Copyright 2001 Star Tribune Star Tribune
(Minneapolis, MN)
April 20, 2001, Friday, Metro Edition
SECTION: NEWS; Minnesota Poll; Pg. 1B
LENGTH: 1395 words
HEADLINE: 76%
would support easing welfare limits
BYLINE: Jean Hopfensperger; Staff Writer
BODY: Most Minnesotans believe some welfare
recipients should get a break from the five-year lifetime limit on benefits, the
Star Tribune Minnesota Poll has found.
A large majority of people surveyed, 76
percent, said that recipients _ most of whom are parents _ with serious health
problems or who care for someone with serious health problems should be allowed
to collect benefits after their time clock rings.
And 58 percent said recipients who have
worked, gone to school or followed the welfare rules _ but still don't
earn enough money to get off welfare _ should be able to keep collecting
benefits, too.
"I think
the purpose of the time limits was to get people who could work back to work . .
. and it appears to be doing that pretty well," said poll respondent John Bendt,
59, a management consultant from Orono. "But in situations where people aren't
able to work, then the standard has to be a little different."
Likewise, parents who are working or in
school, but still don't earn enough money to leave welfare, shouldn't
"have the rug pulled out from under them," he said.
That said, Minnesota must make sure the
welfare extensions aren't abused, he said, adding: "I'm totally opposed
to handouts without people doing their part to become self-sufficient. We've had
enough of those days."
.
Ending cycle
Time limits were the
much-debated centerpiece of the welfare overhaul approved by Congress in
1996. The goal was to end the cycle of welfare dependency among some
families, and to transform welfare into a temporary form of assistance
with the focus of moving people into the workplace.
The first wave of Minnesota
recipients will reach the five-year limit next year, and the Legislature will
decide who should continue receiving benefits.
The poll showed that support for helping
recipients dealing with serious health problems crossed every political group,
age group and geographic region of the state. Nearly three-fourths of those who
identified themselves as either liberal, moderate or conservative supported the
measure. Sixteen percent of all respondents opposed the
proposal and 8 percent had no opinion.
.
Divided support
Support for the proposal that would give a
break to a far bigger group of recipients _ namely all those who are following
the rules but not earning enough to get off welfare _ was more
divided. Forty-six percent of respondents who identified
themselves as conservative supported it, compared with 67 percent of those who
identified themselves as liberal. Support was highest among Democrats, liberals
and middle-income Minnesotans.
Thirty percent of respondents opposed
this proposal and 12 percent had no opinion.
Rep. Kevin Goodno, chief
sponsor of the House bill that would extend time limits only for people dealing
with serious health issues, said he wasn't surprised by the public support for
his proposal.
"When I
talk to people about our approach in dealing with disabilities and
hardships, people are pretty accepting," said Goodno, R-Moorhead. "But there is
a general concern about extending it beyond that. . . . We're trying to provide
a safety net to people, but also to send a message that work is important and
that people have to get off assistance as soon as possible."
At the same time, Goodno said he's not
convinced that polls are reliable in gauging views on such complex issues as
welfare overhauls, because the questions are so short and not put in
context.
Sen. Linda
Berglin, DFL-Minneapolis, is chief sponsor of the Senate proposal that would
extend benefits to everyone who is following the welfare rules but not
earning enough money to get off the system. She described some in that
category.
"We have
people with low IQs but they don't qualify for disability status," she
said. "We have people with children with chronic disabilities, but their
children don't qualify as disabled. We have families with language
barriers that, even though they're working, they don't earn enough money
to support their families."
Those families, she said, need help as
well.
.
Mixed responses
Janet Merimonti, a retired factory
worker from Stillwater, said she particularly supported the proposal to help
parents with disabled children. There's a shortage of trained people who can
care for disabled children, she said. "Moms love them," Merimonti said. "And you
know they won't be abused or maltreated."
Likewise, Merimonti said she sympathized
with parents who are working or following the welfare rules but not
earning enough to get off welfare. The cost of child care alone "could
practically take your whole check," she said. They need a break until they can
improve their earnings, she said.
Matthew Mueller disagreed. He supports
extra aid to families with health crises. But if people simply aren't earning
enough money, they should spend less or get a second job, he said.
Welfare recipients
"have tons of support," said Mueller, 39, of St. Paul. "They can go to school.
They can get subsidized child care. They often get subsidized housing and food
stamps. If someone put me on welfare for five years, and made all those
programs available to me, I could greatly improve my lifestyle."
Mueller added that he just finished putting
himself through a registered nursing program so he could increase his wages. It
took four years of working full time and going to school full time, he said. "If
I can do it, other people can do it," he said.
Some people surveyed said no one should
get an extension to the time limits.
"The five-year limit is there for a
reason _ to get people on their feet," said Jason Gottwalt, 27, an engineer from
Savage. "People should be using it to do that. That's a fair amount of time for
people to establish themselves."
.
_ Jean Hopfensperger is at
hopfen@startribune.com.
.
.
Most support easing five-year welfare
limit for parents with hardships
.
"Under current laws, parents on welfare have a five-year
lifetime limit to receive benefits. Next year, the first wave of welfare
recipients will hit that time limit. The Legislature is deciding which parents,
if any, should be allowed to stay on welfare longer. Should the state
extend the time limit for welfare recipients with serious health problems
or disabilities, or for parents who care for family members with those
problems?"
.
Yes: 76%
No: 16%
No opinion: 8%
.
.
"Should the state extend the time limit for parents who have worked,
gone to school or followed the welfare rules but still don't earn enough
money to get off assistance completely?"
.
Yes: 58%
No: 30%
No opinion: 12%
.
Source: Star Tribune Minnesota Poll of 829 adults statewide April 5-11.
Margin of sampling error: no greater than 3.4 percentage points, plus or minus,
at a 95 percent confidence level.
.
.
How the poll was conducted
Results are based on the Star Tribune
Minnesota Poll conducted April 5 to 11. A random-digit-dial telephone sample of
829 adult Minnesotans was used.
Results for the poll were weighted for
geography, age, gender and education to make sure the sample reflected the most
recent census estimates available for Minnesota's adult population. Weighting
also accounted for household size _ interviewers selected one respondent
randomly from each household _ and the number of phone lines going into a
household.
For results
based on 829 interviews, one can be 95 percent confident that error because of
sampling will be no more than plus or minus 3.4 percentage points. Margins of
sampling error for smaller groups, such as Democrats or Republicans, are
larger.
Results may be
influenced by random error and by such things as question wording and order, and
the practical difficulties of conducting any poll, which include the effect of
news events on public opinion.
Market Solutions Group of Minneapolis
conducted the interviews for the Star Tribune. News Research Director Rob Daves
directs the Minnesota Poll. Readers can e-mail comments to
mnpoll@startribune.com.
Findings also are available by
appointment at the Star Tribune, 425 Portland Av. S., Minneapolis. More
information about the poll is available on the Internet at
http://www.startribune.com/poll.
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