Ray's Place

Please excuse any mess. I'm working on the site when I have the time and ambition. Stop by now and then to see what has changed!

Is This Really Welfare Reform? A Story Of A Welfare Reform Survivor EVIL COMES IN MANY FORMS.IT CAN BE AS SIMPLE AS NOT DOING THE RIGHT THING WHEN IT NEEDS TO BE DONE A truly enlightened society doesn't let it's members suffer needlessly. Where the government fears the people there is freedom. Where the people fear the government, there is anarchy and tyranny. What manner of person preys upon the weak and those least able to advocate for themselves? Ideology is no substitute for morals, ethics, caring, and doing what is truly right. People must come before the needs of the system! A witness has a moral obligation to speak out. Letting the truth be known is a form of justice. "He who is not with me is against me, and he who does not gather with me scatters." Jesus Mathew 12:30 I'm a Welfare Reform SURVIVOR. I say Survivor because in spite of all the "Reforming" (more like tinkering and that in and of itself is dangerous because whoever tinkers rarely takes the time out to consider the reprocussions of their actions) that supposedly went on, the system, at least in the state of Connecticut, is needlessly cold hearted and downright mean, especially to those who are "hard to serve" (we have multiple barrariers to getting back on our feet and joining the work a day world once again). I've also learned over the last few years never to trust any system that is being "reformed" because it's nothing but window dressing put in place by spin doctors who are trying to create the illusion that some action is being taken on a supposed problem area, even though the system isn't in need of Reformation, just some Refining or Redefining. One reason I feel compelled to write about my experiences with the Welfare System in Connnecticut is to get my story told since no one in the Welfare System or in the print media was willing to listen to me and then tell it to others. At one point I had contacted the Hartford Courant (the state's oldest newpaper) and one of their reporters had set up an appointment with me for an interview. She never showed up for the meeting nor did she call beforehand to tell my she couldln't make it. My subsiquent follow up calls were not answered. In general I didn't care much for the way the local and national media handled the topic of Welfare Reform. They either played up the emotional negative end almost to the point of causing hysteria or didn't have much in the way of facts or they were saying the same things the goverment had, only using diffferent words. The other reason for my writing was what I saw on peoples' personal home pages via Geocities/Yahoo and on some informational web pages under the topic of Welfare Reform on the internet and other data bases. Many pages done by individuals and some organizations contained rants, attacks, out and out misinformation, or at the very least, outdated information. This scared me. Some pages are nothing more than a collection of Wefare related links. And not very good ones at that. General internet pages ranged from fair to very good depending what organization was behind them. On several occaisions I have come across a few rare pages describing welfare in other countries around the world. If what is written can be believed, these other countries approach the whole topic in a more humane compassionate way. That doesn't mean there aren't pockets of compassion here in the United States. It means that they are rather rare and the exception, not the rule. What was written in the popular press and various research groups hired by the Federal and State Governments to track progress or the lack of, was also greatly lacking, until recently the seond half of 2001. Specifially, most of the official documents were a read on statistics with limited interpretation as to how they applied to those on and leaving Welfare rolls. Far to often the these think tanks and the media would cover roughly the same things. I suspect that news media were made aware of these reports, or at least their basic findings and the news media basically covered what the reports did. Now that Personal Work and Responsibility Act is coming up for renewel in Congress, there are some studies and papers that discuss the shortcomings of the original legislation and what needs to be done to address defiencties. What ticks me off is that it seems like everyone in the system took a wait and lets see attitude. This left Welfare recipients in a vulnerable position that could have been easily avoided. The people making the policies are too far removed to even have even the slightest idea of what their less fortunate constituents go through. The word Welfare is emotionally charged. Through the years too many misrepresentations and stereotypes have been attached to Welfare with the help of the written and broadcast media. It seems that many people feel MORE should be done to help "THE POOR". When the word Welfare is mention, many people have an attitude, a very negative stereotype, that anyone on Welfare for very long is lazy and dosen'r want to work. Nothing is further from the truth! In fact, I've come across several studies that state that these people coming off the roles want to work (and can make better employees) but often find the barriers in their way difficult to overcome without substantial outside help. When an ex-Welfare recipient does get a job, they are more likely to stay with the job and work out any problems that may arise. The willingness to work is there. The outside help needed to get over the (initial) hurdles often isn't available or so the government would have you beieve. My Story Through no fault of my own, the decade of the 1990s was, a personal disaster. I lost my business, my father, "experienced" a house fire (was put up in a local hotel for five weeks until the fire damage was repared), lost my health (daily headaches, carpal tunnel syndrom, plantars faciitis, two ulcers, and two bouts of panreatitis) "experienced" financial ruin, suffered very high stress levels, ten years of insomnia, and had a good old fashioned nervous breakdown, in bits and pieces along the way. And these are just the highlights! But I digress! The hoopla behind Welfare Reform was to get as many people off the roles as quickly as possible and into jobs (often any job at all, reguardless of the "fit" between the job and the employee) to "teach personal responsibility". This was a bunch of malarkey! Part of the hubbub about Welfare was politicians were looking for something to do, something that would look like action was being taken because at the time of reform legislation, the economy was strong and the US wasn't fighting any foreign clashes. In other words they wanted to look busy and what better target to pick than the poor and otherwise troubled! Why does the human psyche require some kind of scape goat to blame for bad times and bad things? I suspect in part it's because those who have done wrong in other areas have't taken direct responsibility for their actions. In general people don't like to deal with negative emotions and will project built up negativity on a group or groups that are vunerable at that particular time. Truth is that about half of the people that end up on welfare are off in two years or less and are able to stay off for good. These people usually aren't beset with a number of personal and health problems. Those that are left on the system for longer periods often have low levels of job skills, low levels of social skill, significant personal problems and or health issues that prevent an easy move into the work world. To deal with these issues, the individual needs time and ongoing outside help and support. You can't legislate that someone's life is to be put back together by a certain date! Reality just doesn't work that way but this is exactly what the system is trying to do! In many states each case workers are overloaded by the sheer number of people they have to track. In the end, the client gets no additional help (unless they pleaded for it) and as a result, far too many cases have ended in a negative way (usually a reduction or termination of benefits or other such sanctions), with all parties leaving the table dissatisfied and knowing they could have done much better and the outcome didn't have to be negative. Between arcain and complicated rules and regs plus peer pressure from within and without various agencies, everyone involved is lucky if the tread water. Just barely. It doesn't have to be this way! There are better ways but the system puts so much emphasis on short term number crunching, that people in the system and the poeple they try to help just quietly give up. Many states in the early 1990s had record high Wefare caseloads because the Recession of the late 1980s and early 1990s was the worst economic down turn since the Great Depression Many corporations and small businesses alike had to trim their payroll resulting an employers market in which there were a large number of people applying for a single position. Add to this that state and federal budgets were feeling the pinch from all sides and you can begin to see why Welfare programs were easy target for budget slashing. In reptrospect and some study, this seems to be about the time public resentment toward Welfare recipient started to grow. Many people where (and still are) just one or two paychecks away from financial disaster but because of assets they were inelligable for Government help. To a degree there was some veiled resentment. What kind of person preys on a group of people who've hit a life pothole and can't fully advocate for themselves let alone get someone do it for them? The politicians, media, and general public all used Welfare Reform as a Sacrificial Scape Goat. Humans have this innate drive to have to place "the blame" somewhere when things go wrong Often that somewhere is the backs of those who can least defend themselves, the poor, the homeless, the mentally ill, the down trodden. I'll admit in some states they've reached historic or near historic lows as for the number of people on Welfare. In some states, a some counties have had no Welfare cases, but these are rare exceptions. There are several reasons for this. Many people have hit their time limit or have been pushed off for the smallest of infractions because the individual states are being pushed by the Feds and their State Legislatures to keep the number of people and expendature levels at or below 1996 levels so the state's funding stays where it is or in some cases it actually increases if a state hits certain case load reduction bench marks on time or a bit early they get a bonus that they're supposed to spend on Welfare related issues. This has created a surplus of money on the State and Federal levels that can be and should be used for helping those harder to help. Unfortunately very little of this money is being used to help the hard to serve. In many cases, the money is just sitting there or is diverted to uses that have nothing to do with helping those in need. Beginning in the mid 90s, Congress went from doling out the money per program and instead rolled all the money a state would receive into a "block grant" that the state would then divide up. This put a limit on how much Federal money each state got to help fund Welfare and its related services. Because the national economy was weak at that time, States took a conservative fiscal route when it came to dolling out help. Stereotypes The stereotypical Welfare Queen is more a creation of the media than it is a real life representation of those on Welfare . There were a very small number that scammed the system and lived reasonably well. Often times it was the system's fault. You see, the agencies responsible for Welfare benefits (at least in my home state) did not have a cetralized database to weed out those that went to multiple municipalities and collected cash benefits from all of them. When some of these cases were discovered they made a big splash in the media. More times than not, little was said about this being the exception and not the rule. A strong economy has helped many find jobs.(Though I don't have out and out proof, I suspect that part of the rush to get people off the rolls was to create a larger labor pool for a rebounding economy). The majority of these positions are entry level or just a step above and don't pay a living wage. In my research, I've found that at least at this point the vast majority of people who have left the rolls are either earning roughly the same amount of money as they were on Welfare or are worse off, with a small minority doing a bit better. Those who are doing better off the system often had high levels of support from social service agencies. This level of support was the exception, not the rule. What really matters in the longer term is that are these people going to be able to get better jobs and or further training so that they can earn more and do so within a reasonable amount of time. The true test of the "Reform" changes is going to be in the next economic down turn. Its not a matter of IF but of WHEN. Historically, part time entry level positions are the first to get the ax when money gets tight for businesses. If the Welfare system continues on cruise control as it is doing now, without any significant course corrections, I shudder to think of the consequences that might arise and the terrible price far too many innocent people may pay.

