestic violence services; education and
training for employment; help with job placement and retention, and
transportation can make or break a new worker's success, conferees noted.

Now the 1996 welfare policy - the official name is "Temporary Assistance for
Needy Families (TANF)" - is up for review and reauthorization, providing an
opportunity to ensure that no new workers receive less in combined income
and benefits as a result of working than they received while on welfare,
conference participants said.

A "Call to Poverty Reduction in the Context of Reauthorization of Temporary
Assistance to Needy Families" was released during the conference. Endorsed
by 25 Christian, Jewish and other organizations, the statement asserts that
ending poverty is "central to our religious traditions, sacred texts and
teachings." The United Methodist Board of Church and Society is among the
endorsers.

The "call" urges Congress to "provide more funds for TANF to ensure its
ability to act as both a work support program and a safety net for those for
whom work is not an option" and offers 10 principles for strengthening U.S.
welfare policy, including providing training and education necessary for
unskilled workers to get and hold jobs.

Policy should help, not hinder, people's efforts to better themselves,
conference participants said. For example, participation in post-secondary
education should count as work, they said.

The interfaith "Call to Poverty Reduction" and the NCC General Assembly's
November 2001 "Resolution on the Reauthorization of TANF and Related
Programs" articulate the need for more case-by-case flexibility in applying
welfare policy. They recommend that the current system of time limits on
participation in TANF (two years' running, with a five-year lifetime limit)
be replaced by a more flexible approach in which each participant has an
individualized plan.

The Rev. Peter W. Peters, of St. Luke's Episcopal Church in Fairport, N.Y.,
told of a 42-year-old woman with an 11-year-old son in his area. She has
been receiving public assistance for four years. She is two months away from
earning an associate's degree in food administration, which will boost her
earning power from her current $5.25 an hour to $8 to $10 an hour.

"This woman is almost ready to be self-sufficient," Peters said. "But the
Department of Social Services has notified her that unless she quits school
and gets a 40-hour-a-week job, she will lose her assistance." She's
appealing the department's edict, he said, "but she shouldn't be put up
against a wall like that."

Ruth P. Rideout, a United Methodist with Faith Matters in Greensboro, N.C.,
told of a 30-year-old client who is piecing her life together with Medicaid,
food stamps and a 15- to 19-hour a week job in a fast-food restaurant. Her
"Section 8" subsidized housing voucher covers just more than half of her
rent, and her earnings are inadequate for the balance, Rideout said. "She
has a voucher for a six-month certified nursing course, and we are trying to
get her a break on housing for six months so she can take the course and get
a better paying job."

The conference participants heard from U.S. Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., and
staff about efforts to strengthen anti-poverty work through legislative
advocacy, and were introduced to ecumenical curricula useful in supporting
churches' social justice and advocacy ministries. The United Methodist
Committee on Relief is among the sponsors of one curriculum, "Hunger No
More."

The conference was part of the NCC's 10-year mobilization against poverty.
For more information on the effort and the NCC's "March: On Poverty 2002,"
go to www.ncccusa.org/poverty/. The NCC Web site also includes resources on
the reauthorization of TANF and related programs at
www.ncccusa.org/publicwitness/tanf.html.

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*Fouke is director of news services for the National Council of Churches,
with offices in New York.

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United Methodist News Service
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