Quoted Text

New York needs to do better with welfare-to-work

    Like other states, New York has done a good job of trimming the welfare rolls since the Welfare Reform Act of 1996, but one of the worst jobs of moving them to work — the real goal of that law. In fact, according to the federal government, New York is second to last in the overall effectiveness of its welfare-to-work program. A couple of bills now in the Legislature would help the state improve this dismal ranking, and more important, help put more poor, uneducated New Yorkers on the road to self-suffi - ciency.
    Uneducated is the key word here. Schooling and training are the best ways to get and keep a decent job, and not nearly enough of New York’s welfare recipients are receiving them. Although federal rules allow as much as 30 percent of the welfare caseload to be involved in education and training, in New York only 11 percent are.
    In too many cases, county social services departments simply push welfare recipients to take any job, without assessing their barriers or abilities and how much they might benefit from education or training. Many never get one, or if they do, they soon leave it or lose it and go back on welfare (until their fi veyear federal eligibility runs out — at which time they go on the state/ county “Safety Net” program). Or, if they do stay with the job, it doesn’t pay enough to lift them out of poverty, and they must rely on food pantries and soup kitchens to survive.
    The Bush administration has just eased the rules to make it easier to count schooling as part of their work requirement. New York needs to take advantage, and one of the bills would do this. Another would help those who hold jobs by allowing them to keep more of their earnings, up to the federal poverty level, while still receiving part of their welfare benefits. They both deserve passage.