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Welfare: Can We Make It Work?

A roller-coaster ride might be one way to describe life for Christina Keith and her family. It has not been a fun ride. The 27-year-old California mom has been up and down a lot: working at many different jobs, but never making enough money to support herself and her two children.

When her daughter Jessica needed an operation on her foot, Keith found she could afford the operation only by quitting work so she would qualify for aid from the government. For the past three years, she has been on and off "welfare"--a government program to help the needy.

Like most people who get welfare money, Keith feels strange accepting government help. "Most of my life I said I would never go on welfare," she says. "But without it, I probably would have lost my kids, because I have no way to take care of them."

The U.S. government created the welfare system 60 years ago to help people like Keith. The system has grown large and complicated. By June 1996, 4.4 million families were getting checks from Aid to Families with Dependent Children, welfare's main program. An AFDC family of three received about $400 a month.

Millions of Americans also get help in the form of food stamps. They use the stamps to buy groceries.

Americans whose taxes pay for these programs have complained for years that the welfare system has grown too big and expensive. They say it encourages the poor to count on help from the government rather than work to support themselves.

When Bill Clinton first ran for President in 1992, he made a promise to "end welfare as we know it." But nobody could agree on how to change, or reform, welfare without hurting America's neediest people. Congress passed a bill that Clinton finally signed in August. Last week welfare reform went into effect. Over the next few years, it will mean some big changes in the lives of the nation's poor families.

A New Plan
The U.S. government will still provide a large chunk of money for welfare, but it has now handed over control of welfare cases to state governments. Each state must decide how the money should be spent on needy people within its borders.

Under the new plan, adults must find some kind of work within two years of receiving aid. By the year 2002, at least half of the people on welfare in each state must be working at least 30 hours a week. And a person cannot be on welfare for more than five years in a lifetime.

But Will It Work?
Many people on welfare will not feel these changes for a few months, or even a few years. But right now, the new rules are making some nervous.

The five-year time limit was designed to encourage work instead of welfare, but it may be too strict. "Some people aren't going to be able to get from a homeless shelter to educated, employed status in five years," says Jeremy Lane, a lawyer who helps poor people in Minnesota.

Take Darlis Bell, for example. The Minnesota mom and her son Josh, 7, depended on welfare for six years while Darlis went to college. Now she is off welfare and works as a kindergarten teacher. With the five-year limit, she worries, "nobody is going to be able to do what I did."

Another major worry is who will care for poor children when their mothers stop getting welfare checks and go to work. Most people on welfare lack the education or skills to get anything but very low-paying jobs--if they can find any job at all. Christina Keith wonders how she will pay someone to take care of Jessica when she works: "I don't have dependable family members to watch my kids."

It is hoped that the states will learn from one another how best to keep families like Jessica's off the roller-coaster ride of welfare. The new law has set aside more money for child care. States will also put money into job-training programs. But, warns Kentucky legislator Robert Damron, "it doesn't help us to teach 200 people to be hairdressers. We've got to teach people to do jobs that are out there."

The President has promised to make more work available for people on welfare. Said Clinton last week: "Welfare reform is first and foremost about work."

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Welfare Facts

How long can a person get welfare money?
Old Plan: Aid was available for as long as a person needed it.
New Plan: There is a limit of five years in a person's lifetime.

Do people on welfare have to work?
Old Plan: The U.S. government didn't require it; some states did.
New Plan: At least half the people on welfare in each state must have jobs by the year 2002.

Where do welfare funds come from?
Old Plan: They came from the Federal Government.
New Plan: The states get money from the Federal Government and make their own welfare plans.

Can immigrants be on welfare?
Old Plan: They might qualify, if they entered the U.S. legally.
New Plan: It's up to each state. Individual states may choose to cut off welfare to people who are not U.S. citizens.

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