Serious doubts are greeting the state’s program to find jobs for food stamp recipients.
The state jobs program has taken on greater importance following new rules this year that say thousands of able-bodied, childless people receiving food stamps must get into a job or training program.
The new rules apply in three counties so far – Cobb, Gwinnett and Hall – though state officials expect to expand that to other counties next year. Essentially, these recipients can receive food stamps for only three months in a three-year period, unless they fulfill these work requirements.
The mandate started Jan. 1, and the first people who miss the deadline could lose their federally funded food stamps in April. Early signs indicate numerous recipients may be on that track.
'We will see some lose crucial food assistance'
Some safety net advocates note that the state has a poor history of helping food stamp recipients find jobs. In 2014, Georgia’s program to move people from food stamps to jobs found employment for only 304 people, or 4 percent of the program’s participants.
This year, state officials are investing $100,000 in state dollars, along with some federal money, across a dozen counties to help people prepare for the workforce and connect with jobs.
Still, the latest effort is off to a slow start. Despite three mailings to recipients, DFCS officials said less than 10 percent of the 6,102 people in the three counties are participating in the state program that helps them find work.
“That is concerning,” said Melissa Johnson, a policy analyst with the Georgia Budget and Policy Institute. “If DFCS is not able (to help these people) between now and the end of March, we will unfortunately see some Georgians lose crucial food assistance.”
Johnson also worries the agency will not adequately communicate the demands of the new rules to food stamp recipients, and that some “will fall through the cracks.”
Communication problems have long plagued the state's food stamp system. Since the state introduced a centralized call-in center a few years ago, many people have found it nearly impossible to get through on the phone lines. Long hold times and dropped calls have resulted in thousands of Georgians losing benefits.
State officials say that won’t happen to these people. The problems with the call-in center have largely been fixed, they say, and special caseworkers have been assigned to time-limited food stamp recipients. Each participant will have the direct phone number of his or her caseworker, said Sandra Frederick, who heads the state program to help food stamp recipients find work.
'Get out of the house and get a job'
Some public officials have expressed great hope in the jobs program.
U.S. Rep. David Scott said he sees it as a “connecting rod” between people receiving food stamps and the private-sector employment world.
“This program shows Democrats and Republicans trying to find a way” to get these people into jobs, said Scott, a Democrat from Atlanta. “There is a level of humanity here. We just have to see how it works.”
State Rep. David Clark, R-Buford, supports expanding the job requirements across the state.
“These are able-bodied adults. They don’t have any kids,” Clark said. “All we are saying is get out of the house and get a job. Don’t sit home all day.”
Some 1.8 million Georgians receive food stamps, which are fully funded by the federal government. The great majority are parents, children, the elderly and the disabled who are exempt from the new rules. But some 111,000 are considered able-bodied adults without children. They collect an average of $190 a month.
The new rules are rehashing a longstanding debate on whether government assistance should be tied to work requirements. While supporters say the plan will push people on government assistance into employment, safety net advocates worry recipients will lose the help they require to fulfill the most basic of needs - food.
Indeed, some suspect the initiative is aimed at thinning the food stamp ranks. They compare it to the sweeping welfare reform of the nineties, where work requirements greatly reduced the number of people receiving benefits.
Even opponents of the new rules acknowledge that the public largely expects that an able-bodied, childless adult receiving public assistance should look for work, and that the government should demand that.
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