A Lack of Follow Up, A Lack of Concern In Connecticut, and in other states as well, little if any follow up tracking is being done on those that have left the Welfare system. What little that is done tracks only the statisically average client, a single young mother. It seems that in Connecticut, if it isn't mandated by statute, the Department of Social Services (DSS) won't get off it's fat ass and do it. Beurocratic innertia at it's best! Couple this with an overworked and undervalued staff and you have all the ingredients of a potential disaster. When I was on the system in January thru the spring of 2000, I was considered a "transitional" individual, which means you may not be job ready immediately but will be within a few months. When you go from transitional to being able to work, under the state and federal rules and regs, the DSS is Supposed to help you find a job. You are Supposed to be assessed by your caseworker who then would offer suggestions and referals based on that assessment. In my case, absolutely no such effort was made! To this day, I am not sure if the system is that damned incompetent or they were trying to tell me somelthing is a very subtle way! I've been in the system three times by 2003. Once in 1995 when the towns ran their own individiual programs and in early 2000 after the State took over running Welfare with exceptions of one town which is serving as a control by running it Welfare system the old way. When I was in the system early in 2000, my case worker's only concern was for any change in my overall situation and how that would effect my benefits. The one meeting I had with this young lady lasted all of 3 minutes if that! She seemed rushed and anxious. No concern was expressed for my Personal Well Being at all. It was only about the time I got kicked off (more about this later) that I was referred to a community agency that gave me the names and phone numbers of several local mental health orgagnizations because I had let the system know I was battling depression. (After making several calls, I came to the conclusion that the mental health field is in a crises much of it, it's own making. One place I contacted kept referring me to different people within it's organization. After being put on hold for the fourth time I simply hung up. Another suggested organization did primarily group therapy, something I wasn't ready to do and I also had doubts about it's potential effectiveness.) In retrospect, at least when each town ran it's own program there was some contact with a social worker that asked how you were emotionally. The state taking over the individual town programs allowed for statewide policy uniformity and some cost savings by consolidating functions. Given 20/20 hindsight, at least when the town was in charge, services were better fit to the local community. God help you if you are in the newer system and aren't the statistically average recepient! This new system has No Idea of how to handle you or your situation and shows no intersting in learning about it either. What the state really needs is a uniform basic policy with much more flexibility on the caseworkers part. Chances are this is where the system will end up some time down the road but it will leave a number of casualties by the way side. It is said that one measure of society is in how it helps those that are less fortunate. Right now I would not give the State of Connecticut a passing grade, or even an "F" for theat matter. Because of physical and mental health problems, I've been languishing over eight years. As I mentioned earlier, I've been on Welfare twice in that period. The first time I got kicked off because I ran into the system's abritary time limit. I went on a second time because my physical and emotional disabilities kept me from working. I have four painful health conditions that operate on their own time table. By that I mean that they flare up unexpectedly. I've also been battling depression at times so severe I would get out of bed only to become an all day long couch potato. Getting dressed or even going out to get the mail from the roadside box seemed and felt overwhelming. To my absolute astonishment, the system knowing my health problems, is of the opinion that I can can work! How did this come about? Well, during my second stint, when I received a written notice that I was to be cut off because I was determined able to work,( this was after I submitted a medical review from my doctor that was submitted to my case worker for review. ) I requested a "Fair Hearing" (which is my legal right not to mention a fucking joke! I've concluded that these hearings are for the state to make susre they ain't screwing up to the point that they'd land in hot water.) which included me, my case worker of that time and an adminstrative official who had copies of all relevent medical notes and forms. Because what I said and what my doctors wrote differed some, I got tossed back into the pond without any floatation device. I wasn't ready to go back to work because of my physical and emotional medical problems. A short time after my hearing I received written notice that I was no longer considered transitional and therefore no longer elegable for monthly cash assistance. All the system cares about is saving money. They have no interest in helping the individual get their life back together. The way the system is now, you have to be housebound or bedridden with your infirmaties to be considered not able to work. Other conditions that may keep you from being kicked off (at least for a time) are pregnancy, loss of close family member within the previous six months, having to care for a child under a year in age or someone sixty-five or older. In my case, the paltry sum they save by kicking me off cash assistance ($150/mon) shows up in increased medical expenses. My prescription costs for the first half of 2001 came to over $13,000!! To date, I estimate that if you added up all the bills for doctor visits, hosptal stays, ER visits, talk therapy and medicines, you're looking at a bill of $150,000 (minimum to date) just to patch me up enough to tred water! Don't get me wrong, I am thankful for the Medicaid /SAGA Medical assistance, I just have a severe attitude/distain for the system in general because of the non-challant way it treats people in need!

