County Needs Flexibility Pursuing Welfare Reform : Moving recipients into work force has challenges, rewards

The Board of Supervisors has signed off on guidelines for Orange County’s reform of its welfare program, a staggering task that will affect more than 100,000 residents.

Congress ordered reform of welfare more than a year ago. The new law contains a five-year lifetime aid limit for most recipients and requires that while on welfare they work or receive job training. Counties have some latitude in designing their programs. For instance, recipients could be required to be in school or working a minimum of anywhere from 26 to 32 hours a week when the program begins next year. By July 1999, 32 hours would be the minimum.

Orange County decided last month to set the 26-hour requirement at the start of the program. That was a sensible response to pleas from welfare mothers trying to balance school and child care.

About 80% of the county’s welfare recipients are single parents, usually mothers. That means they have demands on their time not experienced by run-of-the-mill college students. Carving out time for homework will not be easy for many parents. Some will have difficulty adjusting to a learning environment and meeting course requirements.

Another provision of the county’s plan would allow the Social Services Agency to give recipients lump-sum payments equal to three months worth of welfare payments if they use the money to get off welfare. The county’s welfare reform chief, Angelo Doti, who is director of financial assistance at the Social Services Agency, gave the example of a welfare mother using the lump sum to buy a car. That would be a good use of the funds; the county’s flexibility in such instances is wise.

Transportation will be a major problem in making welfare reform successful. Most welfare recipients do not have cars. Those who do find jobs are likely to start at the bottom of the career ladder, often working the graveyard shift, a time when public transportation in Orange County is difficult. The county unfortunately chose to try to dig out from the bankruptcy three years ago in part by reducing the bus budget of the Orange County Transportation Authority. Now, OCTA will be responsible for helping new workers to their jobs.

Social Services Agency officials also realize that providing safe, affordable child care will be an essential element to successful welfare reform. It may be provided by friends or family, or it may have to be offered at the community colleges where many recipients will be trained.

Orange County officials have used some federal funds to increase the number of workers who assist welfare recipients. That’s a good recognition that many getting public assistance will need to be tutored on how to get a job or get an education that leads to a job.

Doti believes Orange County has the chance to become one of the success stories in welfare reform. Its economy is strong again and is expected to create tens of thousands of new jobs in the coming years. Some of them will be suitable for entry-level workers.

But there will be difficulties. A survey of about 800 aid recipients conducted by the Social Services Agency during the last few months found that more than 40% have been on welfare for more than five years. Many also lack education and have had difficulty holding jobs. Many said Vietnamese or Spanish was their primary language. It will be a large task to get such welfare recipients productively employed.

The county will have to be flexible in implementing the reform program. County workers will be required to keep close tabs on those receiving assistance, making sure they are in class or on the job to meet the conditions for continuing to receive money. But they also must guard against becoming government snoops, always looking over someone’s shoulder.

Doti said the welfare rolls in Orange County have dropped about 10% in the last 14 or 15 months. Paring that number further through reform of the system will require care. Getting people off welfare and into productive jobs is likely to take time, and undoubtedly there will be problems along the way. But done properly, the effort can bring the newly employed the satisfaction of holding a productive job; for taxpayers, it promises a lessened burden.