Posted on 03/02/2007 5:31:48 AM PST by BraveMan
Jeanine L. Jackson is not your average W-2 client.
She's 37, has attended technical college, run her own retail businesses, studied case law and acted as her own lawyer in two court cases. That makes her older and more savvy than most in the Wisconsin Works welfare reform program, a last-ditch stop for low-skill, jobless and often dead-broke single parents.
A single mother of two, Jackson also has a history of fighting back when she feels she's been treated unfairly. Her persistence has both helped and hindered her.
"I know I'm not the first recipient to have problems with W-2," Jackson said. "This time, they decided to mess with someone who knows how to litigate." She said she learned how to write the numerous briefs and memos filed in her case by researching law on the Internet.
After suing her W-2 agency last fall for alleged civil rights violations, Jackson now finds herself in a sort of legal limbo. The agency, United Migrant Opportunity Services - the state's largest private W-2 contractor - secured a court order last month kicking her off the UMOS caseload.
Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Francis Wasielewski ordered Jackson switched to another, unspecified W-2 agency. He agreed with UMOS lawyers who argued that Jackson's lawsuit alleging harassment by UMOS employees made keeping her there problematic.
She may be the first W-2 client ordered off an agency's rolls by a judge - something the state law governing the program never contemplated.
She still collects $428 in monthly payments through W-2 but has no contact with UMOS or any other local agency. She also has no community service job or training assignments because of a medical problem.
"They are denying me services, basically because I sued them," Jackson said.
Relations between Jackson and UMOS employees apparently soured months ago. She began tape recording all her meetings with UMOS workers last fall - for her own protection, she says.
Jackson claims harassment by a UMOS security guard, including verbal threats and a high-speed chase down W. Capitol Drive last October, with the guard following her in his car. She believes she lost a W-2 community service job placement working at a UMOS office because of the guard's "personal dislike" of her.
UMOS officials denied her harassment claim but declined to discuss her case in detail. UMOS sought the court order to transfer Jackson because her use of a tape recorder amounted to improper evidence gathering for her civil rights case, said Gerardo Gonzalez, a lawyer for UMOS.
Jackson's case has state officials scrambling to figure out what to do.
Under state rules, W-2 clients may but are not required to switch agencies if they move to a different part of Milwaukee County. Clients initially are assigned to an agency based on where they live, with the county divided into five regions.
State reviewing case The agencies have no authority to force a client to switch to another W-2 provider, said Rose Lynch, spokeswoman for the state Department of Workforce Development. State lawyers are studying the Jackson case "to determine whether our policy has been circumvented" by UMOS, Lynch said.
Immediately after Wasielewski issued his order, Jackson hand-delivered a letter she wrote and a copy of the judge's order to the other two main local W-2 agencies, the YWCA and Maximus Inc.
Jackson said she also told officials at both agencies that she wanted to stay at UMOS and warned that if they accepted her as a W-2 client they likely would get mixed up in her civil rights lawsuit.
So far, neither agency has agreed to accept Jackson on its caseloads. Lisa Boyd-Gonzalez, associate executive director of the YWCA, said inter-agency client transfers have been done in rare cases, but at a client's request and through cooperation of two W-2 agencies.
This case is puzzling, Boyd-Gonzalez said.
"I do feel like I would have some sort of obligation" to accept Jackson, Boyd-Gonzalez said. "You don't want to refuse service to a participant. The problem is, she doesn't want it" from the YWCA.
Officials from Maximus did not respond to calls seeking comment.
Jackson said she wants an apology from UMOS and a monetary settlement.
She still collects $428 in monthly payments through W-2 but I presume by W-2 they are referring to a local / state program and not the IRS document that working part of the nation is focused on right now, it being tax season and all. Please give us context by briefly describing W-2.
No kidding what a mess. She owned a retail business, but now can't work retail? Medical problem huh? But, did not prevent bedroom antics and delivery.
And United Migrant what? What does this "agency" do for "migrants?"
"That makes her older and more savvy than most in the Wisconsin Works welfare reform program, a last-ditch stop for low-skill, jobless and often dead-broke single parents."
Here career is how to work the system so she doesn't have to be a contributing member of society.
She's a leech but I am surprised that the socialist paradise of Wisconsin is trying to limit her share of the wealth redistribution.
The Wisconsin Works program, more commonly known as W-2, was created by 1995 Wisconsin Act 289 to help participants achieve economic self-sufficiency through employment. It took effect statewide in September 1997. W-2 participants, who are primarily women with dependent children, earn wages or receive cash grants and other program services based on their employment status. Through September 2000, program costs—which are funded by state general purpose revenue and federal Temporary Assistance for Needy Families block grant funds—totaled $710.4 million.
Program participants receive services from counties, private agencies, and tribes under the terms of contracts signed with the Department of Workforce Development (DWD). W-2 participants are assigned to either subsidized or unsubsidized placements, based upon their level of preparedness for employment, and are eligible to receive program services that are intended to assist them in finding or retaining employment, increasing their skills or wages, and overcoming barriers to employment.
Ah ha!!! It is a self-esteem thing! Light dawns on marblehead. How very progressive of them.
Thanks ... I guess it was written for local consumption but you went and took them national. :)
Geez, my bar tab is bigger than that. Glad I have a job!
W2 is the 'Wisconsin Works' or 'welfare to work' welfare reform program.
More here:
http://www.effwa.org/highlighters/v07_n4.php
One question where is the father of her kids. Is he not contributing to the care of his children.
I do believe I could party with you (if I could get a paid day off)!
W2 is a welfare reform program--'Wisconsin Works', hence the W2...also know as 'Welfare 2 Work'.
You don't drink beer at work? Geez, my boss is COOL!
We have open-bar safety dinners every two months. Muahahaha!
She sems to have the intelligence to work. She is obviously good with computers. You would think that someone so qualified could spend a little time findng a job instead of working out ays to screw the system.
Welfare: to some its a right. Or at least they think it is.
Maybe she does not know (rolls eyes). His name is Joe Babydaddy.
Pretty interesting for a private non-profit. I wonder which legislator's family runs this thing.
By just reading what has been written about this person, she is just another dead beat. This along with other issues has made this country a bunch of winy, don't talk about me, give me free money because of my ethnic back ground losers’. I say through out the case and give her a fine. Maybe she will think twice the next time she decides to screw with someone.
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