IRP Poverty Dispatch

Georgia settles voter registration suit, By Bill Rankin, April 19, 2012, Atlanta Journal-Constitution: “The state of Georgia has settled a lawsuit by agreeing to provide the opportunity to register to vote every time people apply for public assistance benefits, a coalition of civil rights groups said Thursday. Georgia Secretary of State Brian Kemp, who signed off on the agreement, condemned the litigation. He said the settlement will cost taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars to comply with ‘outdated and unneeded federal voter registration mandates and in attorneys fees paid to venue-shopping interest groups.’ The lawsuit alleged the state had been ignoring its obligations under the National Voter Registration Act…”

• Gov. Rick Scott veto hurts legal assistance program for poor, By Michael Peltier, April 18, 2012, Miami Herald: ” A $2 million veto by Gov. Rick Scott will mean fewer attorneys to represent low-income residents through foreclosure proceedings, domestic violence hearings and consumer fraud cases, legal aid officials and a top Democrat lamented Wednesday. A day after the governor vetoed $142 million from the budget, officials at an organization that provides legal help for low income Floridians said Scott’s decision will mean a 25 percent reduction in the number of attorneys available for legal assistance in the coming year. A year later, the number of available attorneys will drop even further…”
• LePage line-item veto throws Maine cities a curve, By Scott Thistle, April 19, 2012, Lewiston-Auburn Sun Journal: “Managers in Maine’s biggest cities were sharpening their budget pencils and re-crunching numbers Thursday in the wake of a Gov. Paul LePage line-item vetoes to the state budget. The veto that’s giving city officials consternation cuts the amount the Legislature set aside in the state budget to partially reimburse cities for costs through General Assistance welfare programs by about $5 million. Republican legislative leaders have said they will resolve the matter when the Legislature reconvenes in mid-May to take up a supplemental budget for the state’s Department of Health and Human Services. But for cities trying to get approval of their budgets in time for the new fiscal year that starts July 1, the LePage veto throws the process into a tailspin…”

• Survey shows holes in health insurance coverage, By Noam N. Levey, April 19, 2012, Chicago Tribune: “With the future of the healthcare law emerging as a major campaign issue this fall, a new survey has found that more than a quarter of adults ages 19 to 64 in the United States lacked health insurance for at least some time in 2011. And the vast majority of those people - nearly 70 percent - had been without coverage for more than a year, according to the study by the nonprofit Commonwealth Fund, a leading authority on health policy. The holes in health insurance were a driving force in President Obama’s push for the controversial healthcare overhaul he signed in 2010. Close to 50 million people in America now lack coverage, a number that has been rising as employers eliminate jobs or cut back the health benefits they offer their workers…”
• 1 in 4 Americans without health coverage, study finds, By David Morgan, April 19, 2012, MSNBC.com: “As the U.S. Supreme Court ponders the fate of healthcare reform in the current election year, a study released on Thursday shows that one in four working-age Americans went without insurance at some point in 2011, often as a result of unemployment and other job changes. The study by the Commonwealth Fund polled 2,100 people aged 19 to 64 and found that 26 percent of non-elderly adults went without insurance — a percentage that researchers said equals about 48 million people when measured against U.S. Census data. The Commonwealth Fund, a nonprofit organization that analyzes healthcare issues, said that seven in 10 of those who lost insurance spent a year or more without coverage, partly because plans sold on the individual market for health insurance were unaffordable…”

In Pakistan, welfare scheme shows signs of success, By Chris Brummitt (AP), April 17, 2012, Albany Times Union: “Clutching photocopied ID cards in bony fingers, a roomful of Pakistan’s poorest women sit on gray plastic chairs and wait in silence for something many have never experienced: a little bit of help from the government. It comes in the form of a debit card that is topped up with the equivalent of $30 every three months, enough to put an extra daily meal on the table, buy a school uniform or pay for medical treatment in a country where soaring food and fuel costs are hurting millions who already live hand-to-mouth. The program is something of a success story for a government widely seen as corrupt and inefficient, as well as for international donors that help implement and fund it. But the very need for the scheme highlights the poverty stalking a country whose stability is seen as key to the fight against Islamist extremism…”

