Welfare recipients
could get reprieve

Sen. Akaka offers a bill that
would expand who could
receive job training

By Pete Pichaske
Phillips News Service

WASHINGTON -- Hundreds of thousands of welfare recipients facing a loss of benefits, including 6,000 in Hawaii, could be eligible for job training and placement under a $1 billion extension of the "Welfare-to-Work" program proposed this week by Sen. Daniel Akaka.

A key component of the welfare reform that has dramatically reduced the welfare rolls in the past few years, the program is due to expire at the end of September.

Akaka wants to extend it for three years, as well as ease eligibility requirements to allow more welfare recipients to participate.

Many states, including Hawaii, have been unable to spend most of the money allotted for the program due to requirements that, for example, disqualify high school graduates who are also illiterate.

At the same time, many welfare recipients will lose their eligibility this year because of state-imposed time limits.

Akaka has proposed opening the program to welfare recipients who meet any one of seven criteria: no high school degree; illiteracy; a poor work history; the need for substance abuse treatment; homelessness; a disability; or has been a victim of domestic violence.

The senator said his changes would double the number of welfare recipients in Hawaii eligible for the Welfare-to-Work program.

"Welfare reform neglected to help the hardest-to-employ welfare recipients," said Akaka. "Welfare-to-Work fills the gap and assists these men and women in finding jobs."

Recent U.S. Department of Labor statistics show that Hawaii has one of the highest unemployment rates in the nation.

State human services officials have said that about 6,000 welfare recipients could lose their benefits as early as Aug. 1, when their eligibility expires. Akaka's proposal would make many of those people eligible for job training and placement.

The Akaka bill has the support of the Clinton Administration.