Creation of Jobs Urged for Aid Cases

With the deadline approaching for many Los Angeles County welfare recipients to find work, welfare recipients, labor and religious leaders Wednesday urged the county to create wage-paying community service jobs for those who are unsuccessful in the private sector.

As the activists demonstrated in downtown Los Angeles in support of poor mothers on aid, a new report released across town underscored the importance of creating more low-skilled work opportunities such as those provided in community service programs.

The study announced by the Santa Monica-based Milken Institute raised serious questions about the ability of current welfare laws to move the least-skilled recipients permanently off aid.

According to the study, many will only have a chance of finding employment if the number of low-skilled jobs nationwide increases by 6%.

The demonstrators, numbering about 100, rallied in front of the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce to support a wage-based program they contend would put more money into a recipient’s pocket and boost the chances of low-skilled recipients.

State law requires that welfare recipients who cannot find work within 18 to 24 months be placed in a community service work program in order to continue receiving their welfare grant. The first recipients to hit this deadline in Los Angeles County will do so in October, and officials are scrambling to develop a program to serve them.

Los Angeles County favors implementing this through a “workfare” program in which recipients would receive cash benefits in exchange for working in public sector jobs and for nonprofit organizations.

But the demonstrators advocated another system: Instead of recipients receiving a monthly welfare check, cash aid would be diverted to an employer and paid back as wages. Recipients would qualify for federal tax credits and Social Security, and would have a legitimate job for a resume.

Such programs are being tried in several cities, including San Francisco, Philadelphia and Detroit.

“I need a job, a real job with money and benefits,” said Paulette Payne, a mother of five who joined other recipients at Wednesday’s rally.

Other speakers touted the merits of a paycheck over a welfare check in fostering self-esteem, encouraging a work ethic and strengthening the family.

Representatives of the Chamber of Commerce said the group had not taken an official position, but urged the Board of Supervisors, which has final say, to consider a pilot program to evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of both the grant-based and wage-based approaches.

Labor leaders backed the plan. They said they worried that a large-scale workfare program would create a two-tier system in many government offices, pitting poor welfare recipients against public employees fearful of being displaced or having their wages driven down.

But one of the main advantages of compensating recipients in the form of a paycheck is a substantially higher level of income, according to a recent report issued by the state Legislative Analyst’s Office.

“Wage-based community service when compared to the workfare approach results in substantially higher incomes for participants, increases the flow of federal funds into California and may provide a better bridge to non-subsidized employment,” concluded the report. But the analyst also said that the such programs may cost more.

Although Los Angeles County is flush with an estimated $300 to $400 million in unspent welfare funds, officials say they are leery of creating a new bureaucratic structure to support a wage-based program. Nor have they surveyed employers to determine if they would assume the additional responsibilities that would entail, said Eileen Kelly, chief of GAIN services for the Department of Public Social Services.

The complexities of the situation were illustrated by the Milken Institute study.

In fact, the study found that many mothers on welfare have such low reading and math skills that even entry-level jobs are not open to them. The findings were published by the National Center for the Study of Adult Learning and Literacy at Harvard University.

Five of the 10 counties the study identified with the greatest potential difficulty moving welfare recipients to jobs are in California: Los Angeles, San Diego, San Bernardino, Sacramento and Fresno.

According to the report, Los Angeles County will need a 17% increase in the number of low-skilled jobs available--a total of 77,616--to help welfare recipients find work in their skill range. San Diego County will need a 12% increase, or 14,817 more jobs.