Hard Part of Welfare Reform

Welfare rolls are at their lowest level in nearly three decades. The exodus is credited to tough welfare reform, a decline in the teen pregnancy rate and a vibrant economy that absorbed the most employable adults. Now comes the tougher challenge: employment of hard-core, long-term recipients who have neither the skill nor much will to work.

Federal law limits individual welfare eligibility to a lifetime maximum of five years on temporary aid for needy families, doled out no more than two years at a time. That clock starting ticking one year ago. As of Jan. 1, a quarter of the adult welfare population was required to be in jobs or some other form of work. Most states have met that first deadline, sweeping up the most job-eligible, including college-educated parents who were forced onto public assistance by divorce, illness or some other catastrophe. Recipients with job histories and high school diplomas were also among the first to trade welfare checks for paychecks.

In California, slow to come out of the recession, only 20% meet the work requirements, but the state still meets the federal deadline because of the overall drop in the welfare population, nearly 400,000 in recent years. Something is working, though follow-up is needed to determine the well-being of children who have left public assistance. The original intent of welfare, to provide a safety net for poor children who cannot depend on their parents, should not be lost sight of. Are the children getting decent shelter, clothing, health care? Day care? After-school care?

The next big deadline is 2002, when half of adult welfare recipients are required by federal law to be in jobs or other work. At that point, states will be dealing with bigger obstacles: illiteracy, poor English skills, zero work habits or history, alcohol or drug dependencies. States must be willing to put in the effort--and the money--to turn around entire lives. Some adults may drop through the cracks, but their children should not.