Welfare Warriors
Fall 2006
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Against the Poor
Fall
2006
Welfare Beat Info
LIFETIME MARCHES: CalWORKS Mothers and Children
Give Policymakers an "F"
for 10 Years of Welfare "De-Form"
 | LIFETIME founders: Single moms Heather Jackson, Anita Rees, Leilani Luia, Sylvia Cabrales and Diana Spatz. While completing college degrees and raising their children on welfare, thaey built a powerful grassroots organization. |
10 Years Later...Policymakers FAILED Poor Children and Families
(Oakland) On the 10th anniversary of welfare reform, 20 Bay Area CalWORKs mothers and children marched to dispel the myths about the success of welfare reform. They walked from the Oakland Federal Building to the new Alameda County welfare office in Oakland.
"Welfare wants me to take any low-wage, dead end job. But I can't earn enough to get off welfare," said LIFETIME parent leader Fatima Adcock of Oakland. "Policymakers need to invest in education and training. Then families like mine can become self-sufficient. Until then, they get an "F" from me!"
Demonstrators carried handmade signs, created by children living on welfare. They had "F's" drawn on them to represent policymakers' failure to support their families.
"They say that welfare is a success, but it's not," said Gladys Manning of Fremont. She is a CalWORKs mother and LIFETIME PEER Advocate. "I've been working full-time and going to school on my own. But CalWORKS doesn't give me the supportive services I am eligible for. They cut my transportation benefits. And I didn't even know I could get help with my child care costs while I was working."
Chanting "Come on Reps, do your best. Set up our families for success," the marchers reached hundreds of passersby. They also gave them information on the truth about welfare. Claudia Segundo of Oakland, CalWORKs mother of four and LIFETIME parent leader, said
"I am three semesters away from finishing my nursing program and becoming a Licensed Vocational Nurse (LVN). Once I am a LVN, I will earn enough to support my children without welfare. Now, my welfare worker is telling me I have to quit school to work. But I am already working and going to school."
"Thirteen million children are living in poverty, but policymakers are still claiming welfare is a success," said Vivian Hain of Berkeley, a LIFETIME member and CalWORKs mother of three. "How can policymakers keep doing this? We need to invest in poor families, not fail them!"
LIFETIME (Low-Income Families' Empowerment through Education) is a
statewide, membership organization of CalWORKs and other low-income parents. It works to empower low-income parents to determine, pursue, and achieve their goals for education, employment, and economic security.
Anita M. Rees
Associate
Director LIFETIME
1880 Fairview Drive, San Leandro, CA 94577
Minnesota Moms Fight for Raises and Justice
The Welfare Rights Committee fought hard at the Minnesota Capitol this year to undo the cuts and get back the poor people’s money that was stolen from us over the past few years.
For the first time in 20 years, politicians talked about increasing the monthly welfare grant because of the Welfare Rights Committee. In our “Fund Children’s Needs, not Rich People’s Greed” Bill, we demanded that poor families’ welfare grants get a 10% raise!
We had some major victories in childcare, including:
Starting July 1, 2006, more families will be able to get off the waiting list and into childcare! Over $10 million dollars was passed to get families into sliding fee childcare over the next three years.
Childcare providers will start to get better reimbursement rates, meaning that we will have an easier time finding childcare and they won’t be passing the cost onto us!
We fought to get the co-pays for childcare reduced (this passed the Senate in our bill) and the Republicans refused to decrease them, so we will have to fight on this again next year.
WRC stopped politicians who were trying to steal $23 million from the welfare money. They wanted to take poor people’s money and spend it on other things. Now we have that money to use for our fight next year.
Poor Families Tell Minnesota Politicians: Tax the Rich!
Poor families were a constant presence at the capitol. If we were not at the capitol, it would just be the rich talking to the rich. We forced them to deal with real people! Even on the very last day we were there with signs saying, “Our Kids Can’t East Baseballs!” to sepak out against for millionaires.
To undo the cuts, we have to change Minnesota laws. The first step to change the law is to have a bill. WRC had a bill called the “Fund Children’s Needs, not Rich People’s Greed” bill. Our bill passed through all the Senate committees and stayed strong until the very end of the session. Our bill takes money from the Rich and gives it back to the Poor. It closes tax loopholes for rich sham corporations and uses the money to undo welfare, health care and child care cuts.
We will keep fighting to undo these cuts NOW, next year, & EVERY year until we get JUSTICE!
This is what our bill demanded:
Undo the $125 SSI penalty for on MFIP (welfare)
Undo the $50 MFIP housing cut. The $125 SSI penalty and the $50 cut are the biggest welfare cuts in Minnesota history! These cuts steal millions of dollars a year from the poor!
Undo MA co-pays. Many people are not getting medical care because of the co-pays.
Undo ALL the childcare cuts. We won some victories on childcare this year!
Stop attacks on immigrants. Republicans are using a “divide and conquer” tactic with their racist immigrant bashing. We pushed to get MORE rights for immigrants—it was a winning strategy to stop Pawlenty’s attacks.
Raise the grants. Welfare grants have not had a cost of living increase since 1986—that’s 20 years!
From
Welfare Rights Committee
310 E.
38th St.
#207, Minneapolis, MN 55409
612-822-8020; fax 612-924-3604
welfarerightsmn@yahoo.com
www.welfarerightsmn.org
DHS “Lost” Papers You Left There?
Have you had trouble with your worker saying she never got papers you dropped off at DHS?
WARNING: Welfare departments around the country are using this “lost” documents scam to discourage folks from getting foodstamps, MA, childcare, etc. Moms submit the same papers repeatedly. Then the worker claims that this delay closed the case. So the client must reapply, causing them to lose valuable time and even back benefits.
DO NOT PLAY THIS GAME. Immediately call your county DHS Director and your county, state or federal politician. Ask them to fix the problem ASAP. (Call the public library for the names and numbers of your politicians AND the Director of DHS.)
Call the director and the politician daily. (You will speak to the politician’s aide and the bosses secretary.) Demand that they investigate this “error” of their employee and open your case TODAY.
Also send a hearing request to your state capitol. YOU DO NOT NEED A FORM. Write: I want a hearing because DHS terminated my foodstamps on ______(date). Be sure to sign and date it. (This is to expose/stop DHS corruption. You will NOT usually have to go to a hearing if you involve the politicians and director.)
If you ever DO have to go to a hearing, don’t go alone. Get a FREE lawyer from your local Legal Services office.
Expanding Foodstamp Telephone Interviews
USDA’s October 6th policy memo explains when states may waive the face-to-face interview for foodstamps. This would affect both clients applying or recertifying for food stamps.
Previously the agency had to first document that the face-to-face interview would be a “hardship” for the client. Now a telephone interview is an option for clients who can not make it to the food stamp office because of:
• work schedule
• child care arrangements
• health condition
• transportation problems or
• other circumstances that make going to the food stamp office for a face-to-face interview a “hardship.”
Implementation of the “hardship” waiver varies among states and local food stamp offices. For technical assistance on encouraging agencies to implement the waiver of face-to-face interviews, contact evollinger@frac.org