PathWays PA Policy Blog

The Pennsylvania State House voted yesterday to pass a 2017-2018 budget package that cuts $815 million in spending from the budget proposed by Governor Wolf in February. The final vote was 114-85, with most (but not all) Republicans supporting the plan but no Democratic votes. The bill now moves on to the Senate. Budget cuts could be found across the board, including the human services line items that we follow. Some increases to education made by the governor remain in the budget, although early childhood education is getting a smaller increase than requested. Please take a look at the chart below to see how your budget items fared, or look at the full budget here . Your next steps: Look at the line items that matter to you, and call your state senator to share your thoughts. Should something be getting more money? Less? Tell your senator today. (PS - The Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center has a Fair Share Tax proposal on their website that could give you some ideas on how a...

As in most years, we've put together a graphic highlighting programs of special interest to PathWays PA and our clients. Please take a look and let us know what you think of the Governor's proposed funding methods.

As we mentioned a few weeks ago , Community Legal Services released a report on Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF, or cash welfare) and the caseload decline in Pennsylvania. In 2014, at least 35,000 PA families with children receiving SNAP (food stamps) were poor enough to qualify for TANF but didn't receive it. For those who did qualify, the maximum grants allowed were very low - approximately $403/month for a family of 3, a number that hasn't increased since 1990. The TANF caseload in PA has declined by over 300,000 adults and children since 1996, but since 2008, the number of people leaving because they had jobs has remained steady. So despite more people leaving TANF (or not entering the program), very low-income Pennsylvanians are not necessarily earning more. In order to address the problems with TANF raised by this report, CLS is sharing two sign-on letters to Governor Wolf - one for organizations and one for individuals . Please take a moment to share...

Yesterday,  Community Legal Services  issued a report looking at the TANF caseload decline in Pennsylvania. Timed around the 20th anniversary of welfare reform (aka The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act, or PRWORA ), CLS looks at the reasons for caseload decline and makes recommendations on how Pennsylvania can ensure TANF actually helps poor families. Here are some of the findings: The PA TANF max grant (approx. $403/month) hasn't increased since 1990 In 2014, at least 35,000 PA families with children receiving SNAP (food stamps) were poor enough to qualify for TANF but didn't receive it Unless exempt because of disability or good cause, TANF recipients MUST spend 20/30 hours per week working or in a work program TANF cash grants may be small, but they can help pay the rent, cover utilities, or buy diapers - all things SNAP can't do The TANF caseload in PA has declined by over 300,000 adults and children since 1996, but since 2008, the number of p...

The Uncertain Hour, from American Public Media's Marketplace, is a new documentary-podcast (docu-pod) focusing on "the uncertainties of our economy today: who deserves what and why?" This season, they're shining a light on welfare reform, 20 years after it passed and was signed into law by President Bill Clinton. You can listen to the stories  here,  but you can also learn more. The Uncertain Hour's website includes a deep dive into the data in welfare reform, and breaks it out by state. Below is some of the data from Pennsylvania.

If passed,  HB 1380 , a bill to drug test benefits recipients who are deemed to have a "high likelihood" of substance abuse, would amend the Public Welfare Code so that benefits applicants would be required to complete a written questionnaire as a condition of eligibility. Applicants who are deemed to have a "high likelihood" of substance abuse would then have to be drug tested. A person testing positive once would be assessed for treatment options, while anyone who is tested positive twice would have their access to benefits suspended for 12 months. Please urge  your legislator to support your community and oppose HB 1380.  Interested in PathWays PA blog posts on similar topics? 6/9/15 - House Bill 222: Good Intentions but Negative Consequences 9/3/14 - Good and Cheap: Free SNAP Cookbook Available for Download 4/24/15 - Great News From Governor Wolf

Pennsylvania's House of Representatives may consider a bill that would amend the Public Welfare Code and reinstate a lifetime ban against accessing public assistance for most people with felony drug convictions. This legislation casts too wide of a net and has unintended consequences. While House Bill 222 is intended to target large-scale drug traffickers, survivors of domestic violence and human trafficking who have been convicted of drug charges as a result of their abuser's control over them, or those charged with possession with intent to deliver small amounts of drugs, would also be affected. The benefits that these survivors (and their children) would need in order to break free from the control of their abusers would be denied - including Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) and food stamps. People currently experiencing domestic abuse most often cite financial instability as the reason for their decision to stay with or return to their abuser. Therefore, ...