Relocating public housing residents must be done responsibly, study says, By Katy Reckdahl, April 19, 2012, New Orleans Times-Picayune: “As the Housing Authority of New Orleans moves Iberville development residents in preparation for this fall’s demolitions, new Urban Institute research emphasizes the need for ‘responsible relocation strategies’ for public housing residents. Such plans are necessary to ensure both the residents’ well-being and to maintain the stability of the high-poverty neighborhoods where residents are likely to relocate, researchers contend. Urban Institute researchers, who have conducted a wide body of research on relocated public housing residents, have known for a while that public housing residents who moved out of dilapidated old ‘projects’ end up in better, safer housing, although still in very poor, very segregated neighborhoods. In general, residents who leave are less anxious about crime, which has for decades plagued the troubled public housing developments in New Orleans and elsewhere…”

• No savings are found from welfare drug tests, By Lizette Alvarez, April 17, 2012, New York Times: “Ushered in amid promises that it would save taxpayers money and deter drug users, a Florida law requiring drug tests for people who seek welfare benefits resulted in no direct savings, snared few drug users and had no effect on the number of applications, according to recently released state data. ‘Many states are considering following Florida’s example, and the new data from the state shows they shouldn’t,’ said Derek Newton, communications director for the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida, which sued the state last year to stop the testing and recently obtained the documents. ‘Not only is it unconstitutional and an invasion of privacy, but it doesn’t save money, as was proposed…’”
• Deal OKs welfare drug tests; lawsuit likely, By Kristina Torres, April 16, 2012, Atlanta Journal-Constitution: “Gov. Nathan Deal backed Georgia’s proposal to drug-test parents who seek welfare, pushing the state towards a legal confrontation with opponents over the new law’s fairness. Deal signed House Bill 861 on Monday without ceremony. The bill will likely be challenged in court. The Atlanta-based Southern Center for Human Rights affirmed it was preparing a lawsuit as the state moved ahead with the mandate. The American Civil Liberties Union has also had issues with the bill, which was among several approved by Deal during the day…”
• Lawmakers continue talks on plan to drug test welfare recipients, By Tony Gonzalez, April 18, 2012, The Tennessean: “With the 2012 legislative session winding down, lawmakers on Wednesday scrambled to tune up a proposal requiring drug testing of welfare applicants so it doesn’t run afoul of the Constitution. Members of the Senate Finance Committee wanted to know whether all recipients of Temporary Assistance for Needy Families funds would be required to take drug tests…”

Deep cuts loom as state tries to save Medicaid, By Monique Garcia and Ray Long, April 17, 2012, Chicago Tribune: “The list of medicines Jason Carrington must take every day to treat his multiple sclerosis and related symptoms is long: Copaxone injections to prevent relapses, primidone to control tremors, Seroquel to stabilize his mood, lamotrigine and Cymbalta to treat depression and anxiety. The drugs can cost thousands of dollars a day, an expense the state now picks up. But the 32-year-old Wicker Park resident soon could find himself forced to seek another way to pay for his prescriptions. Scaling back such coverage is on the table as Illinois looks for ways to cut spending on its health care program for the poor. The state’s plan for drastically slashing Medicaid in order to save it is expected to come into sharper focus this week as a group of lawmakers and aides reports back to Gov. Pat Quinn. The options could range from ending so-called extras such as dental and hospice care to raising cigarette taxes. Other possibilities: asking patients to pay more for services and narrowing eligibility requirements that could see thousands of children and adults lose health insurance…”

Computer matching system could limit safety net ‘double dipping’, By Pamela M. Prah, April 12, 2012, Stateline.org: “States could cut costs by millions of dollars a year if they took full advantage of a computerized matching system that can determine whether people are getting welfare, food stamps and other public assistance in more than one state at a time. States that have used the system in recent years have collectively saved more some $400 million, according to federal figures. But here’s the rub. The arrangement is still largely voluntary. The process, called Public Assistance Reporting Information System (PARIS), is a set of computer matches that relies on Social Security numbers and other personal data. It allows states to see if individuals on their rolls for Medicaid, food stamps, welfare, childcare benefits or workers’ compensation are also on the rolls in another state…”

