Eligibility and Enrollment in Wisconsin Works Program

Many potential recipients aren’t getting W-2 benefits, By Patrick Marley, January 2, 2010, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: “Thousands of families with no income are not applying for cash benefits from Wisconsin Works, often because they don’t know about the program, a new state report shows. State Department of Children and Families investigators found 14,114 families with dependent children in October 2009 that had no income and received food stamps but did not get cash payments through W-2. Many of those families, considered to be living in ‘deep poverty,’ would likely qualify for cash payments, though the department did not estimate how many of them would. The 14,114 poor families that were not receiving cash benefits is nearly twice the size of the 8,627 families that received payments that month. Advocates for the poor have long complained that the state has discouraged people from getting cash benefits through W-2, the state’s welfare-to-work program. They won a lawsuit in 2007 to allow people to receive money even if they are considered ‘job ready…'”