Failure to reach welfare standard may cost Ohio

Associated Press

COLUMBUS

Ohio is asking federal regulators to reduce or waive millions of dollars in penalties the state faces because not enough residents who collect welfare meet federal requirements to be working or pursuing employment.

The work-participation rate is 23 percent, meaning less than a quarter of Ohio adults collecting welfare meet the requirements, The Columbus Dispatch reported Sunday. The newspaper said that rate is the lowest since 1997, when strict work guidelines for welfare recipients were imposed.

Ohio has been hit with $136 million in penalties by federal regulators because it did not meet the work-participation benchmark of 42 percent in the past four years. That doesn’t include a penalty for 2010, which has not been assessed. The money would be deducted from the annual $727 million the state gets to pay for Temporary Aid to Needy Families and help counties administer the welfare program.

Federal regulators told the newspaper they are considering the state’s request for a reduction or waiver of the penalties.

Ohio, California and Maine are the only states that have missed the work-participation mark three years in a row, according to the U.S. Department of health and Human Services. Benefits are supposed to be suspended if welfare recipients don’t meet the work requirements.

More than half of Ohio’s welfare recipients met the requirements from 1999 to 2006, but job and welfare officials say pressures from the recession left them few options but to ignore the regulations as unemployment increased.

“The economy has not been good, and there haven’t been many opportunities, especially for people with barriers to employment,” said Benjamin Johnson, a spokesman for the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services.

Social services workers say job scarcity and funding cuts for programs that serve the poor have made it tougher to help welfare recipients amid rising caseloads. More than 107,000 families are on Ohio’s welfare rolls, an increase of 30 percent in the past three years.

“People can come on the system and go off without getting any assistance finding a job or stabilizing their lives,” said Joel Potts, executive director of the Ohio Job and Family Services Directors Association.

Some county officials say with so many cases to handle, cutting benefits hasn’t been a priority.

But the problem is getting renewed attention because of the federal penalties. State officials said 2,750 out of about 66,000 adult welfare recipients lost benefits in April because they didn’t fulfill the work or other requirements.