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Government Report Extols Welfare Reform, Ignores Impact of Child Support Funds
http://mensnewsdaily.com/blog/2006/0...s-welfare.html
3/1/2006 Government Report Extols Welfare Reform, Ignores Impact of Child Support Funds by Mike LaSalle Earlier this week, the House Ways and Means Human Resources Subcommittee released the first in a series of reports extolling the virtues of welfare reforms signed into law nearly a decade ago. The report claims a 60 percent reduction in welfare rolls since the reforms were implemented. "Reducing welfare dependence was a major goal in 1996," said Ways and Means Human Resources Subcommittee Chairman Wally Herger (R-CA). "Today we can look back and see record improvements for families and children resulting from the 1996 reforms. Additional welfare reforms included in the Deficit Reduction Act, which the President just signed into law, are designed to improve self-sufficiency and elevate even more vulnerable families out of poverty in the years ahead." But family advocate Melanie I. Cummings sees it differently. Cummings told MND that the welfare reforms signed by then-President Clinton in 1996 were ostensibly designed to "end the dependence of needy parents on government benefits by promoting job preparation, work and marriage." To that end, the 1996 Welfare Reform Law established a fixed-block grant program known as TANF - the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program. That "gave states record but fixed federal funds to provide for welfare needs, in place of the open-ended entitlement program," said Cummings. (Before enactment of the reforms, states received additional federal funds whenever more families became dependent on welfare. ) The Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 cited by Rep. Herger provides an additional $1 billion in federal funding to underwrite child care costs for employed parents. "The middle-class is subsidizing this cost by bringing in child support dollars through direct payroll deductions," said Cummings. "Middle-class NCPs (Non-Custodial Parents) have higher child support burdens, which means more monies for the states. This was not the intention of Welfare Reform." According to Cummings, some Child Support funds collected by the states from NCPs are never actually distributed either to the child or the Custodial Parent. In that case, states place the NCP's payments into an "abandoned property" account - while continuing to collect federal funds meant for children they are no longer serving. The states are allowed to keep all the funds for their own discretionary use - and no monies are ever distributed to their rightful owners. "The states are not required by any law to look for the NCP, child or CP," said Cummings. "States need to reconcile their books. Some of these children have been emancipated and some NCPs are deceased. If an NCP paid but the funds were never distributed, the funds should be returned to the payer - not forfeited to the state. I brought this up with the Senate Finance Committe myself. They were not pleased. Follow-up is needed." In the months ahead, the Ways and Means Committee is expected to issue more reports leading up to the 10th anniversary of the signing of the 1996 Law on August 22, 2006. Primary source PDF document: 1996 Welfare Reforms Reduce Welfare Dependence |
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Government Report Extols Welfare Reform, Ignores Impact of Child Support Funds
"Dusty" wrote in message ... http://mensnewsdaily.com/blog/2006/0...s-welfare.html 3/1/2006 Government Report Extols Welfare Reform, Ignores Impact of Child Support Funds by Mike LaSalle Earlier this week, the House Ways and Means Human Resources Subcommittee released the first in a series of reports extolling the virtues of welfare reforms signed into law nearly a decade ago. The report claims a 60 percent reduction in welfare rolls since the reforms were implemented. "Reducing welfare dependence was a major goal in 1996," said Ways and Means Human Resources Subcommittee Chairman Wally Herger (R-CA). "Today we can look back and see record improvements for families and children resulting from the 1996 reforms. Additional welfare reforms included in the Deficit Reduction Act, which the President just signed into law, are designed to improve self-sufficiency and elevate even more vulnerable families out of poverty in the years ahead." But family advocate Melanie I. Cummings sees it differently. Cummings told MND that the welfare reforms signed by then-President Clinton in 1996 were ostensibly designed to "end the dependence of needy parents on government benefits by promoting job preparation, work and marriage." To that end, the 1996 Welfare Reform Law established a fixed-block grant program known as TANF - the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program. That "gave states record but fixed federal funds to provide for welfare needs, in place of the open-ended entitlement program," said Cummings. (Before enactment of the reforms, states received additional federal funds whenever more families became dependent on welfare. ) The Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 cited by Rep. Herger provides an additional $1 billion in federal funding to underwrite child care costs for employed parents. "The middle-class is subsidizing this cost by bringing in child support dollars through direct payroll deductions," said Cummings. "Middle-class NCPs (Non-Custodial Parents) have higher child support burdens, which means more monies for the states. This was not the intention of Welfare Reform." According to Cummings, some Child Support funds collected by the states from NCPs are never actually distributed either to the child or the Custodial Parent. In that case, states place the NCP's payments into an "abandoned property" account - while continuing to collect federal funds meant for children they are no longer serving. The states are allowed to keep all the funds for their own discretionary use - and no monies are ever distributed to their rightful owners. "The states are not required by any law to look for the NCP, child or CP," said Cummings. "States need to reconcile their books. Some of these children have been emancipated and some NCPs are deceased. If an NCP paid but the funds were never distributed, the funds should be returned to the payer - not forfeited to the state. I brought this up with the Senate Finance Committe myself. They were not pleased. Follow-up is needed." In the months ahead, the Ways and Means Committee is expected to issue more reports leading up to the 10th anniversary of the signing of the 1996 Law on August 22, 2006. Primary source PDF document: 1996 Welfare Reforms Reduce Welfare Dependence And then there is the law of unintended consequences that the government ignores. Welfare to work legislation limited welfare benefits to five years in most states. Welfare recipients have taken steps to get themselves declared "disabled" usually based on drug and alcohol addictions. Dollars that were previously paid out as time limited welfare benefits is now paid out as permanent disability benefits. The game is the welfare program administrators crow about all the savings they have accomplished for the taxpayers while the disability program administrators remain silent about the rapid increase in the expenditures they make that cost taxpayers. The law of unintended consequences has created a permanent welfare class we now call the disabled. |
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