Fewer needy Nevadans tapping state for cash

Thursday, July 29, 1999 | noon

Nevada had 42,703 people receiving cash assistance from the state Welfare Division in March 1995, the historic high for the program. A little more than four years later, that number has been cut by more than half.

A report issued this week by the agency shows that 18,308 people received cash assistance in June, a 57 percent decline in 51 months. Food stamp use is down by almost 39 percent over the past four years, and Medicaid, even with the state's high population growth, is holding steady.

Welfare Division Administrator Myla Florence said about 400 welfare recipients each month are finding employment at an average wage of $6.31 an hour.

"The decline has exceeded our projections, but it is a phenomenon that is going on nationally and is partly due to our strong economy," she said. "We have virtually zero unemployment. And as caseloads have declined, we have been able to invest in support services and job retention to help people stay employed and move up the employment ladder."

The welfare caseload decline started as former Gov. Bob Miller and the Legislature debated and enacted a modest welfare reform program, focusing on employment of recipients, in the 1995 legislative session. The decline gathered momentum with action by Congress in the following year and has continued since.

Advocates for families and the poor question whether those who have left the rolls, primarily single women with children, are doing all that well on their own.

With an average wage of $6.31 an hour for recipients who find work, the annual salary amounts to $13,125 a year, below the poverty level of $13,884 a year for a working parent with two children. The poverty level is the income level judged inadequate to provide a person or family with the essentials of life.

"I think people are getting jobs, just not living-wage jobs," said Jan Gilbert, northern Nevada coordinator for the Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada. "We question whether you can say welfare reform has been a success only by looking at a reduction in the caseload. That is not success. Success is when people are eating and paying the bills."

Lisa Appelrouth Guzman, director of the Nevada Empowered Women's Project, said research is lacking into what is happening to people who leave the program, now called Temporary Assistance for Needy Families.

"We have seen increased lines at food banks, and more people have been seeking housing assistance," she said. "The rolls are going down, but we may be shifting the problem from government to nonprofit agencies."

Florence said the reduction in the caseload numbers is just a part of the overall success of welfare reform. Many recipients who go to work can earn money and still retain some benefits, even the cash grant that amounts to $348 a month for a family of three, she said.

Food stamps and Medicaid coverage, a health insurance program for the poor, can be maintained as benefits, Florence said. Also, the Legislature this past session provided money to help former recipients who get jobs but have emergency situations, such as transportation and child care problems, she said.