A Little History The modern American Welfare System was created in the midst of the Great Depression (1935 to be exact) to give people a helping hand before their life ended up in shreds. Over the years varioius programs and personnel were added as a need was perceived. It wasn't a perfect system, but it did work reasonably well and was in all probablility due for tune up. In fact, almost from the start, polical adminstrations were toying or trying remake the system. Because of this constant tinkering, the original reason for the system was lost. During my study of the U.S. Welfare System, I learned that in just about every society that considered itself civilized, has had some kind of system to help those that were less fortunate, or down on their luck. Prior to the American Welfare System, family, friends, neighbors, charities, and various civic oranizations were mainly what people relied on. After World War II, Americans became very mobile in post war posterity. People moved more frequently and settled further from where they were born than past genertions did. Over the last fifty plus years, family and friends became more spread out geographically. The support network that had been there for previous generaltions was now being dismantled over time, very quietly. Welfare and other programs are an attempt to take the place the immediate family and the community used to fill. The federal government in 1996 laid out the basic Welfare Reform legislation that outlined new game rules. Most politicians sounded as if the Welfare system was going to be abolished forever more. Part of new deal was to give the states lots of freedom to disign their programs to better meet the needs of their population. The feds allowed states to apply for exemptions from some to many of the Federal Laws so that they could tailor their own programs. A large majority of states applied for and were then granted these exemptions. In the end, the high number of Federal exemptions gave birth to programs that vary so widely from one state to the next that it is very difficult (at best) to compare one program to another, let alone to winnow out the best practices and share these with other states. All these reforms and tinkkering at the state level have created, for the most part, uncaring, self serving beaucracies that are overwhelmed with paper work and don't give a damn about the needs of the people they serve. Todays system doesn't just shred your dignity, it then preceeds to beat you to a pulp! Heaven help you if you are one those that is hard to serve. They have no interest in seeing you do better, let alone give a helping hand when one is needed. The "numbers" are the be all, end all for the system. I admit there was some waste and cheating in the Welfare system in Connecticut that was weeded out early on. The truth is that there wasn't all that much and it was the system's fault because no one had thought of putting in place basic safeguards and accountability systems before something happened! I was self employed for over fifteen years and if I had run my company as loosely as the Department of Social Services in the State of Connecticut is run at certain levels, my enterprise would have failed very early on. With these so called "reforms", the system has become accountable when it comes to money, but everyone who is involved in administrering day to day operations has no accountability when it comes to how they affect the lives of their clients, who are often at the end of their proverbial rope and have turned to welfare as a last resort. I've come to the conclusion that those in the system are in denial over the hardship they cause with arbitrary decisions and overadherence to the rules and regulations. They worship numbers. The number of people on the system at any one time and their lousy budgets are all that matter. From where I sit, they aren't justified in crowing about their accomplishments because they have blown off so many needy people just so they could meet their short term objectives. You and your problems don't amount to a friggin' hill of beans. What really pisses me off is that I'm living in a wealthy state, in the wealthiest nation in the history of the world, during an unpressidented economic boom period and I'm treated like I don't exist and don't matter. Personally, I can't see how those in the system live with what they do. Hell, if I did what they did, I wouldn't sleep at night and be so stressed from my job that I'd have to quit to save my health and my santity.

