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Catholic Charities USA Criticizes Congress, Administration for Increasing Poor Families' Burdens |
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"Ten years after the landmark welfare reform legislation that created the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program, new regulations set forth recently by Congress and the Administration place unfair burden on married welfare recipients and families struggling to achieve independence, according to Catholic Charities USA. Recent regulations issued by the federal government will only serve to add to the burdens facing thousands of low-income families and reverse the progress made by millions toward self sufficiency, says Catholic Charities USA, which represents more than 1,700 local Catholic Charities agencies and institutions nationwide. The new rules significantly restrict education and training opportunities and will limit the positive programs states and their community partners such as Catholic Charities have developed to help low-income families transition to the workforce. During the early years of welfare reform, states were given the flexibility that allowed them to help millions of families find employment. But even during the robust economic conditions of the late 1990s, only welfare recipients with the fewest employment barriers were able to find employment. Over the last 10 years, research has shown that the most effective path to self-sufficiency for TANF recipients is through a combination of work and education. These changes to the TANF law overlook the enormous challenges faced by parents with little education and no marketable skills by further restricting access to education and training. Catholic Charities USA is also concerned that the new law places an additional burden on married TANF recipients by requiring that they work at a higher rate than single recipients.
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