Posted on 07/16/2011 5:03:45 AM PDT by DeaconBenjamin
More than 12,600 welfare recipients and their children will lose monthly checks averaging $511 effective Oct. 1.
The Senate passed a House bill today that imposes a strict 48-month time limit on benefits
There is no grandfather clause in the measure, approved 24-12, which tightens the original 2006 benefits cap that allowed for benefit extensions if the recipient was in job training or unable to work. That means most recipients who are or will be past 48 months on Oct. 1 will be cut off.
Gov. Rick Snyder supports the bill that would save some $77 million. Recipients could no longer apply to the Department of Human Services for an extension beyond the 48 months. Nor could DHS make allowances for those it determines should be exempt from work requirements.
The Senate did add language that allows benefit extensions for those caring for a disabled spouse or child.
Rep. Ken Horn, R-Frankenmuth, the bill sponsor, said welfare should be a safety net and not a "lifestyle."
The measure does make a change that welfare advocates have sought for years. It allows recipients to earn more money on the job without jeopardizing their benefits. A family with $950 in monthly earned income, for example, would still be eligible for $224 in assistance.
But advocates said the strict time limits would place vulnerable children at risk because economic conditions or personal barriers prevented their parents from becoming self-supportive.
Add the 48-month limit to reductions in the Earned Income Tax Credit and "we are really throwing new barriers in the way of families trying to work their way to independence," said Michigan League for Human Services analyst Karen Holcomb-Merrill. “We should be encouraging these families, not finding new ways to make it harder to reach economic independence."
Under other provisions in the bill, households would no longer receive benefit credit for a 19-year-old, full-time high school student living in the home. DHS would have to reassess a recipient’s eligibility for every 12 months instead of every 24 months.
Republicans rejected a Democratic amendment that would have provided for extensions for recipients living in counties where the unemployment rate exceeds 25 percent of the statewide average.
Its a safety net, not a hammock.
Minnesota passed a FIVE YEAR limit on welfare some years ago. You’d have thought it was the end of the world.
DUmmy heads exploding in a beautiful symphonic chorus.
If it were up to me, I would make it as inconvenient as possible. No mailed checks or direct deposit, you have to go stand in line for your check each week. Mandatory drug testing. Become pregnant while on assistance and loose all benefits. Benefits diminish over time.
So . . . if all the welfare grifters in MN reach their limit, they can move to MI and get for more years? In any case, I expect MN will be greeting a human wave attack at the Health and Human Services department with former MI addresses.
John Engler purged welfare rolls when he was governor and most of the people I knew who were on welfare hated him for it then, later praised him for forcing them to stand on their own.
“If it were up to me, I would make it as inconvenient as possible”
If it were up to me, I would lay off about 40% of the state work force. You know, those who mow lawns, sweep streets, construction laborers etc., and give out welfare as a paycheck. Work a 40 hour week, at say 15 bucks an hour. Those that are eager to provide and earn will be there, those loafers will probably leave the state. Let them go to California. Heck, even offer a 1 way bus ticket to wherever they want to go.
Of course, you will have handicap, so I’m not saying it should all be manual labor, you could fire half the DMV as well.
Heck, create crews to pick up the trash roadside, or in the forest preserves, clean up parks.
15 bucks an hour would be a boon to many honest folks. I wouldn’t even put an expiration date on it. Let the program run until these folks find jobs. Offer no benefits other than basic healthcare, do not allow them to join the gub’mint unions.
Gub’mint jobs should be temporary. Let them serve as a bridge until one can get on their feet and then move on. They should not be a career.
I know, I know, somehow my plan is racist.
I’ve never heard that phrase before...but promise...it will now because part of my war chest.
It was discovered that a significant percentage of Minnesota welfare recipients had arrived by bus from Chicago. It was a short walk from the bus station to the welfare office in St. Paul.
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Has anybody else heard of this?
There is a “program” that allows a parent (a single mother, welfare queen) to get paid by the state, as a CNA, to care for their own disabled child. Somewhere in the ballpark of $1200 per month.
I think it’s in California.
Governor Dayton is going to have his soft little hands full with a restricted budget, not new taxes in sight and a trainload of welfare kings and queens from MI pulling into town.
I understand the sugar beet harvest is going to need a lot of hands this fall . . .
70% will qualify because of this “loophole”...even if they have to “disable” the spouse or child themselves
The Senate did add language that allows benefit extensions for those caring for a disabled spouse or child.”
Remember, fat is now a disability, so a huge number will still be able to keep the entitlement checks coming in!
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