Medical Troubles Over the last few years, I've found out the hard way that many doctors won't even see someone who is on State Medical Assistance (also called Title 19 or SAGA (State Adminstered General Assistance) Medical. A few years back, you might have been able to see a doctor, but more times than not the doctor would only accept a few new patients per month on State Medical. As of this writing, I find it just about impossible to see anyone in private practice because the state doesn't pay enough to make it worth while for private practice doctors. Increasingly, I am FORCED to use hospital affiliated clinics (and sometimes the ER) and often having to wait five to six weeks on average for an initial appointment to such clinics. This is in part due to these orginizations being the only place where someone in my circumstance can turn because these places are better able to take the hit financially the accompanies treating a patient in my position. This means they get a disproportionate share of "hard luck" cases. When doctors have a good cash flow, they'll take "charity cases". When the money isn't there, your SOL. Both private and government medical insurers have gotten so stingy with reinbursements, doctors are forced to run an overly tight ship. Heaven help you if you need medical care that isn't of an emergency nature. I keep asking myself "How in the world am I supposed to get better when I can't see the kind of doctors and get the kind of medical treatment I need" I've recently developed a certain empathy and respect for those who must fight their HMO or insurance carrier on a regular basis because in many ways their situation and mine are similiar. At present, I'm on roughly a dozen prescription medications for various chronic non life threatening illnesses. Between the direct effects of these ailments and the side effects of the medications and the reduced Quality of Life they both bring, just tredding water and staying afloat is a monumental battle. Ironically, those who are in a position to possibly help are only willing to help just so much before they start shutting down, stop listening to you. It's the people who hardly know me and have little actual power that offer to do the most. The whole situation is "Crazy Making." Employment, A Very Elusive Goal To be very honest, I would love to be able to find a part time job with a flexible schedule. From one day to the next, I have no way of knowing which of my medical conditions are going to decide to rear its ugly head. Having even modest plans for a day often means having them be blown apart is par for the course. What complicates matters even more is that I've been out of the work a day world for over eight plus years. Though potential employers don't say it, I'm viewed as damaged goods. Then throw in the fact that I have to dance around why I've been out of work so long and I don't stand a snowballs chance in hell of getting past the interview. My gut reaction is that many who have been on the Welfare and can't get off or cycle on and off have multiple barriers and have ended up in a similar boat to mine. Getting through most days is one hell of a struggle. It takes a large amount of energy just to maintain where you are. In my case, just managing the medical end of things is a full time job in and of itself. Without adequate medical and emotional support, forget about moving ahead! Oh, there is some forward momentum, but it's at the pace of a snail on a cold autum day. To guage progress, I find myself having to look back several weeks to a year before I can see if I've made headway. Even then, the whole exercise is very depressing simply because I realize just how slow everything in my life is moving because no one is willing to give me a helping hand! There is a limit to what close family and friends can or are willing to do. This fact is blithely ignored by the people at the Welfare Office. What about town or state social workers you say? OH PLEASE! Half the time or more they manage to make a bad situation worse! This isn't just my opinion. I've had contact with several people who have had very similar experiences in other situations. There are some programs out there to help the hardest of cases, though from what I've seen, they are geared to those who don't have a set of quirky medical barriers to overcome and who have relatively little work experience or much in the way of job and or social skills. God help ya if you've been self employeed in the past and you're bright. Those hiring for entry level jobs find you way over qualified, though they never come right out and say so. They just usually brush you off after the application and following interview. Isolation A sense of it permiates your world when you are on Welfare. It's present when you meet with your case worker/social worker or friends and family. On the professional end, whoever is managing your case or giving you help is afraid to validate you and your situation, to make you seem more human. Should you have a number of obstacles to overcome, this distance that people keep you at is even worse. They often don't know what to do or are afraid to do it. Sometimes you can get some kind of positive response for a short time, then they go back to their behavior of avoidance. For someone on Welfare and struggling with physical ills, life in general can be very isolating. It not only "takes a village" to raise a child, it also "takes a village" to help those who are down and out and in trouble. When someone comes up against some especially hard times. support is in dire need and in short supply. The First Ammendment Would you believe that when the Welfare Reform Act was passed there was an indirect attack one the first ammendment right of Freedom of Speech? Hidden in all that "reform" was a piece of legislation that basically said that the Legal Services Corp (the folks behind low or no cost legal help for the poor) was forbidden to use any of its government financing to represent anyone who felt that a Welfare Reform rules, laws, and decisions should be challanged? In addition to this, Legal Services had their budget slashed by the Feds.Yep folks, the goverment wanted to out and out commit a lie/sin of omission/comission. Luckily the United States Supreme court recently ruled in favor of those on Welfare. Because of beaurocratic ass protecting, how else is someone suppose to put pressure on the system to do right. If the feds went unchallanged on this lowly move, in what other areas would government try to stiffle the voice of the people. As history proves over and over again, the greatest miscarriages of justice all start with just one or two moves, a couple "little" deceptions, whitelies, or holding back of the truth. A Trend? During my research, I have found that a number of states are trying to cut the funding for Legal Services (often by half!) as a supposed cost cutting measure in response to a sluggish economy. I recently found out that Connecticut's legislature tried to do just that but reversed their course at the last minute. In a number of states, cutbacks went unchallenged intitially but they were later reinstated by judges after they heard arguements for their reinstatement. Viewed in the context of the overall budget, these cutbacks would save little money. For example, in CT the dollar amount of the cut would have been $500,000. To keep this in context, the biennial budget for the state of Connecticut is around 1.5 billion dollars and the state's full beiennial budget comes in at about 3 billion. The funds earmarked for cutting were to be used for various social service programs to help people who have reached their time limit on general assistance.

