This Week in Poverty: Disposable Families in Ohio

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http://www.thenation.com/blog/168418/week-poverty-disposable-families-ohio

Since January 2011, Ohio has thrown nearly 70,000 people—including 40,000 children—off of the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) cash assistance program, called Ohio Works First (OWF). That’s nearly 25 percent of the state’s TANF caseload. The reason? The state faces up to $130 million in federal penalties if 50 percent of the adults receiving assistance don’t meet the federal work participation requirement by September 30.

“Seventy thousand people is more than the entire TANF roll in thirty-nine states,” says Jack Frech, director of the Athens County Department of Job and Family Services in Appalachian Ohio, where he has worked with poor people for over thirty years. “You can imagine if someone announced they were going to throw all the children in Virginia off of cash assistance it would be national news. But that many get thrown off in Ohio and it’s barely even local news.”

Like Ohio, four other states face similar penalties for achieving low work-participation rates among TANF recipients in 2007. Advocates assert that forcing states to maintain those rates during a recession runs counter to the program’s goal of providing basic assistance to children in poverty.

Last year Ohio applied for relief from its penalty. But according to Liz Schott, senior fellow at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP), the state’s circumstances didn’t meet the “limited bases for relief” under federal statute, so the Obama administration denied its request.

[limpyhobbler]

1. Some families in southeast Ohio catch squirrells to eat.

Also fish out of polluted rivers is another big favorite. Some places here, there are no jobs. The real unemployment rate is a lot higher than the official stats. Give us money.
Or at least try not to drain the lake for frack water. Appreciate it. Thanks.