When President Clinton pledged "to end welfare as we know it" back in 1996, then-Gov. Jim Edgar and a Republican-dominated Illinois legislature were well ahead of the curve. Two years prior, lawmakers had embraced the boot-straps philosophy, extending a freeze on increases in Temporary Assistance For Needy Families (TANF) cash grants and pushing the income eligibility threshold well below the extreme poverty line.
When the Clinton-backed federal incentives were appproved, Illinois quickly bought into the next round of "reforms," including stricter work requirements, which led to the closure of 340,958 additional public aid cases by 1999. But the state's own figures revealed their success in slimming the welfare rolls was shallow; only 31 percent of households had exited the welfare system because they were earning a sustainable wage. Meanwhile, half forfeited the assistance because they fell out of compliance with new work requirements. And this was the outcome amidst a booming economy.
Those figures should have been a harbinger of the unsustainability of the "reforms" during an economic downturn. Unfortunately, it has taken the worst recession in six decades to reveal major weaknesses in the safety net. According to a newly-published joint survey conducted by the National Conference of State Legislators and the Wall Street Journal, Illinois isn't performing well under what is considered "the first real test" of welfare reform, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities' Liz Schott. Despite double digit increases in unemployment and food stamp enrollment, Illinois has een a mere 3 percent increase in TANF cases over last year, which ranks us 14th out of the 30 most populous states in the nation.
Schott explains the test to the Journal:
One clue, [Schott] says, can be found in a different measure. Although the TANF program seems to be accommodating increased need, it is doing so at a slower rate than another government initiative: the food-stamp program. The number of food-stamp recipients has risen in every state and was 19% higher in March than a year ago, a much bigger increase than the number of welfare cases.
As the Journal points out, other states have been more successful in providing short-term public assistance to those who have exhausted unemployment benefits but haven't yet found work. A stumbling block here in Illinois is that the annual income criteria -- less than $7,000 for a family of three -- is so low in Illinois that severely impoverished families often find themslves ineligible.
Championed by State Rep. Will Burns and State Sen. Kwame Raoul, a major TANF reform bill (HB 2383) passed both chambers this spring and -- assuming the governor signs it -- will lift that cap to 50 percent of the federal poverty guidelines, or roughly $10,000 for that same household. On the Senate floor, Raoul described it as a "modest investment" toward helping "working people who are trying to lift their way out of poverty."
But there is certainly more work to be done. A separate bill proposed by Burns to increase TANF benefits by 15 percent failed to advance out of the House.
