Families First is Tennessee's welfare reform plan which replaced the Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) program. The temporary cash assistance program emphasizes work, training, and personal responsibility. As part of the Families First program, each participant must agree to follow a Personal Responsibility Plan (PRP).
Unless a participant is exempt from the work requirement, he/she must also agree to develop, follow, and complete a work plan. The work plan is based on the individuals needs and skills.
See http://http://tennessee.gov/humanserv/famfir.htm
Let me tell you the idea of Families First is great. Single parents have the opportunity to receive free job skills training while receiving a small stipend and child care certificates from the government. The program tries to address the root causes of poverty along with the handout.
Each parent on Families First is to be in a 40 hour activity; either work, job skills training, education, or a combination of those activities which is verified every 6 months. For example, a participant could enroll in college for 12 hours and work a part-time job for 16 hours (school hours count double). If the participant is not enrolled in college or working, most likely the client will be referred to ECS, the states job preparedness program, to meet the work requirement. The interesting thing is that a large portion of the participants following certification will quit their job or drop out of school. ECS is tracked by contract agencies of the state so it is harder to go unnoticed as not participating.
Families on Families First are also limited as to the length of time that they can be on Families First; a family can be on Families First continuously for 18 months with a lifetime total counter of 60 months. When a family reaches the 18 month point, the family is supposed to not be eligible for 3 months in order to ease the family into the real world like a bird. If they fly, Families First has done its job; if they sink, Families First will be available to them for another 18 months or until the 60 month lifetime counter is full. There are various reasons to stop the counter like the birth of a child (1 year), when a family is being assessed for Family Service Counseling (1 month), or the parent is assessed to be below the 9th grade level (until the individual reaches the 9th grade level).
TIME LIMITS
POLICY STATEMENT:
Families First assistance groups have eligibility and grant payment time limits. A time limit is a range of months in which an assistance group will work to achieve self-sufficiency.
An assistance group has an 18-month time limit for a period of eligibility and a 60-month lifetime limit. There are exceptions to this time limit for certain assistance groups. These exceptions can include exemptions interruptions, and extensions.
The 18 and 60-month time limits are maximum time limits. An assistance group may acheiveve self-sufficiency or become ineligible for other reasons earlier than the maximum time limits.
See http://http://tennessee.gov/humanserv/ff-handbook.pdf (pdf pg 244, manual pg 199)
The interesting thing is that these counters are basically meaningless. When a family recertifies(reapplies), the eligibility counselor performs a counter review to determine if the client is still within the 18 month and 60 month limits. If a worker is not able to show through documented records that a parent is in a 40 hour work activity for a particular month, that month does not count for the counter.
Remember what I said before about quitting activities right after the certification appointment; the participants are supposed to report within ten days any significant changes in work activities, but they almost never do. Also, the state tracks the attendance of those in ECS right? The eligibility counselor may learn that a client is not attending, but generally will do little about it due to the high workload and revolving door of case workers. The worker is supposed to schedule a meeting to renegotiate the Personal Responsibility Plan, but many will wait to the 6 month re-certification to deal with it. The result is that people have been on Families First for over 10 years (120 months)! This is due to the negligence of the workers and participants who have figured out how to work the system.
When I hear about the cuts and stories of abuse in Tenncare, I get so angry that no one hears about Families First abuses.
2 comments:
That's the problem with government-run social programs. They are so easily abused. Nevertheless, you will never hear about FF abuses to the same extent as TennCare abuse.
Why?
Because FF is a for-the-kids program that cannot be mocked. Criticism of social programs that benefit babies and kids is a dead zone in politics.
On the other hand, the perception of many middle-class voters is that many people on TennCare are lazy chisellers. The elephant in the TC room is that public perception of the lower classes that are presumed to comprise TC recipients. Politicians and pundits on both sides take advantage of that to further their own ends.
My complaint is not necessarily with the program; it is with the wink and a smile way of running it. I think of all the money the government would have to do all of the things lawmakers say they want to do without necessarily raising taxes.
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