BY ANNE MICHAUD
The Cincinnati Enquirer
As welfare rolls continue to drop, not only are taxpayers saving on welfare checks; now the tax dollars are changing direction.
For the first time, the state has sent Hamilton County a $10.2 million reward for turning welfare recipients into workers.
It's part of a pilot program begun last year in which 15 counties risked penalties -- and gambled on bonuses -- for meeting performance targets.
Hamilton County earned the highest amount of any county for performance during 1998, according to the Ohio Department of Human Services. The $10.2 million includes $4.3 million for reducing the overall caseload; $306,307 for meeting child support goals; $2.3 million for two-parent family work participation; and $3.3 million for work participation by all families.
Montgomery County earned the second-highest incentive payment of $4.3 million, state officials said. In Southwestern Ohio, Butler County was eligible in just two categories and earned $248,038.
12,000 off rolls
More than 12,000 people have left welfare rolls in Hamilton County in three years, with 6,000 adults remaining. Welfare rolls reached a high in September 1992 when the Department of Human Services listed 22,845 open cases.
The $10.2 million will be used to help reduce the caseload over the next four years, said County Commissioner Tom Neyer Jr., announcing the payment from the state.
The state tracks work participation and caseload measures separately because people who leave welfare can qualify for limited public assistance for a while. They are participating in work, but their cases are still open.
That is true for the Washingtons, a Winton Terrace couple who have three children, ages 5, 2 and five months. Ronald Washington, 23, cycled through a series of jobs during the past two years. The threat of having the family's benefits cut in September forced him to settle into full-time work.
He is a dishwasher at the Maisonette in the evenings. The family still receives $186 a month in welfare.
In the past, transportation problems have cost Mr. Washington jobs, and he said he has learned to be better prepared.
"I make sure I take bus fare out this time," Mr. Washington said.
The success rate for two-parent families was highest in Hamilton County, with 85 percent of those eligible finding jobs. The target was 80 percent.
Mindy Good of the Hamilton County Department of Human Services credited a new approach. The department assigned two caseworkers to do nothing but work with two-parent families. "It let the caseworkers concentrate on one thing," Ms. Good said.
Montgomery County copied the approach and earned an 84.7 percent rate. Lucas County hit 64 percent, Franklin County 57 percent, Summit County 44 percent and Cuyahoga County 39 percent.
