State’s welfare rolls dip again

Monday, Nov. 25, 2002 | 11:21 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- For the fourth time in five months, the number of people drawing state welfare checks decreased in October.

The news came on the heels of strong employment numbers announced last week. The state said Tuesday that the state's unemployment rate fell to 4.5 percent in October, a level unseen since the Las Vegas economic boom started to slow in 2001.

But state Welfare Administrator Nancy Ford said the number of welfare recipients still is 48 percent higher than before the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and 75 percent higher than forecast by the 2001 Legislature.

The division reported Friday that 32,419 people were drawing cash grants from the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program in October, down 0.1 percent from September, which had experienced a drop of 7.1 percent.

Bob Murdock, chief of research for the state Division of Employment Security, said the welfare decline suggests a slow improvement in the economy "but nothing dramatic."

Ford told the Legislative Interim Finance Committee Thursday that the division would end up with a $4 million reserve at the end of the fiscal year. The agency had better than a $20 million reserve, but much of it has been spent to take care of an increased caseload.

Ford also said the division faces a $12 million shortfall in the welfare aid budget next fiscal year, which begins July 1.

Tami Dufresne, coordinator of research and statistics in the division, said the agency expects another small decrease in November. One reason for the decline is the staff is working hard to find jobs for recipients and there is a small upswing in the employment picture, she said.

Murdock said claims for unemployment in the first week of November dropped 26 percent from a year ago. He predicts a slight increase in the next year in the number of jobs and "modest unemployment."

With the Christmas shopping season arriving, Murdock said, there will be some seasonal hiring that should lessen the jobless rate.

Dufresne said another reason for the lower welfare numbers is that a program that allowed those laid off after Sept. 11, 2001, to collect both unemployment and welfare ended Oct. 1.

Despite the drop, Dufresne said, "This doesn't mean we are out of the woods."

The division said so far this fiscal year there are 15 welfare recipients per 1,000 residents. That compares with a peak in 1995, when 26 of every 1,000 residents received welfare, Ford said.

The federal grant to pay part of welfare costs has remained the same since 1995, despite the population growth, so the state has to stretch its dollars, she said.

While welfare has decreased, the number of Medicaid recipients rose to 162,301, or 1.1 percent higher, in October over the previous month. There were 31,000 more people in the program this October than a year ago.