Posted on 04/24/2009 9:19:22 AM PDT by reaganaut1
The city's experimental anti-poverty program that pays poor New Yorkers for good behavior like seeing the doctor and attending parent-teacher conferences handed out an average of $3,000 per family in its first year.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg's administration said it is too early to know whether it is a useful tool to fight poverty. Officials say it will take five years for a full evaluation of the program, which is the first of its kind in the nation.
But a report released Tuesday by the mayor's Center for Economic Opportunity did contain some preliminary data. It said 80 percent of the 2,400 participating families are described as "fully engaged" in the program, while 16 percent are "less engaged" and four percent have not completed any of the activities.
The program pays poor families rewards, known as conditional cash transfers, for completing tasks like seeing a doctor ($200), attending parent-teacher conferences ($25) or getting health insurance ($40).
The concept was modeled after similar efforts in other countries, including Mexico, Turkey and Brazil.
"We're trying conditional cash transfers in a very different setting, to find out if they work in urban America," Bloomberg said. "Will they succeed? We'll find out -- that will take time. Has it been controversial? Sure, but so is every policy that breaks new ground."
In New York City, the experiment is privately funded; the city handed out a total of $6.6 million in the program's first year, from September 2007 to August 2008. A control group of 2,400 families are also being monitored for five years but are not receiving payments.
[T]he participating families in New York have household incomes at or below 130 percent of the federal poverty level; in 2007, when families began receiving rewards, that was equal to $22,301 for a family of three.
(Excerpt) Read more at businessweek.com ...
If you pay people to be poor, there will always be poor people
no wonder these cities and states have money problems...
Great! Now let’s start paying them for flushing the toilet and washing their hands after they use the restroom.
... average of $3,000 per family ... 2,400 participating families$7,200,000
And the definition of insanity is.....
As Chris Rock said, "As a parent, you're SUPPOSED to do that!"
We are a single income family - by choice - so I can stay home with the kids. However, things would be a bit easier if I got paid for being a responsible adult & parent. *Sigh*
Training people to be sheep, to be dependent on the government, and to be poor always.
“Now let’s start paying them for flushing the toilet and washing their hands after they use the restroom.”
I think that’s part of Obama’s reelction strategy.
Wouldn’t it be cheaper to just deduct money for bad behavior from their benefits? If a conference missed...25 dollar rent the next month from free housing. I guess perks are nice though. Too bad everyone gets them but the working class.
Wrong..that will be playing them $3000 to vote the straight dem ticket...
Reminds me of the chapter from Rush’s book about Mayor Dinkins, “Now We Thank People for Obeying the Law.”
This is a problem with the conservative message in that it amounts to preaching to the choir. With 40 percent of childbirths now being out of wedlock, the situation for conservatives and the nation at large will only grow bleaker unless conservative messages are changed to better address current realities.
For people that never knew a two parent family or even a nuclear family, conservatives need to develop some "helping hand" quasi-welfare-socialist programs designed to steer people already on the wrong side of the tracks toward a better way of living.
FMCDH(BITS)
I could do a lot of work with unwed mothers, I could help them get their start. (With apologies to Steve Martin)
stop making sense.
As long as this is privately funded,,I have no complaint, but in reality is the charity receiving money from the Govt to perform charity?
The demographics are killing us. More kids born to single parents..fewer parents with education and skills raising kids. More people with the knowledge and motivation to get money for nothing.
The only cure may be a generation of real poverty...a real depression. Looks like that is coming again in the UK.
@ss-wiping-state alert.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.