State & Local Government Policy, Business and Technology

How Are States Using Welfare Funding? Often, Not to Help People Work.

Governing: When Congress reformed the nation's welfare program 20 years ago, it set a new condition for eligibility: Recipients must have a job or be searching for one. But the 1996 reforms also gave states freedom to decide how to spend their federal welfare funding. As a result, many aren't spending it on programs that directly help people find employment.

Last year, on average, states used less than 10 percent of welfare funding for work-related services, such as subsidized employment, job training, job search assistance and transportation vouchers. In Louisiana, a policy research group recently referred to the state's welfare program as a slush fund “used to plug holes in the state budget caused by large tax cuts."

Read article