Tuesday, May 09, 2000
Welfare dole winding down
Reforms exempt only about 800
By Dan Klepal
The Cincinnati Enquirer
As the clock keeps ticking toward October — the first month when Ohio's poor who have been on welfare for three years begin losing their benefits — Hamilton County officials have established the criteria for deciding who will get a break and who won't.
People who have been on welfare for three consecutive years begin getting booted off this October. And more will follow each month after.
The change in law came as a result of national welfare reform, which is meant to force people off the welfare rolls and into jobs.
All counties in the state are allowed to exempt 20 percent of their welfare cases, protecting those people from losing benefits. In Hamilton County, that amounts to about 800 people.
Don Thomas, the county's director of the Department of Human Services, said that with the exemptions he thinks about 50 people are in danger of losing their benefits in that first month.
But benefits for about 150 welfare recipients will expire each month after that, some of whom will be protected under the 20-percent rule.
Eventually, however, the county will hit the maximum number of people it can protect, Mr. Thomas said.
Among the exemptions that will allow people to continue collecting benefits beyond the three-year limit:
• A person who can't work because a parent or caretaker has a serious physical or mental illness.
• A person who must provide medically necessary, full-time care for an immediate family member residing in his or her home.
• A person who is not able to work because he or she is the victim of domestic violence and is actively seeking help.
• A person who is six months pregnant or caring for a child under three months of age.
• A person who is unable to work because of a chemical dependency and is seeking help, as shown by participation in an approved substance abuse treatment program.
• A teen parent who is enrolled and in good standing in high school, and for up to 12 months after receipt of diploma.
• A person who has so many children (four or more, age 13 and under) that employment is not economically feasible.
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