Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Welfare Rolls Drop; Down 30 Percent

from State Sen. Mike Ross

Arkansas and the rest of the nation have seen dramatic reductions in the number of people receiving welfare since 1993, according to a report compiled my monitors of welfare reform legislation.

From January of 1993 to July of 1997, there has been a drop of 30 percent in the state's welfare caseload. Over the same period, the United States has seen a reduction in welfare cases of 28 percent.

Of our neighboring states. Mississippi has had the sharpest decline in welfare caseloads, followed closely by Tennessee and Oklahoma. Since 1993, the number of welfare cases in Mississippi is down by 50 percent, and in Tennessee and Oklahoma down by 49 percent.

Texas has reduced its welfare cases by 39 percent, Louisiana by 32 percent and Missouri by 30 percent.

A single welfare case usually entails more than one person in a family receiving assistance, so the drop in the number of cases does not correspond exactly with the drop in the number of people on welfare. Arkansas has seen a reduction of 29 percent in the number of people receiving welfare payments, compared to a 30 percent drop in the number of cases.

The legislature's passage of welfare reform last year caused much of the reduction in caseloads. For example, from June of 1997 to December of 1997 there was a sharp decrease in the number of people in Arkansas receiving cash assis-tance from 53,958 to 38,333.

The state Human Services Department reports that 4,849 adults who left welfare now have jobs. It is unknown why the others left the welfare rolls.

Of the people on welfare in December, 28,259 are children and 10,074 are adults.

For the current fiscal year, the state has budgeted $47 million to pay welfare recipients cash assistance. That figure is expected to increase to $51.2 million next year.

Administrative costs of running welfare are budgeted at $24.3 million this year and $27.6 million next year.

The welfare reform law changes the emphasis of the program, converting it from basically an assistance program to one that requires adult recipients to work, look for work, take job training courses or complete their educations. It also cuts off benefits to recipients found guilty of drug offenses.

Perhaps the most significant change in the reform act is that it imposes a two-year lifetime limit on cash assistance. The two-year cap takes effect on July 1, which means that after this year an individual is limited to two years of receiving cash benefits throughout his or her lifetime.

Recipients can receive other types of help, such as job training, transportation to work and child care, for longer periods.

A major concern of some legislators is that the Human Services Department has been slow to establish other types of assistance for welfare recipients who are trying to enter the work force. In the first quarter of the current fiscal year, the department spent $94,000 on transportation, books and educational supplies, job search activities, relocation expenses and one-time work related expenses.

The Legislative Joint Committees on Public Heath, Welfare and Labor have been monitoring the progress of the new welfare reform law. One concern is to make sure that people who truly need help, such as children and disabled people, are not denied assistance.