Welfare caseloads no longer declining in the United States

Houston, Texas

5 May 2008

by Richard Wolf

WASHINGTON -- State welfare rolls, which declined steadily for more than a decade after a 1996 overhaul of the nation's cash assistance program, are beginning to rise, due in part to the struggling economy.

Federal data for the last half of 2007 show welfare rolls rose about 0.6 percent, with 26 states reporting increases. That follows a decline of 68 percent since the federal law imposed work requirements, time limits and penalties for recipients who don't follow the rules.

"When the economy starts to tank, that's when our business starts growing," says Jeff Brenn, chief of eligibility for Nevada's welfare agency.

The reversal of a downward trend that began in 1994 reflects a hard reality facing the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program: The 3.9 million people who remain on welfare are mostly adults with physical, mental or emotional bars to employment and children being raised by someone other than their parents.

"Some states have reached a portion of their caseload that are truly the harder to serve," says Russell Sykes of New York, who chairs the national association of state welfare administrators. "We need to do more for them as far as preparing them for the labor market."