Welfare Hits 35-Year Low

W A S H I N G T O N,  Aug. 22, 2000 -- 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.”

The report recommends Congress increase tax credits andchild-care grants to cover more working parents and subsidizetransportation and housing costs so welfare recipients can get towork more easily or move closer to their jobs.

Let Them WorkThe 1996 welfare law encouraged recipients to enter the workforce by placing a time limit on benefits, allowing more recipientsto work while still receiving benefits and offering incentives toemployers to hire welfare recipients.

The corporate executives who signed the report include chiefs ofUnited Airlines, Sprint, Citigroup, Time Warner, Bank of America,Burger King, Monsanto, United Parcel Service and IBM.

The Welfare to Work Partnership, as the group is known, saysover 20,000 American employers have pledged to hire at least oneperson from welfare rolls, employing about 1.1 million formerrecipients.

Employers report that the average starting wage of those hiredfrom welfare rolls is $7.80 per hour, significantly higher than theminimum wage of $5.15, and more than 74 percent receive medicalbenefits. More than 44 percent of hires, the report says, get a401(k) matching savings plan.

The report is critical of the way some states have used federalwelfare funds. While some states have spent the money responsiblyand creatively, others have used the funds to offset state spendinginstead of directly supporting welfare recipients and low-wageworkers, the report says.

The report also recommends loosening the federal requirementthat welfare recipients find jobs.

The definition of work activities should include substance-abusetreatment, domestic violence counseling and other special needs,and Congress also should give a break to workers who need longerthan five years to get off welfare because of low starting pay, thereport says.