Choosing???

Fri, Oct 21, 2005

Some may have to choose between W-2, child support

The Associated Press
and Gannett Wisconsin Newspapers

Central Wisconsin's poor families could face a choice between public
assistance programs.
The federal government might decide recipients no longer can receive
full child support money and Wisconsin Welfare money at the same time, a
county official says.
A special federal authorization allowing nearly 19,000 current and
former W-2 participants to retain their full child support and public
assistance expires next year, state officials say. The loss would
average about $150 a month per W-2 client, about 60 percent of the total
child support payment.
That would make some families choose between receiving W-2 payments or
receiving child support. As of August, there were 94 recipients of W-2
in Marathon County, 79 in Wood County, 14 in Taylor County and 11 in
Clark County, according to the Department of Workforce Development.
"Some people may get as much as $400 or $600 a month in child support,
so now they have to decide between how much they get with W-2 versus how
much they wouldn't get," said Charlie Sparr, program manager with the
Marathon County Department of Employment and Training department, which
administers W-2 funds. "This has to impact families' decisions."
U.S. Sen. Herb Kohl, D-Milwaukee, is among the legislators leading an
ongoing effort for Wisconsin to maintain its W-2 waiver, a spokesman for
Kohl said.
Losing the W-2 money could mean the difference between paying rent or
not, said state Workforce Development Secretary Roberta Gassman.
Although it might not seem like much to middle-class families, "$150 to
a poor family in Wisconsin makes a big difference" and could lead to
more evictions or utility cutoffs, she said.
Julie Kerksick, director of Milwaukee's New Hope Project, an experiment
in helping poor families move into the work force, said noncustodial
fathers she has worked with show more willingness to work and make
support payments when they know the money goes to their children.
Taking away the support payments from families on assistance will remove
a key incentive for absent fathers to pay child support, she said.
"This is an awful development. These families are already struggling to
make ends meet," Kerksick said.
Public aid recipients have been able to retain child support payments in
Wisconsin under an exception from federal rules.
The exception was granted in 1997 when W-2 started as part of efforts to
prod welfare recipients to become self-sufficient through a combination
of training, work and financial support.