Emotions Virtually Ignored The vast majority of papers I have read as to the progress of Welfare Reform, either by state or as a national overview, focus almost exclusively to what can be statically counted, such as the number of people on or off the system, how much is being bugeting for ancillary programs etc. It hasn't been until fall of 2000, four plus years since the Federal legislation kicked in that, the sages in their pristeen ivory towers have even come close to starting to deal with the people who, for what ever reason, are hard to help. In my own case, I had been trying to resolve depression, anxiety and overall high stress levels. Not an easy task. Other big obsticles for some can be a lack of transportion, illegal drug use, living in a physically unsafe environemt, to lack of child care, to a lack of food, to not being able to get the physical and psychological care needed. Often it is a mix of those factors.

Mixed Messages I recently read a book titled Why Americans Hate Welfare.(Martin Gilens, University of Chicago Press) that brought up a very interesting point. When asked, most Americans say that more should and needs to done for the poor and unfortunate. If you bring up the topic of Welfare instead of help for the poor, the sentiment changes drastically. The public preception of those on welfare is one of someone is too lazy to go out and work. Though a very small minority may have this attitude, the vast majority of people on Welfare are there because they need cash assistance, medicall assistance or in many cases both. Anyone from any walk of life can end up receiving Welfare cash or medical benefits as long as they meet the State's requirements. No one is immune to bad luck. We all have times in our lives when circumstances get out of control. Major bad things in our lives hit us, often all at once. With friends and family so physically spread out, often times there is no other way to get help needed to get you over a rough spot.

Churning And I don't mean making butter! It is a practice used in the business world and increasingly in the social services realm to create an artifically high turnover rate of people employed by the private sector or those on welfare. When applied to Welfare recipients, the practice refers to kicking someone off for the slightest infraction so the state's official statistics appear (at least at first glance) , meet or exceed predetermined limits and goals. To put it more bluntly, it's throwing people off system, people who almost always need more help. Those doing the kicking are very much aware that those flung off will be disenheartened and disillusioned and not fight to stay on the system. All too often these are the very people who are hard to serve, that may have needs that go beyond whatever system is set up can handle.

Out Of Sight Out Of Mind It's a shame, but very true. There is wide spread agreement that we should do more to help those struggling economically, but few people back up their words with action. Instead, they turn a blind eye unless it is specifically brought to their attention. There seems to be a general rule that more money people make the less they think about those who stuggle day to day, unless they are in a highly visible position and there taking action would play favorably with the public.

All They Do Is Whine... The government says it can't be responsible for helping all the poor, local religeous organizations claim they don't have the resources, and the business community rarely gives a hand. Family and frieds say they're strapped and don't know where to turn to. And you wonder why I said earlier that I feel so isolated. These people for some reason feel that they have to do it alone. Because of this, people in my kind of situation get no help instead of some help All these instiutions need to get together and talk out what each can provide and go from there. From what I can tell, here in Connecticut, there has been very little co-operation between all parties. No one wants to leave their "comfort zone" unless they get a good kick in the ass or are otherwise coersed into helping. Of couse when it is done this way, they only keep doing as long as there is outside pressure. Shortly after that stimulous is withdrawn they stop putting out effort and quick retreat into their old behavior pattern of not helping. Some states are actually making headway in this arena. Not many, but enough to give a glimmer of hope that other parts of the country might eventually "get it". Most are like Connecticut. No one knows what to do, how to do it, and who needs to be contacted. The common cry is that "we don't have the money/the time/the overall resources" to do this. I speculate that if these parties really did something they'd be shocked with guilt.

The Ripple Effect When a family member or good friend hits hard times and applies for Welfare, the emotional fall out affects not only the individual seeking help, but those around them as well. The toll can often be measured by the quality of other peoples lives being degraded through stress. Applying for Welfare is just a few steps short of abosolute bottom and I have yet to hear of someone view it as any kind of positive. Applying is a despiration move. You don't know where else to go, so you grasp at a straw that might slow your fall. Case in point. I am forced because of financial and hellth problems to live with my mother (who is pushing 80 ) and my older brother who suffers from obcessive cumpulsive disorder. Some days the tension is thick enough to cut with a knife. It does none of us any good. We cope the best we and hope that the situation improves over time. The sick thing is that the government is willing to take on increased medical bills but is scared that if they give some direct financial help, they I'm going to become dependent. This makes no sense especially since a little strategic cash help can reduce the medical bills by helping to reduce some stress. Right now I thank heaven every day that my mom is still alive. The last ten years have been so tumultuous that if she had passed, I would have ended up in a hospital psychiatric ward for at least a several week stay. Just the very thought of such a senario scares me.

