Date: Tue, 01 Dec 1998 17:27:44 -0500
From: Graeme Bacque <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: OW-WATCH-L [Fwd: (en) MA State House: 30 arrested protesting
welfare time limits (follow up)]
>From the U.S., but nonetheless relevant...
- -------- Original Message --------
Subject: (en) MA State House: 30 arrested protesting welfare time limits
(follow up)
Date: Tue, 1 Dec 1998 14:59:11 -0500
From: Tom Boland <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
________________________________________________
A - I N F O S N E W S S E R V I C E
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MANY WELFARE RECIPIENTS SET TO LOSE BENEFITS
By Linda Kim, Associated Press
BOSTON - About 3,700 people were poised to lose their benefits Tuesday
as
the state begins implementing its 1996 welfare reform law.
And for more than 2,100 others who have filed for extensions, the date
serves as a grim reminder of what is to come.
Under the welfare reform law, able-bodied recipients whose children are
older than 2 will lose their cash assistance after two years unless the
state qualifies them for exemptions.
Despite the Dec. 1 cutoff for the first wave of recipients to lose state
aid, everyone will receive their first check in December, and many will
get
a second check, said Dick Powers, spokesman for the Department of
Transitional Assistance.
But some welfare advocates are angry, saying the two-year provision
hurts
poor families more than it helps them.
Meanwhile, police arrested about 30 demonstrators who crowded the lobby
of
acting Gov. Paul Cellucci's office on Monday, demanding that he postpone
the welfare deadline and reconsider the two-year limit.
The protesters -- which included university professors, students,
activists, union organizers and welfare recipients -- had pledged to
remain
in the lobby until benefits were extended or police threw them out.
The demonstrators crowded the couches and floor of the entryway.
Some of the protesters left when troopers warned the office was closing,
but the rest stayed and sang "We Shall Not be Moved'' as police led them
away. Eight of the protesters had to be carried out. The group will be
charged with disorderly conduct and trespassing.
No one from the governor's staff acknowledged the protesters. Governor
Cellucci is in Israel.
"How many babies do we need to find on doorsteps? How many shelters do
we
need to fill?'' asked Diane Dujon of Massachusetts Welfare Rights and
the
AFL-CIO women's committee.
"This I'm sure will lead to the death or destruction of families,'' said
Laura Walker, a mother of two disabled children who was on welfare on
and
off for 18 years.
Rosemarie Freeland, a coordinator for the Franklin Community Action
Corp.,
a nonprofit antipoverty agency, said the changes have left many welfare
recipients confused.
"There's so many changes happening so quickly that case workers and
recipients are getting different information every week,'' she said.
John Lehman, director of the Franklin Survival Center in Turners Falls,
said the loss of benefits will hurt many in his rural western
Massachusetts
community, including some who successfully move from welfare to work.
"If you get $6 to $7 an hour, that's good pay,'' Lehman said. "But you
still are below poverty level. In this area, jobs don't pay that much.
And
a lot of companies don't provide benefits.''
Powers said about 41,000 families became subject to the two-year limit
in
December 1996. But that number now is 5,885 because more than 35,000
have
gotten jobs, left the state, or moved in with relatives, he said.
Statewide, 2,195 people have filed for a six-month extension.
Powers said the state will not terminate benefits of those who filed for
an
extension.
http://www.boston.com/news/daily/30/welfare.htm
FWD Boston Globe - November 30, 1998
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