BY B.G. GREGG
The Cincinnati Enquirer
A group of Ohio lawmakers plans to introduce a bill this week that will require the state to be easier on uncooperative welfare recipients. The bill, to be discussed today at a press conference in the Statehouse, calls for a $50 sanction for welfare recipients who do not comply with rules. The sanction would end when the recipient complies. Current rules call for the recipient to lose one welfare check with one sanction, three with a second sanction and six monthly checks on the third offense.
The proposed bill, a step back from consistently tough state measures regarding welfare reform, is being lauded by advocates for the poor and criticized by those who dole out the checks.
"Each of these families does have children -- in many cases, small children -- and why should we punish the children to punish the parents?" said Lynn Williams, a spokeswoman for the Welfare Rights Coalition, a grass-roots group in Cincinnati that advocates for welfare recipients.
"If we're going to have a $50 sanction, it would be better to have no sanction . . . we have to have something that gets people to pay attention," said Don Thomas, director of the Hamilton County Department of Human Services.
The bill is co-sponsored by two Cincinnati representatives, Democrats Mark Mallory and Sam Britton. Mr. Mallory wonders whether sanctions are achieving the goal of welfare reform: putting people to work. Instead, he said, they may be knocking people into a worse life.
"We're not certain why people are moving off of welfare, whether it is that they are being sanctioned or are dropping off because it is too cumbersome or if they are finding jobs that are making them self-sufficient and productive members of society," he said. "By lowering the penalty, we get them to comply and stay with the program."
Ms. Williams said recipients have been unfairly sanctioned for things such as not filling out paperwork properly or missing work because they don't have child care or their child is sick. Losing the welfare check throws them backward, she said.
Lora Jollis, who is heading Hamilton County's welfare reform program, said Mr. Mallory should concentrate on tracking the recipients as they level the rolls and not changing the rules. "We haven't even given the law a chance to work," she said.
Jon Allen, a spokesman for the Ohio Department of Human Services, said incentives and penalties are built into the welfare plan because recipients are eligible for welfare payments for only three years and have to get with the program right away.