Competition, Would It Help? The one really big drawback when government provides services is a lack of competition which tends to engender a culture of mediocrity. If not pushed to follow higher standards, the lowest common denominator becomes the standard. In some states, certain parts of helping those in need have been contracted out to either outside corporations or non-profit organizations. To be honest, I haven't been able to gather much information on this process because it isn't very wide spread and there is little in the way of follow up or studies. Here in Connecticut, a few more widely used services (such as child care for those who were on the rolls but are now working) were contracted out using the lowest bid system. In one instance a company made a bid for child care and won the contract only to come back to the state about six months into the contract to say they were loosing money on the venture. Mind you, this firm was purported to have run a number child care centers in different states. What it all came down to was blackmail. Either the state paid more per child or the company would break its contract, leaving thousands of kids without proper care while their parents worked and scrambled to fill the daycare gap. Again, it's "Bottom Line" mentality. To make this case even more ironic, there was only one other company (a nonprofit) that put in a bid. What the for profit winning bidder arm twisted out of the State Treasury in the end was equal to the original bid of the nonprofit. And you wonder why I don't trust government??? I've heard of bidding businesses loosing a shot at a state contract because the winning bidder was a lousy ten dollars less! The bean counters don't give a knats ass about the companie's repuation and quality, they want what they want when they want it, and at the absolute lowest price possible. If the DSS was doing a quality job, there would be slow and steady improvement within the system. From what I've experience, the system has remained basically unchanged or has taken steps backward. There is no system in place to reward good and innovative behavior or punish the bad let alone making someone accountable. When something goes wrong, it is suddenly no one's responsibility. Even if the guilty party is found, more times than not, they get a slap on the wrist an a verbal reprimand. Rarely is anyone out and out fired. They'll get a reprimand and a transfer to a different department. Ain't beaucracy grand!!!!! I have mixed feelings about Pres. Geo. W Bushes push to monitarily lure and if my hunch plays out, practically force local government agencies and local religious agencies to work together to better serve those in need. They've had five years to do so voluntarily and in the VAST majority of cases, have not done so.

Social Experimentation and Civil Rights Some have said that Welfare Reform is a social experiment. Funny thing though, I NEVER signed anything even remotely resembling a consent form! Let alone give my verbal conscent! As far as I am concerned, this "experiment" is a violation of my Civil Rights as a US Citizen and my International Civil Rights. You are taking a part of the populace that is at a very low point emotionally and often physically, then change the rules and throw them into the pond and yell SWIM OR ELSE!! If such a scenario played out under a public health issue, I wouldn't be mad. The greater good would outweigh the short term inconviences and limited risk. Just because Corporate America shit on it's employees in the late 80s and early 90s doesn't mean that the government needs to abuse those in need. Efforts need to shift away from budget cutting and start addressing the causes of poverty and what can be done to eliminate it.

How Many? How Much? The percentage of the population that's in need of help averages approximately 5% nationally. State to state there is some variance, though just a percentage point or two. In the overall view, 5% of the population isn't much, but if you believed the hype that appeared in the media over the last five years, you may have gotten the impression that there is a higher perecentage of the population on Welfare and that they were getting more in the way of cash benefits than they actually do. From my own research reading news paper and magazine articles, watching telelvision segments, and what I've found on the Net, most people that have ended up on Welfare as a last resort, and are just barely staying afloat with the benefits they receive, which is often supplimented through additional help from family and friends. Many who have gotten off the rolls often aren't doing much better than those left on. In spite of several years of a strong national economy, many ex- recipients have to work several part time jobs to just to barely stay afloat financially. To even start to get ahead, these people have to work so many hours that their life is just work and sleep. Forget about family, friends and leisure activities. To be able to pull this off, the worker must be in relatively young and must be in very good to excellent health. Anything less than this and any pre-exiisting health problems would most likely get worse which means some of the money saved by ending cash benefits is chewed up in medical bills. Spending practically all your waking time working may even exaserbate existing domestic problems as well as health problems. In a small number of cases, such situations are a time bomb waiting to go off. Very few people can pull off the "all work and no play" life. It's just to stressful and not healthy psychologically. As of this writing, what the states are paying out in cash benefits per person or per family is well below the natioinal poverty level. Once in a great while you hear of a "success" story, typically a young mother with dependent children who is working multiple jobs, putting in well over 60 hours of work a week . These people are the exception, not the rule. For the most part, those who have been cut off from cash benefits and are lucky enought to be working part time at wages that roughly equal what they would have been receiving if they were still getting cash assistance. The new rules in many states push people to take any job. For a small minority of people, this approach may work. For the majority it doesn't. Each person's situation is unique and solutions must be tailor made to properly address existing problems. Right now in many cases the Welfare systems in place fail to take into account the details, the individual cirsumstances of a person's life. The system in many instances is inflexable which can and does cause greater hardship for Welfare recipients. Instead of focusing on how to cut the amount of money paid out (budget orientation), policies must be aimed at the cause of poverty (people orientation). Solutions must be individualized. The one size fits all mentality that's been pushed these past five years is not the answer nor can it ever be. Any five year old will tell you that. In the old system, pre-Welfare Reform legislation, many cities, towns and states, encouraged the learning of marketable skills or going back to school for a dipolma or a degree. Giving people this option to better themselves first and concentrate on employment second is an option that worked for many and should be restored in states where it has been dropped. Being forced to take one dead end, low paying job after another is NOT the way to self suffientcy. Though some that are no longer on Welfare are doing somewhat better off the rolls, more times than no, leavers are still below the Federal Poverty Level. The goal of the system should be to help people help themselves out poverty over a reasonable length of time, not help keep them in poverty. Pressuring someone to do what the system wants (numbers orientation) at an arbitrary time limit that isn't good for the recipient, ends up doing lots of harm, which is in no-one's self interest. It is also disrespectful of the receipient and their life circumstances. The whole idea behind establishing Welfare and later the War On Poverty was to help people help themselves. The system as it stands now, doesn't do this. It is rare that a State or Town Welfare system accomidates the recipients life situation and truly works with that person to help them rebuild their lives.

