VENTURA COUNTY NEWS : Despite Deadline, Welfare Checks Continue : Social services: Buoyed by economy and federal funds, county opts to extend aid for those still without a job after 18 months.

Ventura County is continuing to send welfare checks to a small but growing number of public-aid recipients even though they have missed a state deadline for getting a job.

Dozens of the county’s 6,183 adult welfare recipients have been receiving aid for at least 18 months and could have been kicked off the rolls under strict new welfare laws. But Ventura County, like other counties flush with federal aid and buoyed by a healthy economy, is opting to extend assistance for an additional six months to better prepare the recipients for employment.

The decision reflects the difficulty the county is facing as it attempts to guide a more difficult welfare population into the work force. People with good job skills have already been shed from the welfare rolls, said Randy Feltman, deputy director of the county’s welfare-to-work program.

“The people who remain have more hurdles--larger families, language barriers or problems with drugs and alcohol,” Feltman said.

That may be true, said Jere Robings, a Thousand Oaks taxpayer activist. But offering extensions at the start of a new welfare program might set a bad precedent.

“Welfare is certainly an expensive program and they need to get them off [the roll] as quick as possible,” Robings said. “If they can get extensions, they’ll milk it for all it’s worth.”

California gave counties the option of extending aid for an additional six months when it enacted its CalWORKS program in January 1998. But the grace period ends if a recipient is still not employed after two years.

At that point, the beneficiary is required to take a community-service job arranged by a social worker or risk losing benefits. That mandate will kick in Jan. 1.

However, California is one of only a few states in the nation that has opted to provide a safety net for children. Even if an adult is denied benefits, children are entitled to receive vouchers or cash until age 18.

Feltman said Ventura County has not yet decided whether it will offer vouchers for such things as food and housing or continue sending cash.

A typical welfare family--made up of a single mother with two children--would see its monthly check reduced from $600 to $480 if the adult does not work, officials said.

Welfare workers already have cut benefits for some parents who have hit their 18-month limit and are showing little effort to find a job, said Human Services Agency Director Barbara Fitzgerald.

Many people are trying to get a job--by attending job-training sessions and going out on interviews--but have just not yet succeeded in landing employment, Fitzgerald said.

“We are not trying to be punitive,” she said. “We decide on a case-by-case basis whether to grant an extra six months. It is based upon the client’s good effort to seek employment and training.”

It also took longer than expected to get seven welfare-to-work centers up and running across the county. Access to the services provided there--including job training, child care, legal help and mental health counseling--was not readily available to some welfare parents until recently.

The county can afford to be generous because federal and state funding for welfare has been plentiful in recent years. The nation’s strong economy, and rapidly falling welfare rolls, have resulted in lower-than-expected welfare payouts and bulging welfare treasuries.

In Ventura County, the number of welfare cases has dropped 42% since March 1995, when 10,727 families were on aid. But the dramatic decline is beginning to level off and officials worry about whether they will succeed in getting the rest into the work force.

The stakes will be raised again in January, when the 24-month deadline kicks in. Officials estimate that as many as 75 people a month will be notified that they must begin community-service jobs or lose benefits.

“We have identified those clients early and are working with them one-on-one to make sure there is a sense of urgency and that reality sets in,” Fitzgerald said. “We want to make sure that we have made an effort to help them get a job.”