| Current welfare legislation has reduced welfare roles but not poverty
and has created more homeless families. It would be good if lawmakers
actually knew what it was like to live on welfare by experience. One case
in point. A young single mother with three special needs children was
denied assistance because she wanted to attend college to study graphic
arts. She is a very talented woman who has since been homeless for many
months. 1. Education shold be allowed as work activity and allow
eligibility for assistance. 2. Families with speical needs children need
extra help with their children. 3. Unemployment and lack of available jobs
should be considered when there are no jobs in an area you can't get one.
Unemployment in this area of Alaska is over 57 percent. There are no jobs
in the villages and salman fishing season has been closed in this area
four of the last five years. 4. Cost of living should be considered when
writing this law. A loaf of bread here is four dollars and an apple costs
more than a dollar. 5. Two parent families with low income should receive
benefits. We are creating a generation of children who have inadequate
social skills because keeping food in the house and hopfully a roof over
the heads of thier children leaves no time to raise them adequately. 6.
The way the laws have been written it punishes people for trying to work
and it should support graduated reduction of assistance with work rather
than cutting them off. If they stumble they have no safety net. One young
mother with three children at home earned four-thousand dollars in one
year and lost her medicaid benefits. She was unable to provide
preventative medical and dental help for her children. Medicaid did help
again with a big medical problem that could perhaps have been avoided with
prevention. The anxiety and fear created in the minds of parents who have
no safety net is enormous. |