Incompetence Or...... First a little background. In Connecticut, if you are receiving medical benefits, you are sent and have to return a re-evaluation form every other month. Recently I had to pleasure of filling out and mailing back on of these beauties. Several weeks after filling it out and popping it into the mail, I get a notice from the DSS stating that they have not received the form and if they don't get it by the end of August. my medical benefits would be terminated. Well, right after I got this, I called my case worker. I get her voice mail. I state that I did fill it out and mailed it and if they didn't get it, it must have been lost in the mail or misplaced by their office and to please send a another ASAP and I'd fill it out and mail it right back. Well, another week and a half goes by and I don't here from my worker inspite of the promise to return calls stated in her voicemail greeting. I foolishly assume that since I didn't hear back, things had sorted themselves out. Like Hell! On August 31,2001, I get a notice stating that of Aug 31 my medical would be terminated! With a pharmacy bill averaging around 2G plus per month I can't afford not to have coverage. Early the following week I go down to the office and explain what apparently happened. I was told to fill out the same form again. When I finished, I handed the paperwork back to the receiptionist who said they'd put it on my worker's desk. Well, a few days later I was told by my pharmacist that claims weren't going through. Again, I call my worker and say that if she could give me an idea as to when the benefits would be reinstated I'd greatly appreciate it because my pharmacist wants to get paid. Again, I don't get a return call or any kind of notification via the mail. Now, I have to go all the way down there and speak to the receptionist. She was quite helpful in helping sort things out. It turned out that I filled out a section of the form I shouldn't and it caused some confusion. That mistake I take full responsibility for. I'm still ticked at the department because no one returned my calls nor did they send out a fresh form when I requested it. When my form wasn't filled out right, no one from the DSS contacted me in any way. Mind you my opinion of the Department of Social Services and it's employees was not good to begin with and as of this incident, has hit an all time low.

Corporate Welfare Tax breaks for larger corporations are given out like candy on Halloween on the vague promise that stable jobs and taxes will be produced a few short years down the road. Rarely do these corporations keep their promises of providing jobs and taxes. The first fews years they seem like their promise is being kept, especially if the overall economy is doing reasonably well. But when the economy slows, guess who is at the front of the line asking for more tax breaks and other subseties! This can even get worse if the company involved is a large multinational. They'll ask for a tax break and threaten to move out of state unless they get one. There is a word for this...BLACKMAIL! And far to often it works! Towns and cities cave in because if they don't and the threats are made good, a sizable chunk of tax money would be gone and government would have to do a mad scramble to make up the difference by either and or making budgets cuts and increased taxation. People from all walks of life know about this behavior and yet they keep condoning it, time after time after time, by letting it go unchallanged. This senario won't change until politicians put their egos aside and do what is good for people and community. Far too often, government is crises oriented, and reacts instead responding to a situation. Everytime they react to a threat, government weakens its position .

Holes In The Safety Net There are more than I can count. People falling through is an every day occurance not a rarety. Nobody in the system cares if they loose someone. It goes with the territory or so goes the rationalization in their heads so they don't have to deal with reality that there lack of action is causing people to suffer. Society has a similar attitude. Maybe if you don't look at poverty and it's causes, it'll just go away or someone else will take care of it. When is society, as a whole, going to take responsibility for helping the less fortunate by putting out a consistently high quality effort? This on again off again approach doesn't build the needed momentum that an individual needs to take a solid step forward. The only reason for not acting on this and other loopholes in other social programs is the money that needs to be spent and holding someone or something accountable. Politicians don't want to stick their necks out and take stand, assuming that if they do it once the media will be all over them for other problems not well addressed.

Emotional Damage I can't begin to adequately explain the emotional devistation I've gone through at the hands of the system. The appication process is demeaning. It's worse than filling out an application for a bank loan. The system trys to make you out as a cheater once you walk in that door.You have to account for any and all assets, even the money you have on you. Its bad enough that you vulnerable going in and asking to apply. The person you talk to is professional (whatever that means this day in age) and thats about it. You get the definate impression that they deal with paperwork a lot more than peoples problems. Just to start to adress your need, you need to jump through 2-3 hoops, sometimes more. You, as a person of value don't exist in their eyes. You're nothing more than a name, adress, phone number, and case number. Unless you're definately in the way of physical harm, any action in your favor they'll take their own sweet time with. The less they face you, the less guilty they feel when turning you down. Imperonal, cold, and ugly. Plain and simple. To be honest under the old town system, the social workers really were all that much help once you got passed the initial intake. The whole attitude is that the welfare funds not to be used unless absolutely needed. From my own observations and experience and study, welfare is the last thing peope want to receive. They'll hit up friends and family and when that runs out or is not enough, they apply for Welfare

Do No Harm This should be the mantra running through every case worker's head! Too often they seem to not consider the consiquences of their actions or inactions. They hide behind the rules and regs when they know what they've done isn't right. They either kick you when you're down or ignore you and you needs. This is exactly the opposite of what needs to be done. Denial ain't just a river in Egypt! It's the predominant state of mind at the DSS here in CT. The whole senario is pathetic. It really is a sorry mess. The stranagest thing is that I get an impression that they wouild like to do more for their clients but feel thwarted by the systtem. The preservation of their job positions also comes before going the extra mile for their clients. As I mentioned earlier the least is done for each client unless they are in possible physical danger.

And The Pendulum Swings Well, it finally happened. The economy has crashed. Just how bad, the experts disagree. One thing they do seem to agree on is that the previous Welfare Reforms are doing and will do much more harm than they ever did good given the state of the economy. After spending even more time these last few months studying various reports and articles on Welfare Reform while being sick, (gastritis, pneumonia, flared carpal tunnel, migraine, and newly diagnosed fibromyalgia) I discovered that many of my assumptions/conclusions that I made about the supposed Welfare Reforms early on, came/were true. Many states, the vast majority of them, are giving the needy the short shirft. Many times individuals and families are told that they aren't eligable for a program when in fact they very much are. The narrow minded autocrats running the show are thinking more about protecting thier ass, making the system look as if it is working, than they are about helping those people who fallen on hard times,are falling through the cracks and are in dire need of a helping hand to find some kind of stabilitiy in their life. On several different levels, this is scarey. In the Fall of 2002, Congress was supposed to have reviewed and then "reauthorized" the Welfare Reform Act. Well, here it is, about half way through 2003 and nothing has been done by Congress. Two possible reasons come to mind. The conflict with Iraq is diverting attention away from domestic issues and there is a quiet consencuss between policians and policy makers that the Reform was a big mystake driven by a form of mass hysteria.