From our friends at the National Skills Coalition : The House this week is set to vote on two bills that would make it difficult for workers—particularly the most vulnerable and hardest to serve workers—to get the training and services they need to get a good-paying job to support their families.  Please contact Congress today!  Later this week, the House is expected to vote on the Supporting Knowledge and Investing in Lifelong Skills (SKILLS) Act (H.R. 803), a bill to reauthorize the Workforce Investment Act by consolidating several existing federal workforce programs into a single $6 billion Workforce Investment Fund, eliminating dedicated funding and numerous policy protections meant to help those most in need to get the skills to advance in the workforce. The House is also expected to vote on the Preserving Work Requirements for Welfare Programs Act of 2013 (H.R. 890), a bill that would prohibit the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) from providing...

In an op-ed published today , Michael Froehlich and Julie Zaebst depict some of the issues budget cuts have caused in County Welfare Offices, particularly in Philadelphia.  Among the problems they cite: Since 2002, the number of workers in the Department of Public Welfare has dropped by 13%, but caseloads have almost doubled in that time Fewer than one in five calls to the Philadelphia Customer Service Center are being picked up Almost one in six applications for food stamps are rejected due to lost documents or failure to make an appointment; however, Froehlich and Zaebst say that in their experience, "these rejections can often be attributed to documents misplaced by overwhelmed skeleton crews or to ineffectual "phone tag" between officials and applicants [busy with] work, child-care, and school schedules." The programs offered by the Department of Public Welfare are meant to be ways that families can stay above water in the short-term while they look for fa...

From our friends at The Career Wardrobe Prior to the creation of PA WORKWEAR, over $15 million was spent throughout Pennsylvania ($5 million in Philadelphia) on cash assistance for women on welfare to purchase employment and training clothing... The PA WORKWEAR program saves taxpayers over $12 million annually and $36 million over the past 3 years. Earlier this spring, the Department of Public Welfare slated the successful PA WORKWEAR program for elimination. The Career Wardrobe applauds the administration for ultimately understanding the merits of the program and choosing to keep this critical support program for women transitioning to employment.

According to The Times-Tribune , Pennsylvania is planning to scale back benefits commonly termed "welfare" and to place new requirements on people receiving those benefits. Random drug tests of recipients convicted of felony drug crimes are one of the new changes expected.  Recipients tested will be limited to those with a felony drug conviction within the past five years and those currently on probation for felony drug convictions.  The system to be put into place will test approximately 20% of these recipients, according to the article. Under a new law passed in the waning days of the fiscal year, the Department of Public Welfare now has the authority to limit oral and prescription drug coverage for adult medical assistance recipients and overhaul the special allowance program currently used to pay for tools, training, and work clothing so that TANF recipients can move from welfare to work. According to a report released by CLASP earlier this year, th...

Please make calls today or tomorrow to your state representative and to Rep. Turzai, the House Majority Leader, and Rep. Dermody, the House Minority Leader. Ask them to vote NO on HB 960. It is expected to be voted on quickly after its passage in the PA Senate today. HB 960 would give the Department of Public Welfare (DPW) unbridled power. DPW would have the authority to make drastic cuts affecting Medical Assistance, SNAP (food stamps), child care, welfare-to-work, and cash assistance programs, without proper legislative oversight, or public comment. The cuts would hurt Pennsylvania’s most vulnerable seniors, women, children, victims of domestic violence and people with disabilities. In sum, the amendment would slash Pennsylvania’s safety net – without proper consideration by the General Assembly. Representative Turzai can be reached at 717-772-9943 or mturzai@pahousegop.com . Representative Dermody can be reached at 717-787-3566 or fdermody@pahouse.net . Contact ...

The Pennsylvania House of Representatives voted a group of bills out of committee last week that would makes changes to the existing Public Welfare Code. Collectively, the bills, known as “WelFAIR” , seek to reform areas of social service programs that Republicans have targeted as areas susceptible to abuse. However, the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review is reporting that despite claims that these bills would cut costs and help close the state’s budget gap, in fact these bills would have little effect on cost saving, and could result in greater strains on the system as families feel the effects of the cutbacks. Read on for a summary of the bills currently before the House. HB960: House Bill 960 provides for a new fraud detection system and for an income eligibility verification system for public assistance. The income eligibility system, as proposed, would be a computerized system that matches the SSN of the applicant with a variety of databases, including: • Unearned income information f...

(Thanks to The Advocates Agenda and Cathy Palm for this post.)   Welfare Reform Act of 2011 Unveiled Caps spending on means-tested programs (e.g., Head Start, Title IV-E Foster Care, TANF, SSI, EITC, etc.) March 17th - Earlier today members of the Republican Study Committee (RSC) , which began the 112th Congress with the Spending Reduction Act and a push for at least $100 billion in immediate cuts to federal spending – unveiled the Welfare Reform Act of 2011 . The legislation is being championed by RSC Chairman Jim Jordan as well as Congressmen Tim Scott and Scott Garrett . In unveiling the legislation they cited a speech from President Franklin Roosevelt in 1935 that “launched the American welfare state.” At that time FDR said, “Continued dependence upon relief induces a spiritual and moral disintegration fundamentally destructive to the national fibre. To dole out relief in this way is to administer a narcotic, a subtle destroyer of the human spirit…” RSC offi...

