Tommy Thompson, Wisconsin’s longest-serving governor and welfare reform pioneer, is lending his support for a work-first referendum question on the Badger State’s April 4 election ballot.
The non-bonding referendum asks voters a simple question: “Shall able-bodied, childless adults be required to look for work in order to receive taxpayer-funded benefits?”
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Participants of Tennessee’s Families First Program will receive ‘extra support’ this holiday season, according to the Tennessee Department of Human Services (TDHS). On Monday, TDHS announced that all households enrolled in the state’s assistance program as of December 1st will receive a one-time additional payment of $500 on their existing Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) cards beginning on that same day.
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Democrats in the Pennsylvania General Assembly hope to increase monthly welfare benefits in Pennsylvania, reasoning that payments under the federally funded Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) program have stayed flat since the 1990s, falling well behind inflation.Â
Legislation being drafted by state Sen. Katie Muth (D-PA-Royersford) and state Rep. Malcolm Kenyatta (D-PA-Philadelphia) would increase Pennsylvania’s TANF benefits, which average $403 per month for a family of three in most counties.
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In 1996 the United States Congress passed welfare reform, which added work requirements for able-bodied adults receiving food stamps, now called the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). Â Under President Obama in his 2009 stimulus bill, a waiver was created that allows states and local governments to opt out of those work, training and volunteer requirements. State Representative Scott Wiggam (R-Wooster) has introduced House Bill 200 to restore the dignity of work in Ohio. Â According the analysis of the bill, “SNAP recipients must meet work-related eligibility requirements to remain (in) the program.” Â The requirements for all non-disabled individuals between the ages of 16 and 59, include the following: accepting a job offer registering for work not voluntarily quitting a job or reducing hours worked participating in a state-offered SNAP employment and training program Additional requirements are in place for Able-Bodied Adults Without Dependents (ABAWDs) to obtain benefits with HB 200. Â “Individuals between the ages of 18 and 49 who have no dependents and are not disabled…can only receive SNAP benefits for up to three months every three years,” the analysis states. Â The only exceptions are if: the ABAWD is working at least 20 hours per week the ABAWD is participating…
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by Robert Romano The conference committee for H.R. 2, the farm bill, has stripped out its additional work requirements as a condition for collecting food stamps from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). The provision would have required able-bodied adults to work a minimum of 20 hours a week starting in 2021 and 25 hours starting in 2026 in order to be eligible for the program, with certain exceptions. For example, if the Secretary of Agriculture determined that the local area unemployment rate was in excess of 10 percent, the work requirements could be waived for that applicant, which would capture communities hit by adverse economic conditions. Other exceptions are already in current law. For example, a stay-at-home mother is already exempt from existing work requirements. Under current law, able-bodied adults not excepted have to seek employment in order to qualify for the food stamps. The reform would have required that they find work. Ironically, 26.3 percent of nondisabled adults in single-person households aged 18-49 in SNAP already work, and 45.6 percent of multi-person households of the same category had an individual who worked in that household, according to data compiled by the Department of Agriculture for FY 2016.…
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