States' welfare caseloads starting to rise

Source: USA Today

WASHINGTON — State welfare rolls, which declined for more than a decade after a 1996 overhaul of the nation's cash-assistance program, are beginning to rise, due in part to the struggling economy.

Federal data for the last half of 2007 show welfare rolls rose about 0.6%, and 27 states reported increases. That follows a decline of 68% since the federal law imposed work requirements, time limits and penalties for recipients who don't follow the rules.


"When the economy starts to tank, that's when our business starts growing," says Jeff Brenn, chief of eligibility for Nevada's welfare agency.

The reversal of a downward trend that began in 1994 reflects a hard reality facing the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program: The 3.9 million people who remain on welfare are mostly adults with physical, mental or emotional barriers to employment, as well as children being raised by someone other than their parents — often grandparents, who are not expected to get jobs.




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"Democrats" there is even less of a social safety net than before 1996. It's going to be a long hot summer.

Working for even minimum wage, with the government covering day care for the kids and medicaid-it's better for people than sitting at home and collecting a check for the same basic amount of money.

Most of the recipients ended up with higher than minimum wage jobs-if they worked at a drug store, they could learn and get promoted to a pharmacist's assistant, for example. Now, those jobs are gone, along with the small company manufacturing jobs.

What the welfare caseloads are here.

we have become a society of marie Antoinette's hopefully we don't all end up sharing her fate.