Unemployment has been increasing sharply, but so far state welfare programs do not seem to be rising to the challenge. Despite the desperate economic times, the number of people receiving cash assistance is at or near a four-decade low. Welfare is a popular political target, but it is also often the last thing standing between poor people — many of them children — and destitution. States and the federal government need to do more to ensure that Americans get the help they need.
The welfare reform of 1996 ended the idea of welfare as an entitlement. Federal funds were sent as block grants to the states, which were given more discretion over how to spend the money.
The new model included work requirements and limits on how many years people could receive benefits. With the economy strong, the reforms succeeded in moving many people off the rolls and employment rose. Today, there are few jobs available for people on the rolls to be moved into. Welfare programs should be expanding, but as Jason DeParle recently reported in The Times, they often have not been.
Michigan, whose unemployment rate last October was over 9 percent, cut its welfare rolls 13 percent last year. Of the 12 states where unemployment increased most, eight had welfare rolls that held steady or declined.
The states clamored for the increased discretion. Now, in the worst economic times since the reforms passed, they need to use that discretion appropriately. They should be removing overly onerous obstacles to receiving benefits, rolling back work requirements, and doing better outreach to people in need of assistance.
The federal government also has to do more. The stimulus plan pending in Congress may make much-needed matching grants available to states that expand their welfare programs. That would be a good start, but Congress should look for other ways to prod states to provide adequate benefits to their neediest residents.
It should also expand unemployment insurance so states can cover jobless part-time workers, another sizeable group of people falling through the cracks.
Ever since Ronald Reagan gleefully campaigned against “welfare queens,” welfare has been on the political defensive. The truth is, there will always be people who need to rely on welfare, especially when the economy takes a grim turn. Civilized societies make sure that when people are in desperate need of help, the money is there to take care of them.
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