Welfare Reforms Outlined

As the U.S. Senate sought to reverse 60 years of welfare policy Tuesday, state Department of Social Services Director Eloise Anderson was in Orange County outlining California’s redesigned program and anticipating the sweeping social change she says it will produce.

Anderson, who has been in the national spotlight for her insistence that poor people are not necessarily entitled to welfare, told about 300 county leaders that while the goal of the state’s program is to move people from welfare to work, it should also force a reexamination of the many social issues surrounding child welfare.

Aid to Families With Dependent Children, founded in the 1930s, was intended to allow women who were widowed or abandoned by their husbands to stay at home with their children, Anderson said. At that time, 2% of children were born to unwed mothers. Now widows with children receive Social Security, not AFDC, and the program mostly serves the children of women who are unmarried and unable or unwilling to work.

“There is a dislocation between the AFDC people and the rest of the women in this country,” Anderson said. “If 80% of single women work and only 7% of women on AFDC work, there’s something wrong with that picture.”

If President Clinton approves the Senate welfare reform bill--he lauded improvements in the Senate bill but is pressing for more changes--federal block grants will allow states to tailor programs to their own needs. In turn, states will allow counties to further refine programs to suit their communities, Anderson said.

California’s plan, however, would eliminate the requirement that for a family to be eligible, one parent must be deceased, disabled, missing or unemployed; recipients would receive a flat cash amount regardless of how many children they have, and they would be limited to five years of welfare.

“It’s not an easy shift, because we will no longer support a large family,” Anderson said. “It solves a lot of issues, but it seems hard; it seems cold. What about a second child? What about a third child? We believe people make those choices for themselves.”

“They can do what the rest of us do,” she said. “Sit down and budget for that child, adjust their expenses where possible or get a second job.”

California’s program, which was redesigned in preparation of the federal turnover of control to the states, consists of four parts:

* The Ready-to-Work Program, which is meant to rapidly move people who have any past work experience into jobs within two years.

* Family Transition Assistance, to serve parents who have never worked or teen parents who require intensive services.

* The Disabled Family Assistance Program, for both disabled adults and adults caring for disabled children.

* The Child-Only Assistance Program, which provides money for children living with parents who are ineligible for welfare and children living with relatives who receive welfare in lieu of foster-care payments.

A five-year substance abuse program will also be provided, Anderson said.

Any discussion of child welfare, however, must include an increased awareness of the importance fathers play in their children’s lives, Anderson said. She noted that often women demand equality with men in the office but do not accord men equal status in the home--particularly with regard to parenting.

“I would challenge the feminists on that,” Anderson said.

“Children have a right to their fathers’ support, and we believe fathers have a right to have access to their children.”

The new state program also will provide home visits by social workers to every teen who becomes a parent, Anderson said.

Anderson, who was brought to Orange County by the county’s Family Preservation and Support group--a coalition that has put together a plan for strengthening county families--took questions from a panel of community, nonprofit group and business representatives, as well as written questions submitted by the audience. Most of the questions centered on how children will be affected if their parents are denied welfare, on child care and on community involvement in the new program.

For many questions, Anderson responded with guidelines rather than blueprints. Counties and communities largely would be asked to develop programs to suit their needs, she said.

“It’s an issue of trust,” Anderson said. “I have found public servants will give the public good service. But this is all new. We’ve never said to a director, ‘Here! Here’s the outcome we’re looking for and now we want you to be innovative!’ ”

“Americans want a risk-free society, and I can’t promise them there’s not going to be any pain in this,” she said. “But I will tell you the pain that will come out of this system will be much less than the pain involved with what we have now.”