Unemployment of Europe’s young people soars by 50%, By Ian Traynor, April 16, 2012, The Guardian: “Unemployment among Europe’s young people has soared by 50% since the financial crisis of 2008. It is rising faster than overall jobless rates, and almost half of young people in work across the EU do not have permanent jobs, according to the European commission. Three policy papers obtained by the Guardian outline action to create 17.5m jobs in Europe by 2020, but paint a grim picture of prospects for Europe’s youth and underline how the sovereign debt crisis of the last two years has widened the gap between the eurozone’s successful northern core and its failing periphery. Three out of 10 people currently losing their jobs are under the age of 24, although the young represent only a tenth of the labour force, the commission study says…”

New York’s poverty rate rises, study finds, By Sam Roberts, April 17, 2012, New York Times: “The number of New Yorkers classified as poor in 2010 increased by nearly 100,000 from the year before, raising the poverty rate by 1.3 percentage points to 21 percent - the highest level and the largest year-to-year increase since the city adopted a more detailed definition of poverty in 2005. The recession and the sluggish recovery have taken a particularly harsh toll on children, with more than one in four under 18 living in poverty, according to an analysis by the city’s Center for Economic Opportunity that will be released on Tuesday…”

Antipoverty tax program offers relief, though often temporary, By Sabrina Tavernise, April 17, 2012, New York Times: “Karen Spain spent several long months before receiving her tax refund this year in a state of suspended panic. The rent was three months late. Her car’s brakes were shot. And she could no longer afford to pay her electricity bill. So when the refund finally arrived - a $7,200 cash infusion that was about a third of what she earned all last year as an assistant manager at an auto parts store - it brought a certain measure of relief, both financial and psychological. That did not last long. ‘Did we celebrate?’ said Ms. Spain, a 49-year-old mother of two. ‘No. We maintain, that’s all we do. We are just trying to keep our heads above water.’ It is tax time, the season when the country’s largest antipoverty program, the earned income tax credit, plows billions of dollars into mailboxes and bank accounts of low-income working Americans like Ms. Spain…”

Black people more likely to be jobless in Britain than US, research reveals, By Randeep Ramesh, April 12, 2012, The Guardian: “Black people in Britain are more likely to be unemployed than those in the United States, especially during recessions, with successive UK governments ‘failing to protect minority ethnic groups’, research reveals. A paper presented on Friday at the British Sociological Association’s annual conference in Leeds shows that in the last three recessions, unemployment among black British men was up to 19 percentage points higher than among those in America. Yaojun Li, professor of sociology at Manchester University, told the conference that in Britain black male unemployment reached 29% in the early 1980s recession, 36% in the early 1990s and 22% in 2011. Unemployment figures for black men in the US were 22%, 17% and 22%…”

Missouri may slash children’s services, By Nancy Cambria, April 16, 2012, St. Louis Post-Dispatch: “Heroin addiction among parents and a poor economy are pushing more children into Missouri’s foster care system at a time when lawmakers want to cut nearly $13.6 million from the state foster care budget and eliminate dozens of child protection jobs. And those aren’t the only cuts proposed for children in the Missouri Legislature’s scramble to plug budget holes for next year. A legislative committee last week proposed cutting $16 million in child-care subsidies for low-income families and an additional $13 million to encourage private day care and preschool expansion…”

• A push to help U.S. veterans fight homelessness, By Pam Fessler, April 16, 2012, National Public Radio: “Last year, the number of homeless U.S. veterans on a given night dropped 12 percent from the year before. But tens of thousands were still on the streets, and more could be joining them as troops return from Afghanistan and Iraq. President Obama has vowed to end veterans’ homelessness by 2015…”
• More of Asheville’s homeless vets find permanent housing, By Elizabeth Bewley, April 15, 2012, Asheville Citizen-Times: “Sherwood Little, a 56-year-old Navy veteran who used to live on the streets, now rents an apartment in Asheville and receives counseling and medical care - all with the federal government’s help. The Vietnam-era veteran gets monthly vouchers from the Department of Housing and Urban Development to help pay his rent. Since moving into an apartment in 2010, he has received treatment for depression and hypertension and has worked with Veterans Affairs Department caseworkers to get signed up for federal disability benefits…”