Here it is, the middle of April 2004. Congress has yet to move on renewing the Welfare Reform legislation. They keep making noise about when they'll take it up, only to let it slide once again. Even scouring the web turns up precious little new material. Most of what I run into is the same old sites or sites that reitterate what other sites have said. I purposely tried to avoid quoting sources to keep my page as simple as possible. The majority of the page is based on my direct experience and my research. All to often, my conclusions are backed up by my research. What really galls me is when a conservative group or think tank proclaims that welfare reform is a resounding success. They come to that conclusion by looking at just the numbers of how many left the rolls with nothing being said about how many got jobs let alone the quality of those employment opportunity.

Workfare...A Cruel Farce! When the towns ran their own individual programs there was workfare. In my case it was a joke. When I was on workfare I had troubles with my hands and my feet. Guess what these brains had me do? Meanial picking up and cleaning jobs which involved considerable hand and foot use! The fools I dealt with knew of my conditions yet gave me work that only aggrivated my underlying conditions. This is cruel! Period! It's like asking someone with a broken arm to take the groceries out of the car. It theoretically can be done but it stands the chance of being damn hard and degrading, and humiliating. At no time did my social worker ask me what I felt I could do given the physical impairments and the clinical depression I was in. Obviously, there was a total lack of common sense in the Human Services Department, here in South Windsor CT.

Stupidity From Every Corner After a while my social worker didn't know what to do with me so she suggested a job workshop held in a neighboring town. At that point I was at a loss as to what to try so I gave it a shot. What a friggin mistake that was! First , the program was geared toward those with very little in the way of job skills. For the most part you were given a current copy of the local newspapers and were expected to find some kind of job lead. You had access to a phone. They occaisionally threw in a class of the basics, such as how to conduct yourself at a job interview. OOOHH PLUEEZEE! Needless to say I found a way of getting out of this mess. There was one guy in the program when I was in it, that had been there for several months. had been a sales position previously and couldn't get to first base no matter who he called. Anybody that knows something about job searching is aquainted with the fact that the crappiest jobs are the ones that are advertised.

Because I've been sick on and off for so long, the chances of me getting hired for a job are almost nil. Even when I get to the interview stage, I loose out. I suspect it's partly because of this depression that hangs over me plus the medications I have to take can leave me in Zombie Land some days. The potential employer never says anything. They just give me a quite brush off.My only other way of earnin money would be to go back to being self employed. At this point, I do not have the enery and focus it takes to get a new venture off the ground.

A Change of View For far to long, way to many people from all walks of life have bought into the old saw that poor people are just lazy. While there might be a very small fraction that are like this. most are being held back by circumstances often beyond their control such as pysical and/or mental health issues, Sometimes the problem is a lack of job ready skills. This can be further complicated by the attitude of many employers that they want someone who can be dropped into a position, with little training from the employer. For a percentage of the poor, education, more the lack of it, is what gets in the way. Going back to school can be intimidating. Even if you had graduated college some years earlier, its still intimidating to most people. Some of the poor lack good people skills. They never learned at home or at school. Good people skills can get you in the door then job skills keep you hired. To date, there has been no systematic effort to address these shortcomings and educating the people in the areas they lack. Oh sure, once in a while, you'll hear about a church group or some other entity, but for the most part there is no systematic education being done. There are a few states that do help this way. In these cases, the social working staff often have orders to do whatever needs to be done (within reason) on the clients behalf.

Hate To Say It I hate to say it, but both the Clinton and Bush administrations totally missed the boat when it comes to Welfare. They really didn't do much that wouldn't have occured on its own over time. All they did was spead the time table up some and made the situation worse for those of us who because of complex and weighty life situations are having a very hard time getting back on track. Why is it so easy to give aid to those in a foreign land than it is to help someone down the street?

I've Been Churned! Just a few weeks ago, I got a notice from the DSS saying I was going to have my cash and medical assistance shut off. After a few phone calls, I found out from my worker that my case and a handful of others that were getting old, were to be terminated because the superiors didn't quite know what to do with the our cases so the decision was made to terminate us. If we needed the money bad enough, we could show up at his officce to reapply, which is what I did.

What About Social Security Disability? This is a toughie. I've tried applying twice and was turned down both times. Just about everyone that applies gets turned down at least once. The whole process takes the better part of a year before you get their answer. And let's not forget the number of trees that that were sacrificed putting together the paper work! Having to answer some very personal questions, especially those about financies and health is nerve wracking. If you file multiple times and finally win, the back pay goes all the back to when you originally entered the system, If you had hired a disability attorney to help with the application they by law are allowed to take just so much for their fee, with the rest going to you

Even In Canada A few nights back, I came across some articles on Welfare Reform in Canada. If you just replaced the names of the cities and provinces, it pretty much summerized what my experiences and research. It seems that in the western developed counties, pushing needy people off the federal help as quickly and as cheaply as possible so that

Falso Assumptions Far to much of the general public and those in higher levels of govrnment assume that Welfare pays people to be idol and poor. Nothing could be further from the truth! People get trapped because of illness, bad domestic situations, lack of education and lack of work experience. From where I sit, the only way Welfare Reform could work is if this old assumption were true, which they aren't. When the Reform movement started, most of the changes seen were chalked up to the changes forced on the states by the federal government. I've noticed that over the last few years as results have been scrutinized more closely, the misguided assumptions are being scrutinized.not so much by governement soucres and think tanks but by the average citizen. Most healthy and employed people who aren't fighting an uphill battle don't realize how hard it is to get back on your feet after expectedly falling on your ass hard several times. Often times there are a number of false starts. Things seem to be doing ok and then slam! Thrown against the wall once again! In turn, the underying problems may get worse for a time because of extra stresses. Even if this doesn't happen, the money from part time employment is not enough to lift a Welfare recipient out of poverty.