The state has made it easier for welfare recipients who work part time and are being cut off from public assistance to get a monthly subsidy. Cayetano trims work
requirement for subsidy
By Pat Gee
pgee@starbulletin.comTen days after a Dec. 21 public hearing, Gov. Ben Cayetano signed a rule change yesterday that reduced the minimum number of hours of work required for employed recipients to receive a $200 monthly subsidy from the state. Those recipients who work 20 hours a week are now eligible, down from 32 hours previously.
"There was a lot of coordination and support" from the state budget and finance director, the attorney general and the governor, said Kris Foster, financial assistance administrator of the state Department of Human Services. "It was the fastest rule change we ever had."
The change will be retroactive to Dec. 1, said Foster.
On Dec. 1, hundreds of isle families exhausted their lifetime limit of five years of welfare payments under the 1996 federal welfare reform law. Hundreds more face similar cutoffs today and in the months to come.
The reduction of work hours required was initiated in response to the economic downturn after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, but it will only be temporary, according to DHS. As of July 1 the minimum will revert back to 32 hours, according to a DHS notice.