Illinois Medicaid group strains for $2.7 billion in cuts, By Carla K. Johnson (AP), April 15, 2012, Rockford Register Star: “As state leaders push for a prompt agreement on where to cut a breathtaking $2.7 billion from Illinois’ Medicaid program, the two Republicans and two Democrats designated to come up with a deal are confronting fundamental differences, including over a proposal to resurrect a cigarette tax increase as a way to soften the blow. While a final list of cuts hasn’t been determined, coming into focus are possible points of agreement on reductions in spending for the health insurance program for nearly 3 million poor and disabled Illinois residents, according to interviews with committee members and committee background materials obtained by The Associated Press…”

Political, legal fights over school vouchers’ fate, By Kimberly Hefling (AP), Atlanta Journal-Constitution: “Students like Delano Coffy are at the heart of brewing political fights and court battles over whether public dollars should go to school vouchers to help make private schools more affordable. He was failing in his neighborhood public elementary school in Indianapolis until his mother enrolled him in a Roman Catholic school. Heather Coffy has scraped by for years to pay the tuition for Delano, now 16 and in a Catholic high school, and his two younger siblings, who attend the same Catholic elementary as their brother did. She’s getting help today from a voucher program, passed last year at the urging of GOP Gov. Mitch Daniels, that allows her to use state money for her children’s education. ‘I can’t even tell you how easy I can breathe now knowing that for at least for this year my kids can stay at the school,’ said the single mother, who filed a petition in court in support of the law. The state Supreme Court is hearing a challenge to the law, which provides vouchers worth on average more than $4,000 a year to low- and middle-income families. A family of four making about $60,000 a year qualifies…”

Ways to Work loan program a life changer for low income, By John Wisely, April 8, 2012, USA Today: “For Benita Jackson, an 8-year-old blue Saturn Vue was a life changer. The 41-year-old single mother from Detroit bought the vehicle in December through Ways to Work, a non-profit group that helps low-income workers get reduced interest loans on used cars if they agree to continue working and take financial literacy education. ‘I’m able to make it to work, visit my dad and do more things in the community,’ Jackson says. ‘They are here to help you.’ The program, started in 1984 and based in Milwaukee, is undergoing a national expansion. It’s now in 41 communities in 23 states and plans to expand to all 50 states…”

• Increased scrutiny of tax credits could mean more audits for Wisconsin’s poor, By Dee J. Hall, April 12, 2012, Wisconsin State Journal: “As Tax Day approaches, some low-income taxpayers in Wisconsin will notice smaller refunds - and increased scrutiny on claimed tax credits - because of changes in state law and a new effort by the Wisconsin Department of Revenue to ferret out fraud. Wisconsin is the first state chosen under a federal push to detect mistakes and fraud in the earned income tax credit program, Revenue spokeswoman Stephanie Marquis said. The credit, available from both the state and federal governments, is designed to provide relief to low-wage taxpayers and to encourage work by allowing them to claim refunds, even if they have paid little or no income taxes. This year, Wisconsin cut the amount of credit available to such taxpayers by $27.3 million to $113.3 million. The Legislature reduced the projected credit for next year by $28.9 million to $119.5 million…”
• Branstad would sign earned income tax credit to get property tax deal, By Jason Clayworth and Donnelle Eller, April 5, 2012, Des Moines Register: “A long legislative freeze that has stalled progress on commercial property tax reform in Iowa showed signs Thursday of a political thaw. Gov. Terry Branstad said he would be willing to expand a tax break for Iowa’s poorest working families if he can get an agreement with Democrats to cut commercial and industrial property taxes. And just minutes later, Senate Majority Leader Michael Gronstal said his party wouldn’t insist that the breaks known as earned income tax credits be signed into law before negotiating on the property tax side of the give and take. Branstad twice last year vetoed the tax breaks for working families, frustrating members of both parties. Sen. Joe Bolkcom, a key Democrat involved in the debate, stood on the Senate floor Jan. 31 and vowed that no commercial property tax cut would happen without the governor’s signature on a bill to increase tax breaks for working families…”

