Low-income advocates have dug up a report from the Department for Children and Families (DCF) that they claim deflates the department’s case for capping benefits in the Reach Up program.
Gov. Peter Shumlin’s budget proposal calls for limiting Reach Up assistance — the state’s welfare program for families — to 36 months. When this time is up, families could still receive up to two years of additional assistance, but they would become ineligible every other year, and after a total of 60 months, they would become permanently ineligible.
The report, submitted to the Legislature in January 2012, makes a strong pitch for continuing assistance to this cohort.
“Achieving savings by eliminating financial assistance to Reach Up families with more than 60 months of assistance could leave families destitute and at risk and will create a large hole in the fabric of Vermont’s safety net for those most in need,” the report concludes.
It also suggests that removing assistance for this group could burden other programs. “The elimination of their financial assistance may put their children at risk and force a cost-shift to other programs.”
The report’s charts show a slight decline of the number of families in the program for over 60 months — from 290 in October 2010 to 270 in September 2011 — which, advocates say, is proof that the program works.
But the commissioner of the Department of Children and Families, Dave Yacavone, disagrees, even though the report was submitted as requested by the Legislature under his own name, authored by Reach Up Director Paul Dragon.
Yacavone says the Reach Up program hasn’t been functioning properly for years, and the introduction of a time limit on benefits will give people the motivation they need to find a job.
“The approaches we used to manage Reach Up in the past will not work in the future,” he said. “We have to find new approaches. By having the time limit, it creates a deadline for people who need one.”
Sheila Reed, associate director of Voices for Vermont’s Children, pointed to a different reason for the Shumlin administration’s proposal — budget pressures. “One year ago they believed this was a terrible thing to do to Vermont families. So it appears to be a budget-balancing move.”
In 2001, Reed helped craft the statute that governs Reach Up. “Everyone agreed at the time deadlines were draconian, cruel and dangerous to kids,” she said.
In a statement released today, Chris Curtis, an attorney with Vermont Legal Aid, said, “This report confirms what we already knew: dismantling programs that work for low-income Vermonters is catastrophic for affected families and budgetarily myopic.”
The notion that the absence of a deadline is what’s prevented people from finding work is laughable, advocates said.
“It is a joke that people are sitting around on Reach Up and not working. They are working. They are either looking for a job or working,” Reed said.
“Jobs are not going to magically appear,” Curtis added.
Yacavone had a more optimistic prognosis. “I don’t believe everyone is going to fail. People are going to be able to find work. The Department of Labor is saying, ‘Dave, there are jobs available.’”
