Supervisors OK Plan to Link Aid, Job Training

The Board of Supervisors approved a plan Tuesday to extend welfare benefits for general relief recipients who agree to enter a job training program.

Under the new program, recipients who participate in a job education and training course and make a good faith effort to find work would qualify for nine months of aid each year. Those who decline to participate in the job program would qualify for six months of aid.

Adoption of the program will allow the county to hold benefits at the current $221 a month. Had the supervisors not approved the program, the county would have had to increase monthly grants to about $294.

Officials estimate that the county will save $4 million this fiscal year under the new program, which will affect about 37,000 general relief recipients who are considered employable.

Recipients of general relief are single adults who do not qualify for other cash aid. Most must put in five days of work a month, usually at a county facility, to obtain aid.

Advocates for the poor were generally pleased with the plan after having weathered a series of program cuts and grant reductions. A 1995 court ruling held the county liable for an estimated $136 million in back welfare payments that were illegally held from general relief recipients in the years 1993 through 1995.

However, citing a projected deficit, the county brokered a deal with recipients to repay less than half of the money and further imposed a five-month cap on yearly eligibility to avoid steeper program restrictions. The new plan must still be approved by the court and recipients who were affected by its decision.