Report: 2 in 5 Austinites are considered low-income, By Juan Castillo, April 12, 2012, Austin American-Statesman: “Hardly what you would call Austin slackers, Jerry Sanchez and his wife, Lisa, embrace the work ethic with sleeves rolled up and arms wide open. Jerry Sanchez, 41, works full time at his stepfather’s Estrada’s Cleaners in East Austin and does odd jobs - building decks, installing fences - for extra cash. Lisa Sanchez works as a day care teacher. Yet, despite all that sweat equity, the Sanchezes, who have five children, sometimes struggle financially. ‘Sometimes you’re frustrated. You’re not making ends meet; you’re playing catch up,’ Jerry Sanchez said. ‘It’s one thing after another.’ The Sanchezes are not alone. A report released Thursday by the Community Action Network shows that 2 in 5 Austin residents were low-income in 2010, meaning they earned less than 200 percent of the federal poverty level, which translates to about $44,000 a year for a family of four. The finding is contained in the network’s ‘Community Dashboard 2012′ report of 16 key socioeconomic indicators for Austin and Travis County…”

Michigan graduation rates dip only slightly under tougher standards, By Lori Higgins, April 10, 2012, Detroit Free Press: “New graduation and dropout rate data for Michigan’s class of 2011 show a slight decline in graduation rates versus the surge in dropouts some predicted after the state toughened requirements. Many had predicted this class would struggle, because the students were the first to comply with the state’s new graduation requirements, which mandate a heavier dose of math and science than previous students had taken. But a first look at the data — from the state Center for Educational Performance and Information — finds those dire predictions didn’t come true. Nearly 15,000 students — or 11.13% — of the class dropped out, up slightly from 11.07% for the class of 2010…”

Missouri cut in child care may hit thousands, By David A. Lieb (AP), April 12, 2012, Southeast Missourian: “Thousands of low-income working parents in Missouri could lose their state-subsidized child care or be forced to pay more out of pocket as a result of a proposed budget cut that would make Missouri’s eligibility standards the most stringent in the nation. The funding cut embraced by the Senate Appropriations Committee could result in a loss of subsidized child care for 3,860 children and reduced state subsidies for an additional 2,330 children, according to figures calculated Wednesday for The Associated Press by the state Department of Social Services…”

Welfare overhaul’s impact on America’s poorest, April 12, 2012, National Public Radio: “The welfare program that operated in the United States between the Franklin Roosevelt administration and the Clinton administration offered poor families assistance with few requirements or time frames. States could enroll as many people as they wanted in the program, and the federal government would match their funds. That changed in 1996, when President Clinton signed legislation overhauling the nation’s welfare system. The new law - referred to as the push ‘to end welfare as we know it’ - took away federal matching funds from states, giving them little incentive to bring new people onto the cash welfare rolls. That’s affected growing numbers of poor people across America. Sixteen states have decreased the number of people receiving welfare benefits since the recession hit. And most states are using their allotment of federal welfare dollars to make up for budget deficits in other areas…”

• Growing economy weakens federal jobless benefits for Idaho, other states, By Jessie L. Bonner (AP), April 9, 2012, Idaho Statesman: “The state Department of Labor says long-term unemployment benefits in Idaho will be gone after Dec. 31, though some people will be cut off sooner depending on when they started receiving the federal assistance. Regular benefits last up to 26 weeks and are paid by the state, but two long-term programs that are funded by the U.S. government are triggered on and off by Idaho’s jobless numbers. Labor spokesman Bob Fick says the first program, known as emergency unemployment compensation, will shrink from 53 weeks of benefits to 13 weeks. The second program, known as extended benefits, currently pays up to 20 weeks but will be completely eliminated..”
• Unemployment down, triggers benefit cuts, By Christopher Quinn, April 9, 2012, Atlanta Journal-Constitution: “Georgia’s dropping unemployment rate has triggered a cut in federal unemployment benefits. About 15,000 people will lose a final 20 weeks of extended unemployment benefits April 21. Those losing their unemployment insurance payments this month have been without jobs the longest. They are drawing checks from the last of six layers of state unemployment and federal extensions that can stretch to nearly two years…”
• Nearly 8,000 Wisconsinites to lose extended jobless benefits, By John Schmid, April 5, 2012, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: “Wisconsin will discontinue long-term unemployment insurance benefits to 7,761 state residents Saturday because the state’s unemployment rate has dropped below a threshold that automatically phases out a federal program that pays for the benefits. At issue are an additional 13 weeks of extended benefits that augment other existing tiers of federally funded unemployment insurance…”

