NEW REQUIREMENTS
The state has said that certain food stamp recipients must find work in order to continue receiving benefits. The new rules, which began Jan. 1, apply to able-bodied, childless adults in three counties — Cobb, Gwinnett and Hall.
The requirements include:
1. The adults must demonstrate that they work 20 hours a week.
2. They can also be enrolled in an approved education or training program for 20 hours a week.
3. The recipients can also work with the state to volunteer at a local nonprofit group.
4. They can combine these activities to meet the requirement.
5. These able-bodied, childless adults can only receive benefits for three months in a 3-year period without meeting the requirements.
6. Some people are exempt from meeting the work requirement. They include someone who is pregnant, or enrolled in college, or receiving unemployment benefits.
Source: The state Division of Family and Children Services.
Thousands of food stamp recipients in three metro Atlanta counties are facing an ultimatum: get a job or lose your benefits.
Under rules that began Jan. 1, they can collect food stamps for only three months in a three-year period, unless they get into a job or training program. The rules apply to able-bodied adults without children in Cobb, Gwinnett and Hall counties.
Georgia officials say the new initiative applies to 6,102 people in the three counties, but they expect to expand that next year. 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.
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.
That scared Charles Drummond. The 40-year-old collects about $190 a month. He has no car, no home and no cell phone. He said health problems with his feet and liver as well as high blood pressure have made it impossible for him to work, but officials informed him he was under the mandate.
“Please don’t take my food stamps away,” Drummond said Thursday, just before he walked into a program orientation at the Gwinnett office of the state Division of Family and Children Services. “It’s the only way I can eat.”
Help finding a job
The federal government requires states to provide job assistance to those receiving food stamps but allows them great leeway in doing so. In Georgia, officials this year are investing $100,000 in state dollars across a dozen counties to help people prepare for the workforce and connect with jobs.
"If we have people able to work, we will get them job training," said Bobby Cagle, director of DFCS, the state agency that manages food stamps. "I think that's good for the state."
Proponents say the work mandate provides an incentive for people to find employment and avoid relying on government hand-outs.
“All too often these programs encourage longterm dependency,” said Kelly McCutchen, president of the Georgia Public Policy Foundation. He added, “These measures are neither punitive or demeaning. They are just the opposite. They will provide the dignity of work.”
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.
Challenges to the new rules are quickly becoming apparent. DFCS has a poor history of connecting people to jobs, and 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 their 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 their caseworker, said Sandra Frederick, who heads the state program to help food stamp recipients find work.
Food banks worried
Local food banks are bracing for more people coming their way, possibly straining their capacity to serve.
“If there are more people (in need), and they are coming to us, then you are always concerned,” said Dwight “Ike” Reighard, president of MUST Ministries, which serves Cobb and several other metro counties. “You don’t have an unlimited supply.”
Work requirements on receiving food stamps are not new to Georgia. The state is re-instituting federal regulations adopted as part of welfare reform in 1996. The measures had been in place in 84 counties as late as 2008. They were suspended during the Great Recession.
The initiative is also spreading nationally as the economy recovers. Some 23 state are bringing back the time limits this year, for a total of about 40 states that are using them. Gwinnett, Cobb and Hall counties were selected in Georgia because they have low unemployment in the state.
Drummond faces officials
Walking with a partial limp, Charles Drummond was clearly nervous as he entered the DFCS orientation Thursday in Lawrenceville. Some 13 food stamp recipients had signed up, but only two showed. Officials hope interest will grow as the deadline looms.
Drummond explained his health problems to the agency staffer, saying, “I’ve been to a million doctors for my feet. It’s impossible for me to stand for any length of time. I have high blood pressure and high liver enzymes from years of partying. I have terrible vision.”
He was eventually deemed unable to work, and therefore would not be subject to the work requirements. DFCS staff said they will try to help him with his problems.
Drummond’s case revealed the complicated challenges of this food stamp effort, said Frederick, the program specialist. He was clearly unable to work, but had he failed to contact the agency he probably would have lost his food stamp benefits.
Frederick said she knows some people don't believe the state is there to help. She knows some think they can't get through on the phone.
“But they have to reach out to us,” she said.
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