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The Trump administration moved Wednesday to reimpose work requirements for Americans on welfare, revoking an Obama-era policy that had urged states to apply for waivers exempting the poor from having to show they were either getting job training or looking for work.
Requiring work was a key part of the 1996 welfare reform law enacted by a GOP-led Congress and signed by then-President Bill Clinton, and Mr. Trump’s move restores the law as written.
“The waiver option offered by the Obama administration is being replaced today by an expectation that work should always be encouraged as a condition for receiving welfare,” said Steven Wagner, the Health and Human Services Department’s acting assistant secretary for children and families.
The 2012 Obama policy didn’t outright gut the welfare law. Instead, it pushed states to consider applying for waivers that would let them still pay benefits to people even if they weren’t actively seeking work, job training or meeting other criteria.
www.washingtontimes.com...
The study found that those who left welfare saw their earnings increase by 104 percent in one year, which is $20 million more than they had while on welfare. In four years, these individuals saw their incomes increase by 247 percent.
Individuals who left welfare are also better off because they found employment in more than 600 different industries and found long-term, high-paying jobs.
"Critics of work requirements frequently suggest that enrollees who leave welfare are only able to find low-wage, entry-level employment," the report states. "Able-bodied adults removed from TANF found employment in more than 600 different industries, ranging from health care to finance to information technology. Even better, those who did find initial employment in entry-level jobs—such as those in food service, retail, or temp agencies—quickly found longer-term, higher-paying jobs."
freebeacon.com...
originally posted by: badw0lf
a reply to: eXia7
its nice to see that world wide, people on welfare are considered nothing but bludgers...
:/
"A Bludger is a round, jet black ball, made of iron, and is used in the wizarding sport of Quidditch. It is ten inches in diameter. There are two Bludgers used in every match, which are bewitched to fly around and try to knock the players off of their brooms."
A Mitt Romney TV ad claims the Obama administration has adopted “a plan to gut welfare reform by dropping work requirements.”
The plan does neither of those things.
Work requirements are not simply being “dropped.” States may now change the requirements — revising, adding or eliminating them — as part of a federally approved state-specific plan to increase job placement.
And it won’t “gut” the 1996 law to ease the requirement. Benefits still won’t be paid beyond an allotted time, whether the recipient is working or not.
originally posted by: badw0lf
a reply to: eXia7
its nice to see that world wide, people on welfare are considered nothing but bludgers...
:/
originally posted by: Aazadan
a reply to: StoutBroux
I disagree with this, 100%.
I'm pretty open with my situation here. At 20 I was diagnosed with a mental illness and given full blown disability. Being 20, I had very little in work credits, which meant my disability payments were the minimum. $750/month in todays dollars (back then, I think they were $650).
I lived that way for a couple years, until I decided I wanted a change. That was at 22 I think. I spent the next 13 years getting educated. I started with one class, then two, then full time. I currently have about 450 semester credits. My GPA sucks because I'm a bad student (I'm great at learning, theorizing, and applying... but unless I find the subject interesting I very much only do enough to get through a class) but I have degrees in Computer Graphics, Web Development, Digital Technology, Simulation and Game Engineering, Computer Science, and by the end of this year, Business.
That's just about what it takes to overcome the dual stigmas of welfare+disability in the US. And you know what? It worked. Starting in the beginning of summer I was given a full time software development position. Then they worked with me to work part time while I finish my last year of school.
I am a very recent transition off of welfare. The only reason I was able to do it in the first place, was that unearned income gave me the time to devote to my studies. If I had to work, for a low wage, for a significant period of time each month... nothing would have ever gotten done.
Good educational programs in the US require one to go all in. It's only late in a program where work+study becomes feasable.
Welfare programs that require work, take away the time a person has to improve themselves and better their position.
Money means freedom to put time into the type of profession you want to do. Working for that money, takes away that freedom.