Welfare Needs New Focus, Report Says

People who work with families on welfare should not be responsible for working with 80 families or more, as they currently do.

They should have the time and ability to visit families at home, and to check in with them periodically, long before families are due to be cut off welfare for life.

They should also keep up with families in the weeks and months after they quit welfare and start working, says a new report given this week to Fred Boothe, commissioner for the Bureau for Children and Families.

The suggestions come mostly from Boothe's employees, who were asked to recommend ways to revamp the state's welfare system, called West Virginia Works.

"In order to provide effective services that will promote self-sufficiency to WV Works participants, our committee recognizes that case management has to become a more integral part of the WV Works Program," the committee wrote.

Under the old welfare system, before 1996, eligibility workers for the state signed people up for benefits, but were not required to help people find ways to get off welfare.

Under the new system that took effect in 1997, welfare recipients were required to sign "personal responsibility contracts" to get financial help. The contract spells out what the person will do to become self-sufficient within five years. West Virginia cuts families off after five years with few exceptions.

But the state's case workers spend too much time determining who qualifies for which benefits and too little time helping families set goals and work toward them, the report says.

"Less time needs to be [spent] doing eligibility determination and case maintenance; more time needs to be spent doing case management," the group wrote.

In addition to meeting parents in the welfare office, case managers need to visit them at home, and help families address issues besides joblessness, the report says. Families need help with keeping children in school, medical needs and parenting skills.

"The change in philosophy is a really good idea," said Susan Sobkoviak, a spokeswoman for the National Association of Social Workers-West Virginia Chapter, and a member of an earlier welfare advisory panel appointed by Gov. Bob Wise.

Sobkoviak was also glad the report recommends new job classifications and descriptions for the workers who would be responsible for these new duties.

She also praised the group's interest in monitoring families regularly throughout the five years they are eligible for benefits, and for providing an incentive to keep children in school.

Among other recommendations:

• Case workers should be able to check on families within 30 days after parents get jobs and quit getting welfare. They should check in again in 60 and 90 days. They would help prevent the need for many families to reapply for benefits. They would help families with transportation, child care, claiming the Earned Income Tax Credit and other issues.
• Case managers need more systematic training in developing effective case plans, assessing needs, motivating clients, using community resources, home visiting, documentation and interviewing.
• Families should get a follow-up visit after receiving benefits for 24 months to see how the family is progressing. Some counties, including Braxton, Nicholas and Webster, already make some of these efforts.
• Encourage children to complete high school and pursue post-secondary education by continuing benefits to students who are enrolled in high school, college or another school even after the child turns 18. Benefits could be extended to age 21.
      Currently, when a child turns 18, the child's part of the family assistance check is cut. Some families are better off in the short term if that child quits high school and gets a job, or takes a job right out of high school.
      "The committee feels that this may be one way to provide a service that may have a positive impact on families in the future," they wrote.
• The state should keep its committee that decides whether families qualify for extensions beyond 60 months, but add a representative of an intensive case management agency. The person being cut off should also be allowed to attend the meeting.
• The state should re-evaluate its definition of a "high unemployment" county, one of the categories that can qualify a person for extended benefits. The state currently uses unemployment statistics. The state should consider using welfare caseloads to define "hardship" counties instead.

West Virginia's welfare system is the subject of a current case before the state Supreme Court. Two McDowell County families have asked that benefits be restored to them and other families like them.

The suit cites inadequate case management as one of the reasons. It also criticizes the state for cutting children off along with their parents and for excluding poverty-stricken McDowell County from the list of counties that qualify for extended benefits.

On Thursday, the Supreme Court denied the families' amended motion to have their benefits reinstated while the matter is being decided.

The court also appointed semi-retired Circuit Judge Daniel L. McCarthy of Harrison County as a special commissioner. McCarthy will take evidence and report to the Supreme Court by Sept. 16.

The court gave McCarthy the ability to rule on requests for relief, such as restored benefits, while the matter is being considered.