FOR IMMEDIATE
RELEASE:
Wednesday, April 19, 1995
Contact: Michael Kharfen (202) 401-9215
HHS APPROVES MISSOURI WELFARE DEMONSTRATION
HHS Secretary
Donna E. Shalala has approved "Missouri Families - Mutual Responsibility
Plan," a statewide welfare demonstration project that emphasizes work,
parental responsibility and self- sufficiency. Missouri is the 26th
state to receive approval to implement a welfare reform demonstration
under the Clinton administration.
Under Missouri's
demonstration all Aid to Families with Dependent Children recipients
must, unless exempted, sign and fulfill a self-sufficiency agreement
that establishes a plan for work and a two-year time limit on benefits.
The agreement allows an additional two years if necessary to achieve
self-sufficiency.
"Now more
than half the states have the opportunity to do real welfare reform
-- moving people into work, promoting parental responsibility and protecting
children," said Secretary Shalala. "Missouri's innovative demonstration
reinforces the values of work and helps people move from dependence
to independence."
Participants
who are not self-sufficient by the end of the time limit will be required
to participate in job search or work experience programs. Adults who
have received AFDC benefits for 36 months or longer and have completed
their agreement by leaving AFDC will not be eligible for further benefits,
with good cause exceptions. Children's benefits will not be affected
by this provision.
Recognizing
that young people need supervision and support, Missouri's demonstration
requires that minor parents must, with some exceptions, live with their
parents or guardians to be eligible for AFDC.
To promote
responsibility and increase child support payments, non-custodial parents
in some counties who volunteer for the state's JOBS program will receive
a credit against child support arrearages owed to the state.
"Missouri's
approach offers more opportunity to move people from welfare to work
but also demands more personal responsibility in return," said Mary
Jo Bane, assistant secretary for children and families. "We have to
make personal responsibility, not welfare, a way of life."
To further
help recipients become self-sufficient, Missouri will raise the resource
limit and allow minor parents who are full- time students to keep all
the money they earn. The project also encourages young, two-parent families
to work and stay together by waiving the requirement that the principal
wage earner work fewer than 100 hours per month for the family to be
eligible to receive AFDC, when at least one parent is under 21. In addition,
the project allows recipients to own one automobile, without regard
to its value.
The demonstration
will operate for five years, and will include a rigorous evaluation.
###
Note: All HHS press releases, fact sheets
and other press materials are available at http://www.hhs.gov/news.
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