Apologies for not writing about this sooner, but the Policy Department has been in the midst of attending a national conference and preparing for a local hearing on earned sick time.  While we were busy, a budget proposal for the rest of the fiscal year (from March 4 until September 30) was announced, as well as President Obama's proposed budget for 2012. Note: Congressional Staffers are also looking for your thoughts on HR 1.  A new service, POPVOX, is among organizations collecting statements.  To learn more about POPVOX, please visit https://www.popvox.com/home.  Also, The New York Times has put together a graphic representation of the federal budget proposal, showing the various cuts and increases to spending.  You can check it out on their website . Here is a roundup of budget information that we have gathered from our friends and colleagues. Tell us about more in the comments! Adult Education AmeriCorps/Corporation for National and Community S...

As Pennsylvania continues searching for a way to close its $4 billion budget gap, the mantra of "cut waste, fraud, and abuse" is growing ever louder.  While ending waste, fraud, and abuse is a critical part of providing good services, these problems are not where the bulk of spending goes .  Meanwhile, programs to reduce such fraud, like random drug testing of TANF recipients, is likely to cost far more than it saves. CLASP has just updated a report on random drug testing to show the cost of these programs.  According to their report, the cost of catching a drug abuser runs between $20,000 and $77,000 per person.  Meanwhile, in most counties, a family of three only receives $403 per month from TANF.  When the state budget is announced on March 8, there will be a number of cost-cutting measures included. As we get closer to budget time, please take a moment to talk to your legislators now to prevent penalizing people using needed services while running up u...

Thank you to the Coalition on Human Needs for putting the below information together. On November 15, Congress is scheduled to return for a few weeks. In that short amount of time, members have numerous issues to deal with from tax cuts to the extension of unemployment insurance. Below is information about just some of the many important issues Congress will be deciding: Taxes : If the tax cuts made in 2001 or 2003 (as known as the Bush tax cuts) are extended, Congress will have to decide if the improvements to the refundable Child Tax Credit and the Earned Income Tax Credit included in the Recovery Act will be part of that extension. Unemployment Insurance : In July, Congress extended federal unemployment benefits for the long-term unemployed through the end of November. Unless Congress acts this fall, the unemployed will once again face the abrupt termination of their unemployment compensation. Child Nutrition Reauthorization : In August of 2009, the Senate passed the Heal...

"Census figures in region show poor getting poorer" By Alfred Lubrano and Dylan Purcell Inquirer Staff Writers The poor got poorer and the well-off didn't get any better in the Philadelphia region in 2009, according to U.S. census figures released Tuesday. Philadelphia retained its unwanted position as the poorest among the country's 10 largest cities, with a poverty rate of 25 percent. Making a bad situation worse, the number of children in poverty under age 18 in the city fell to one in three. To read the full article, visit the Inquirer's website.

According to a new press release from CLASP , 12,000 Pennsylvania workers could lose their jobs at the end of the month without the extension of the Way to Work program.  Way to Work uses money from ARRA to subsidize employment for low-income Pennsylvanians (and others throughout the US).  Most of the job placements are in the private sector. While the House has voted twice to extend the Way to Work program, which only began in spring 2010, the Senate has not yet taken action.  With 37 states currently operating Way to Work programs, the end date of September 30 may create a devastating effect on employment around the country. image courtesy of http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Recovery_Accountability_and_Transparency_Board_Logo_%28USA%29.jpg

We at PathWays PA hope that everyone is having a nice Memorial Day! Please remember to thank those who have and who are serving our country. This Wednesday! The Self-Sufficiency Standard for Pennsylvania 2010-2011 Philadelphia Release PathWays PA is proud to announce the Philadelphia release of the Self-Sufficiency Standard for Pennsylvania 2010-2011 ! WHEN: Wednesday, June 2nd 2:00-4:00 WHERE: United Way Building of Southeastern Pennsylvania, 7 Benjamin Franklin Parkway, Philadelphia PA The Standard measures how much income a family of a certain composition in a given place must earn to meet their basic needs without public or private assistance. The Standard is based on the cost of each basic need in each county—food, housing, health care, child care, transportation and taxes— determined independently using official and publicly available data. Join us to learn more about the Self-Sufficiency Standard from the President and CEO of PathWays PA, Carol Goertzel, and the aut...