On Tuesday, the DC Council gave preliminary approval to a policy that dramatically cuts assistance to thousands of poor families, a change that will reduce benefits for some by 20 percent this year and even higher amounts in years to come. Council members justified the cut by saying they preserved money for adult job training, but there is not a direct link between the two programs. Most affected families will not get training — certainly not before the cuts go into effect — and many will not be able to replace the lost income.
While concerns over the current TANF program’s effectiveness are reasonable, reforms should focus on two things: improving family outcomes by upgrading education and employment services, and maintaining family stability to reduce harm to children. Expanding job training to a small number of adults ‘ not necessarily TANF recipients ‘ does not reflect a well-thought out plan for improving welfare-to-work results. As the new Mayor and Council move to address employment needs of all DC residents and to repair flaws in TANF, we hope that they will take a more deliberate approach that meets the needs of DC residents without putting residents at risk.
There are several ways in which the new job training funds won’t address the needs of TANF families facing benefit cuts.
For starters, the cuts in TANF cash assistance ‘ for families that have received aid for 60 months or more ‘ are scheduled to take effect as early as February 1, 2011. That’s in seven weeks. In October, benefits would be cut by another 20 percent (There would be cuts in future years as well). When is the restored job training scheduled to take effect? Well, it’s not. The job training dollars have not been allocated to a specific program and no bids from training providers have been solicited. This means that TANF recipients will see a large cut in their small monthly check before the program even launches.
Second, the District’s job training programs are in very high demand and cannot adequately meet the needs of all of DC’s unemployed even with the new adult training funds. DC’s Project Empowerment has a waitlist of 7,000. The new job training funds will serve about 1,000 residents ‘ a tremendous feat ‘ but there are 7,800 families with children facing TANF cuts. Even if every new adult training slot went to a long-term TANF recipient ‘ which is not required under the current plan ‘ only one of eight affected families could participate. TANF has its own employment readiness services that also lack the capacity to serve everyone who needs help.
Third, long-term TANF recipients have a wide range of needs and often face complex barriers to employment, such as low literacy or disabilities. These parents need services beyond a simple job training program to achieve a stable situation. A 2009 report co-authored by DCFPI found that TANF does a poor job assessing TANF participants for barriers and getting them the services they need. For example, about 20 percent of TANF recipients are victims of domestic violence, but only one percent receives DV assistance.
Cutting TANF benefits actually undermines the goals of the job training expansion. Instead of putting more DC residents to work, cutting benefits will place serious barriers in front of vulnerable families struggling for stability.
