Family cap a popular notion, but it won't fix welfare woes

THE FAMILY CAP proposal to foreclose any additional benefits for children who are born of parents who are on Aid to Families with Dependent Children is a popular welfare reform initiative. However, upon reflection, one finds it does little to address the real problems facing AFDC families and the working poor. To wit:

How long do families stay on AFDC? Fifty percent of those who get on AFDC leave within one year; two-thirds to three- quarters leave within two years. However, 50% to 70% return within three to five years. AFDC operates as a kind of unemployment compensation fund for the very low-wage job market.

Why do people return to AFDC? They lack health coverage and affordable child care, or they lose their jobs. Economics Prof. Barbara Wolfe of the University of Wisconsin-Madison estimates that if good health coverage were available, our welfare rolls could decline by 25%. In Milwaukee County, when low-income child care assistance is not available, 25% of those who leave AFDC return to it.

The welfare cap bill does nothing to attack these problems.

Family incomes have dropped dramatically.

Nationally, AFDC benefits have fallen 40% in real dollars over the last 15 years. In Wisconsin, benefits fell even faster because Gov. Tommy Thompson, by line-item veto, cut AFDC benefits 6% in 1987. Now, AFDC provides about 54% of the poverty level for a family of two, and 50% for a family of three.

Working-poor families fare poorly, too. A mother working a full-time, minimum- wage job earns 69% of the poverty level for a family of three. In 1979, the minimum wage could support such a family at the poverty level.

Dramatic changes have taken place in our low-wage job market. A recent Census Bureau study indicates that the portion of all Americans working full time but earning less than the poverty level (for a family of four) has risen by 50% in the last 13 years. Almost half of single household heads who work full time earn less than the poverty level.

Consequently, it is clear that any welfare reform package must make work pay enough to support a family above the poverty level and break down the barriers to work. The family cap proposal in Assembly Bill 21 does nothing to remedy these pressing problems. In fact, amendments to allow AFDC families to keep wages earned from jobs, or charity from churches, were rejected by Republicans. The family cap bill simply mires poor families deeper in poverty.

Solutions? I believe President Clinton is right on the mark. He has raised the earned income tax credit and has proposed to increase the minimum wage to raise below-poverty incomes for low-wage workers.

Last session, the Assembly passed a bill to expand Healthy Start, which would have provided health care for all children under 19 who live in working-poor families. A watered-down version of the bill passed the Senate. We should now expand coverage for children up to age 19.

The keys to effective welfare reform are jobs, health care, education and child care for working families.

State Rep. Rebecca Young of Madison represents the 76th District and is the ranking Democrat on the Assembly's Children & Human Services Committee.

Copyright 1995
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