Fact Sheet: President Clinton Announces Welfare To Work Program

      Message Creation Date was at 25-JAN-1999 09:15:00

PRESIDENT CLINTON ANNOUNCES WELFARE TO WORK PROGRAMS


New Steps To Help Fathers Support Their Children And Families
Presidential Hall, Old Executive Office Building
January 25, 1999

with welfare caseloads down by nearly half since 1993 and over 10,000
companies
committed to welfare-to-work, President Clinton will announce today a new
package of initiatives designed to ensure that those remaining on the
welfare
rolls make a successful transition from welfare to work.  These initiatives
have a new focus -- to increase the employment of low-income fathers so
they
can support their children. The PresidentD!,s $1 billion Welfare-to-Work
initiative would help 200,000 more people work.  At least $150 million is
dedicated to helping fathers fulfill their responsibilities to their
children
by working and paying child support. Remaining funds focus on long-term
welfare recipients with the greatest obstacles to employment. The
President
also will announce that his budget will contain new welfare-to-work housing
vouchers, transportation funds, and tax credits to help those on welfare
get to
work and stay employed.  These initiatives would provide parents the tools
they
need to support their children and succeed in the workforce.

Welfare-to-Work Funds with a Focus on Fathers
The PresidentD!,s $1 billion Welfare-to-Work initiative would help 200,000
long-term welfare recipients in high-poverty areas move into lasting
unsubsidized employment.   It is an extension of the two-year, $3 billion
Welfare-to-Work program the President secured in the 1997 Balanced Budget
Act.
The initiative, as reauthorized, provides at least $150 million to ensure
that
every state helps fathers fulfill their responsibilities by working, paying
child support, and playing a responsible part in their childrenD!,s lives.
Under this proposal, states and communities would use a minimum of 20
percent
of their formula funds to provide job placement and job retention
assistance to
low-income fathers who sign personal responsibility contracts committing
them
to work and pay child support. This effort would further increase child
support collections, which have risen 80 percent since the President took
office, from $8 billion in 1992 to $14.4 billion in 199.8. Remaining funds
go
toward assisting long-term welfare recipients with the greatest barriers to
employment to move into lasting jobs.   The reauthorized program also
doubles
the welfare-to-work funding available for tribes.

Also, the Department of Labor will announce today the availability of $240
million in competitive grants from the current $3 billion Welfare-to-Work
program. These funds will support innovative local welfare-to-work
strategies
for individuals with limited English proficiency, disabilities, substance
abuse
problems, or a history of domestic violence.

Transportation and Housing for Families Moving From Welfare to Work


  The President also will announce today that his budget will contain $580
. million for welfare to work housing vouchers and transportation assistance
  to
  help those on welfare obtain work and stay employed. The presidentD!,s
  budget
  will provide $430 million for 75,000 welfare-to-work housing vouchers,
  including $144 million in new funds for 25,000 additional vouchers. This
  is a
  50-percent increase over the 50,000 vouchers the President secured last
  year.
  The vouchers would help families move closer to a new job, reduce a long
  commute, or secure more stable

 -more-

housing so they can perform better on the job.  The PresidentD!,s budget
also
increases Access to Jobs transportation funding from $75 million to $150
million, doubling the number of individuals and communities that can
receive
transportation assistance.  This competitive grant program supports
innovative
state and local transportation solutions such as shuttles, van pools, new
bus
routes, and connector services to mass transit to help welfare recipients
and
other low-income workers get to work.

Private Sector Hiring from the Welfare Rolls
The President will announce that his budget will include $530 million to
extend
for one year Welfare to work and Work Opportunity Tax Credits to encourage
more
employers to hire welfare recipients and other disadvantaged individuals.
Already, in response to the PresidentD!,s challenge two years ago in his
State
of the Union Address, 10,000 companies have joined the Welfare to Work
partnership and hired, retained, and promoted hundreds of thousands of
former
welfare recipients.  Forty-two percent of these companies are very small
businesses (25 or fewer employees), while four percent are very large
businesses (3,000 or more employees).

Welfare Rolls Decline as More Recipients Go to Work
The President will release state-by-state data showing that welfare
caseloads
are at their lowest level in 30 years and that the welfare rolls have
fallen by
nearly half since he took office.  Since January 1993, 36 states have had
caseload declines of more than 40 percent and nationwide the rolls have
fallen
by 44 percent, from 14.1 million to just below 8 million.  J;nformation
released
recently by the Department of Health and Human Services also shows that the
percentage of welfare recipients working has tripled since 1992, that an
estimated 1.5 million people who were on welfare in 1997 were working in
1998,
and that all states met the first overall work participation rates required
under the welfare reform law.


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