The Crazy Side of Welfare Reform

Ohio is kicking 25% of the people who receive cash assistance out of thewelfare program to avoid federal fines for not achieving welfare-to-work goals:

Frech says Ohio’s caseload reduction has resulted in the state’s distributing $10 million less per month in cash assistance. Additionally, when a person is thrown off cash assistance due to a sanction—like a missed work assignment—he or she can be removed from the food stamp program as well. The state also has the option to throw the individual off of Medicaid. So a single mother with two kids, for example, suddenly finds herself with no cash assistance, one-third less food stamps and no Medicaid.
“The punishment is just brutal,” says Frech. “And essentially what we are doing is sanctioning the poorest, most vulnerable families in the state by [more than] $120 million a year to avoid the $130 million penalty.”
Schott says that Ohio likely could reach its work-participation rate target largely through its new Ohio Works Now (OWN) program, which pays employed low-income families that receive SNAP a $10 per month TANF benefit, and in that way raising the percentage of TANF recipients who are working. Oregon is in a similar position to Ohio, and has relied heavily on its version of an OWN-like program in order to raise the state’s work participation rate. This approach has allowed Oregon to avoid aggressive sanctioning and also the burdensome application process that keeps many Ohioans from even getting through the “front door” of the cash assistance program in the first place.

It would seem like the Oregon strategy would be a good one for Ohio, but that's not the way it appears they are going to go.  While I understand the concerns of many people that folks shouldn't get something for nothing, in some cases the people don't have much opportunity for work:

“Ohio’s response has been to reduce the rolls as quickly as possible, by any means possible,” says Frech, adding that the people who are now getting kicked off of the program are the very people who have the greatest barriers to work. A recent report from the Urban Institute identifies many of those barriers, including: mental and physical health challenges; lack of a high school diploma; caring for a child with special needs or another family member with a disability; and living with domestic violence. The authors conclude that the “one-size-fits all work approach” doesn’t work for parents who face significant barriers to employment.

Kicking around the poorest folks in the country while making things easier on rich folks doesn't seem like the thing to do in my book.