Welfare Hits 35-Year Low

W A S H I N G T O N,  Aug. 22 -- Welfare rolls are half what they were fouryears ago, and the percentage of Americans on public assistance is at itslowest level in 35 years, President Clinton said today.

“In four short years, we have seen a new emphasis on work andresponsibility, as welfare recipients themselves have risen to thechallenge and made welfare what it was meant to be — a secondchance, not a way of life,” Clinton said in a statement issued atthe White House.

In a report released on the fourth anniversary of the welfarechanges being signed into law, the Clinton administration said allstates have met the law’s requirements.

The percentage of Americans on welfare has fallen from 5.5percent when Clinton took office in 1993 to 2.3 percent in 1999,and is now at its lowest level since 1965, the White House said.Welfare rolls have shrunk from 14.1 million households in January1993 to 6.3 million in December 1999 — a drop of 56 percent or 7.8million households.

Nearly three-fourths of the overall decline occurred since thenew welfare law was enacted, with 1999 caseloads roughly half whatthey were in 1996, the White House said.

Business Likes Change

Clinton met at the White House today with top corporateexecutives who issued their own progress report on welfare.

The nation’s welfare system was dramatically improved by theoverhaul, but poor people entering the work force need help withchild care, transportation and training, the business executivessaid. Their report added that former welfare recipients have made“good, productive employees.”

Job retention rates for those workers meet and often exceedthose for employees who haven’t been on welfare, according to thereport.

But the executives say government programs are still needed tohelp welfare recipients get jobs, citing child care andtransportation as the “biggest obstacles to work.”

“Lawmakers should sustain or, ideally, increase resources for arange of programs that help former welfare recipients stay on thejob,” the report says. “Partnership companies call for increasedemphasis on child care and transportation aid, as they areconsistently the two biggest challenges facing new workers.”