- Truant kids to cost families state aid, By Jennifer Chambers, September 25, 2012, Detroit News: “Michigan parents whose children don’t attend school will lose welfare cash benefits under a new state policy that takes effect Oct. 1. Starting Monday, the Michigan Department of Human Services will require children ages 6-15 to attend school full time to keep their family eligible for cash benefits. If a child doesn’t, the entire family becomes ineligible. The policy change was prompted by Gov. Rick Snyder, who called earlier this year for a crackdown on truancy and the cycle of crime it creates. It takes effect two days before Michigan’s fall Count Day, when attendance is used to determine 90 percent of a school district’s per-pupil funding from the state. For the 2011-12 school year, 93,408 cases of truancy were reported in Michigan schools, an increase of nearly 10,000 from the previous year, which had 83,491. The policy is expected to affect the vast majority of the state’s 59,000 welfare cash-assistance cases and its 162,655 recipients. The average eligible household in Michigan receives $463 a month from the state…”
- Welfare cases in Ohio tumble, By Kate Giammarise, September 24, 2012, Toledo Blade: “Ohio’s welfare rolls continue to decline sharply, statistics from the state show. Declining participation is part of the reason Ohio will likely avoid a federal penalty of $135 million, but critics charge the state’s most vulnerable children and adults are being denied needed assistance. Statewide in July there were 151,495 adults and children who received assistance through the Ohio Works First Program, also known as TANF, or Temporary Assistance to Needy Families. That’s about 75,000 fewer people than the 226,778 who were recipients in January, 2011 — a decline of about one-third in less than two years. The number of people receiving the assistance has declined by thousands of people almost every month since the beginning of last year. In Lucas County, the number of recipients has declined from 12,985 people in January of last year to 9,349 adults and children in August…”
- State welfare roll plummets; needy turn to Maine cities, By Kathryn Skelton, September 23, 2012, Bangor Daily News: “Last winter the state gave Lewiston a heads-up: 337 families were about to lose state welfare benefits. Portland had 237, the second-highest number among all Maine cities, in the same boat. Those families had nearly hit the state’s new 60-month lifetime limit in the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program, exhausting benefits. They could apply for an extension or turn to the cities for General Assistance. In Lewiston, 75 have asked for city help so far. Two-thirds of those applications are pending. Lewiston has already given out nearly $10,000 in benefits to the 24 families approved…”
Poverty-related issues in the news, from the Institute for Research on Poverty