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Preamble
Helping
Jewish poor as well as those in the general community achieve self-sufficiency
has been a fundamental commitment of the Jewish people. Jewish tradition
and values emphasize the responsibility of the larger community
to provide for the poor and the near poor in ways that enable them
to live independently, with dignity, and to move from poverty to
economic self-sufficiency. Most welfare recipients are eager to
achieve this goal. Blaming welfare recipients for their own plight
rather than addressing the inadequacies of the welfare system and
of the nation's economy, are cause for alarm. Instead, a comprehensive
approach should be developed, using a full range of collaborative
programs and realistic measures of accountability on both the system
and the recipient.
Conditions
which enable families to leave the welfare system include: jobs
that pay enough to allow families to support themselves, opportunities
for affordable housing, child care, and other social services that
meet basic needs. The NJCRAC will support measures which
provide families with realistic work opportunities and adequate
financial and other supports, especially for the children in such
families. While such reforms may require meaningful financial investment
in the short term, they save money in the long-term by constituting
a worthwhile investment in people, effectively enabling them to
move from welfare to work and ensuring the well-being of children.
Principles
The NJCRAC
therefore has set forth the following principles as a basis for
developing a comprehensive and humane welfare reform policy:
- Welfare reform is
part of an overall commitment and strategy to reduce poverty and
promote economic independence and social well being among the
poor. A wide range of policies and programs, including job creation,
health care for all, childcare, and other support services, must
be developed to enable the working poor, as well as those dependent
on public assistance, to become self-supporting. A commitment
to adequate funding is necessary to ensure that these goals are
met.
- The federal government
has a primary responsibility for alleviating poverty by providing
the necessary programs to enable individuals and families to progress
from poverty to economic self-sufficiency.
- The federal government
should ensure a basic minimum level of support to provide a decent
living standard for the poor. The level of government funding
for welfare benefits should be brought, as quickly as possible,
to the federally defined poverty line, with regional adjustments
for differentials in living costs. Any action which would further
reduce net benefits to individuals, such as taxing welfare dollars,
should be rejected.
- Government policy
should recognize the diversity of those who are poor and include
programs which respond to the heterogeneous needs of this population.
One group requiring targeted services is the long-term poor, who
face the greatest barriers to employment. Another key target group,
requiring special attention by government, educational and community
institutions, is children who have children. Preventing pregnancies
among teenagers could have a substantial impact on breaking the
cycle of welfare dependence. Children who become parents, or who
may potentially become parents, both fathers and mothers, require
the following specialized services: targeted education and employment
programs; inducements to remain in school; child care and health
care counseling, to include programs and social service supports
which reduce pregnancy rates and encourage parent responsibility.
- Training, education,
and job creation programs should be funded at a level that enables
such programs to be effective in moving clients from welfare to
employment and sustainable self-sufficiency. Federal funding for
the Job Opportunities and Basic Skills (JOBS) program - or any
successor program -should be increased to expand education and
training opportunities. Adequate funding must be provided also
for job development strategies, as well as for job search assistance.
Matching state funding requirements should be reduced and application
procedures simplified so that administrative and fiscal constraints
no longer prevent states from accessing their full allocation
from these programs.
- Welfare reform should
not be funded at the expense of established government benefit
programs which currently serve welfare, low-income, and immigrant
populations, the working poor, the disabled, and other needy groups.
- Government policy
should provide for comprehensive support services for welfare
recipients enrolled in job training, education, and placement
programs and for recipients in transition from welfare to work.
Services should include health care, childcare, housing, transportation,
legal services, and other social service supports.
- Any mandatory employment,
whether in the private or public sector, to which welfare recipients
are assigned must not displace current workers and jobs, must
provide pay and benefits equal to those of other workers doing
the same work, and should not at any time pay wages below the
minimum wage.
- If fixed limits are
established, such as time limits in programs associated with training
and job placement, they should be contingent upon individual circumstances
(including provision of waivers for people with disabilities or
other needs), the capacity of the federal government to guarantee
adequate education and training services within the given time
frame, the ability of the economy to generate sufficient numbers
of permanent jobs within reasonable geographic access, the needs
of dependent children, and the government's capacity to provide
the necessary support services.
- . Government policy
should be flexible in assigning operational responsibility for
the design and implementation of non-cash welfare programs, such
as job training and child care, enabling participation by a range
of state and local government and non-governmental agencies experienced
in developing effective, localized service delivery programs.
The policy, however, must be based upon an adequate level of government
funding for service provision and clearly established government
standards of accountability.
- Welfare programs should
emphasize incentives over penalties. Family cap provisions and
other punitive restrictions endanger the welfare of children and
families and do not promote self-sufficiency.
- Welfare programs
should facilitate family stability by removing bars to participation
by two parent families, and by not penalizing impoverished families
in which both parents are employed. Reforms should make it easier
to combine some paid work with welfare benefits, particularly
in cases where only part-time and low wage work is available,
without loss of health care, child care, and other support services,
and to allow recipients to retain more of their earnings in order
to save for future needs.
- Preferred remedies
to poverty are those which support families, promote self-sufficiency,
and reward work, such as the earned income tax credit (EITC).
The recent expansion of the EITC means that families with one
member working full-time in a minimum wage job will be able to
live above the poverty line. To ensure use of the EITC, including
awareness of advance payment availability, outreach efforts, to
both recipients and employers, should be enhanced. All welfare
recipients, upon application for and departure from welfare programs,
should be notified in writing of the availability of the EITC.
Employers should be required to inform new employees of the option
of having advance EITC payments available through their payroll.
At the same time, the federal government should continue to explore
ways of establishing a more effective and efficient advance payment
system.
- Given that child
support enforcement services are critical to preventing poverty,
child support by absent parents should be enforced more vigorously
through mechanisms such as: establishment of paternity as soon
as possible following birth; periodic update of guidelines for
appropriate support payment levels; interstate coordination of
central registries for collections and disbursements; and a federal
child support enforcement clearinghouse, and other federal assistance
wherever possible. However, failure of efforts to establish paternity
should not result in disqualification for welfare eligibility.
A safety net assured minimum child support must be provided regardless
of parent employment status.
Conclusion
The
NJCRAC is committed to calling to the attention of the Jewish and
general community the problems associated with poverty, and to advocating
support for those programs that will move individuals and
families out of poverty toward self-sufficiency. The NJCRAC recognizes
federal, state, local, private, and individual responsibility in
working to develop a coordinated program of support for welfare
recipients and their families.
The
NJCRAC urges local and national Jewish organizations to join in
coalition with other civic, religious, and advocacy organizations,
and together to disseminate this or similar welfare reform position
papers in their states and communities and to express these positions
as preferred public policy to government officials newspaper and
magazine editorial boards, and candidates for office in this election
year.
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