All this week, the District’s Dime blog is featuring entries that highlight program areas experiencing significant cuts in Mayor Gray’s proposed budget. Stay tuned next week for a rundown of key revenue initiatives.
Mayor Gray says he wants more DC families to move from welfare to work. Who can argue with that? Unfortunately, the proposal in his budget wouldn’t do that at all. It would make deep cuts to cash assistance ‘ but without providing parents the job training or supportive services needed to achieve better welfare outcomes. It could cause massive harm to thousands of families with children.
Under the Mayor’s budget, benefits for families in DC’s TANF program’ which were $428 a month for a family of three at the start of this year ‘ would fall to $257 for those who have received aid for 60 months or more. It is difficult to imagine how a family could survive on income this low, especially since only one-third of TANF families are in subsidized housing.
That’s what Gray’s TANF proposal would do. What it would not do is stunning:
No new job training or education: DC’s Department of Human Services lacks the capacity to offer employment services to all welfare recipients, and there is widespread acknowledgement that the current TANF employment services are of very poor quality. Efforts are underway to change that, but new employment services will not be in place before benefits would be cut.
No new assessment for employment barriers: Most long-term TANF recipients face serious personal challenges — depression, low literacy, domestic violence — and DC officials acknowledge that parents have not been assessed well or directed to the right supportive services. DHS plans to improve assessments, but it will take 18 months to assess all long-term TANF recipients.
No time to prepare: Welfare time limits should give time for recipients to prepare for work. But under Gray’s budget, families would be subject to a 60-month limit for time already on welfare, even though they had not been told before of a time limit. DC families would have just a few months to prepare for the large cut, with no additional help ‘ at a time when unemployment in the city remains high. By contrast, when Michigan set a welfare time limit in 2008, it set the clock going forward for all families.
Limited exemptions and extensions: All states exempt some families from time limits, such as those fleeing domestic violence or those caring for a relative with a disability. And most states extend time limits under certain circumstances. Maryland, for example, does not cut families off at the time limit if parents are complying with work preparation requirements. Mayor Gray’s budget offers no new exemptions and would cut benefits even for those complying with all program rules.
The goal of welfare reform should be better employment outcomes for parents, and this may mean investing more in the short-term to get better results in the long-term. The Mayor’s plan to cut benefits would achieve short-term savings, but it is hard to see how it will lead to better outcomes for families with children. Instead, it is likely to push many vulnerable families deeper into poverty, with serious long-term consequences. Recent research confirms that poverty hurts educational outcomes for children, especially young children.
This is troubling not only for families affected by TANF cuts, but for the city as a whole. There is widespread agreement that DC’s future depends on improving our education system. Cutting assistance to families with children, without supports to help parents move to work, will make the job of DC’s school reformers even harder.
