House OKs stricter work rules for welfare

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- The Missouri House on Wednesday approved stricter work requirements for welfare program participants and a lifetime limit for receiving temporary cash assistance of less than three years in a proposal that critics said would devastate needy families.

Under the measure, the lifetime limits on cash assistance would be lowered from the five years to 2 1/2 years. It also imposes sanctions on a family receiving benefits if an adult does not comply with work requirements and requires individuals to be engaged in work activities or looking for a job before getting food stamps.

The changes will encourage welfare recipients to find employment and keep them from becoming dependent on state assistance, said Rep. Diane Franklin, R-Camdenton, who guided the Senate bill through the House.

The measure also requires the Department of Social Services, which administers the program, to develop an orientation program for a participant to create a plan to engage in work activities.

"Individuals get to make choices, it is their opportunity to choose what they want to do with their life, and if they achieve a goal here and a goal there, they get to feel that sense of accomplishment which leads to more accomplishments," Franklin said.

The measure passed 115-44 and returns to the Senate to resolve differences between the versions. The Senate measure has similar provisions but would lower the lifetime limit for the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, or TANF, program to 48 months.

Under the House proposal, 7,500 households would lose TANF benefits, according to an analysis of the bill by the Department of Social Services. More than 2,400 cases would have lost assistance under the Senate-approved limit. The measure includes a possible hardship exemption from the limit.

Two-thirds of the 73,000 people receiving temporary cash assistance are children, according to February Department of Social Services data. If a parent in a household reaches the lifetime maximum, household members including children would not be eligible for benefits, according to the Department of Social Services.

The bill also would create stricter work requirements and impose larger sanctions if a person is not complying with the requirement. Department of Social Services workers would meet with parents found to have violated those obligations before any benefits would be taken away under the current plan.

The recipients would have six weeks to comply and then would have benefits cut in half for at most 10 weeks if they fail to do so. They would need to work a minimum average of 30 hours a week for a month to continue receiving help.

Opponents say these requirements may harm those in need and say looking for work or getting to job training requires money they may not have.

Rep. Jeanne Kirkton, D-Webster Groves, said requiring work activities did not take into consideration the distance people may live from available jobs or the rate of employment in their area. She also said imposing sanctions for a failure to comply would harm children.

"We're punishing children for their parent's inability to work," Kirkton said.

Kirkton and some other opponents of the bill said they did like certain elements like the face-to-face meeting to help people in danger of noncompliance and a component to allow recipients to get a lump-sum payment to help with emergency needs instead of enrolling in TANF.

The measure also makes changes to the food stamp program, known as the Supplementary Nutritional Assistance Program, and requires individuals be working, in training or looking for a job before qualifying. The change would mean about 47,260 people would lose food stamps, according to the department's fiscal analysis.

Federal funds saved under the proposed changes would be directed to child care, education, transportation and job training assistance for eligible TANF recipients.

The bill is SB 24.