More Hoosiers join welfare rolls

INDIANAPOLIS -- For the first time in seven years, the number of people enrolled in Indiana's welfare programs has increased as layoffs from a weakening economy force more workers to seek public assistance.\nThe state's welfare caseload jumped 13 percent during the fiscal year that ended June 30. Nearly 13,000 people were added to the rolls over the previous year, The Indianapolis Star reported Monday.\nIn all, nearly 112,000 Hoosiers received welfare checks.\nState officials don't like the upward trend, but they say there are signs welfare reform, passed in the mid-1990s, is still working.\nA sweeping welfare reform law approved in Indiana six years ago shifted the focus from just mailing out checks to requiring residents to find work.\nThe reforms also placed a two-year lifetime limit for assistance and ended the practice of giving more money to parents who have children while on public aid.\nSome credit the decline in recent years to changes in a decades-old welfare system. But others point to trends in the broader economy.\n"The question is: Did caseloads drop because of welfare reform or simply because the economy was so good?" said Beryl Cohen of the Indiana Coalition on Housing and Homeless Issues.\nNow that the economy is weakening, states across the country -- including Texas, Wisconsin, New York and Michigan -- are reporting increases in welfare rolls.\nIndiana spent $114.7 million on cash payments in fiscal year 2001 -- up from $83 million the year before.\nThe sluggish economy is not the only factor that's causing welfare caseloads to increase. Some people will always need public assistance, Cohen said.\nThe next step in welfare reform needs to be better job training, she said. "Families are moving off welfare, but they're making such low wages that they still need help," Cohen told the Star.\nWelfare cases are still down overall since peaking in 1994, but advocates for the poor remain concerned that there's no change in the number of people living in poverty. Census numbers show that the percentage of Hoosiers living in poverty has remained near 10 percent over the past decade.\nThe reforms have succeeded in getting more welfare recipients into the work force. Forty-four percent of welfare recipients are now working, compared with just 23 percent six years ago.\nA year ago, the Indiana Family and Social Services Administration expanded welfare for working adults so they could keep their jobs and still get their welfare checks until their wages reach the federal poverty level.\n"Too many adults were just inching over poverty, then falling back in," said James Hmurovich, director of the Indiana Division of Family and Children.\nNow, a working parent with three children may continue getting welfare checks until wages reach the federal poverty level of $17,650.\nThat expansion also helps explain the recent jump in welfare recipients, Hmurovich said.\nState officials have been able to tap money not spent in past years when fewer Hoosier families were on welfare, Hmurovich said.\nSen. Luke Kenley, a Noblesville Republican and a state budget negotiator, said he's expressed doubts about expanding welfare.\nKenley, one of the chief architects of Indiana's reform law, said tough decisions may face legislators if welfare rolls continue to rise.\n"We want to help the most people, but we can't have everyone qualify," he said. "We'd never be able to cover that cost"