Poverty is shifting from inner to outer London, report finds, By Simon Rogers and Hélène Mulholland, April 11, 2012, The Guardian: “Outer London has seen rising levels of poverty while the number of poorer areas in central London is reducing, according to a new analysis of official deprivation data. Although the poorest places in the capital are still in the eastern centre of the city, there are fears that poverty is being pushed out into the suburbs amid evidence of a significant increase in deprived areas in the outer boroughs between 2004 and 2010…”

Food stamps helped reduce poverty rate, study finds, By Sabrina Tavernise, April 9, 2012, New York Times: “A new study by the Agriculture Department has found that food stamps, one of the country’s largest social safety net programs, reduced the poverty rate substantially during the recent recession. The food stamp program, formally known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, reduced the poverty rate by nearly 8 percent in 2009, the most recent year included in the study, a significant impact for a social program whose effects often go unnoticed by policy makers. The food stamp program is one of the largest antipoverty efforts in the country, serving more than 46 million people. But the extra income it provides is not counted in the government’s formal poverty measure, an omission that makes it difficult for officials to see the effects of the policy and get an accurate figure for the number of people beneath the poverty threshold, which was about $22,000 for a family of four in 2009…”

• Birthrate for U.S. teens is lowest in history, By Sharon Jayson, April 9, 2012, USA Today: “Teen births are at their lowest level in almost 70 years, federal data report today. Birthrates for ages 15-19 in all racial and ethnic groups are lower than ever reported. ‘Young people are being more careful,’ says Sarah Brown, CEO of the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy. She attributes the declines to less sex and increased use of contraception.  The report by the National Center for Health Statistics says the actual number of teen births in 2010 was the lowest since 1946. It credits ’strong pregnancy prevention messages’ and says contraceptive use ‘may have contributed.’ The analysis comes at a time when contraception is a hot political debate, from a congressional investigation of whether federal money pays for abortions to concern among some church leaders over an Obama administration mandate that all health insurance cover birth control…”
• Teen births hit new low as pregnancy prevention programs pay off, By Michael Muskal, April 10, 2012, Chicago Tribune: “Teen births have fallen to record lows in the United States, continuing an overall trend — partly due to programs aimed at preventing pregnancies among teenagers, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported on Tuesday. The U.S. teen birth rate declined 9% from 2009 to 2010, reaching 34.3 births per 1,000 women ages 15-19, the CDC reported. From 1991 through 2010, the rate dropped by 44%. Teen child-bearing has been generally on a long-term decline in the United States since the late 1950s, but the United States continues to have one of the highest such rates among industrialized countries. Teen mothers and their offspring have more health risks than older women and their offspring, adding about $10.9 billion to public health costs each year, the agency said…”

• Under new formula, Georgia graduation rate reset to 67.4 percent, By Nancy Badertscher, April 10, 2012, Atlanta Journal-Constitution: “Georgia’s graduation rate has been revised downward to 67.4 percent based on a new and more uniform method of calculating how many of the nation’s students make it through high school in four years, it was announced Tuesday. That’s 12.6 percentage points less than the 80-plus percent graduation rate that’s been celebrated in this state in recent years. But it’s also less than the tumble that some predicted would follow a new federal requirement that eliminates a hodge-podge of state formulas in favor of a single — and what most agree is a more accurate — method of calculating graduation rates. In some states, the new method is yielding rates that are 20 percentage points lower than states previously reported. In February 2010, state School Superintendent John Barge warned that Georgia’s graduation rate could fall to 64 percent…”
• In D.C. schools, 59 percent of students get diploma on time, By Bill Turque, April 5, 2012, Washington Post: “Less than 60 percent of D.C. high school students graduated on time in 2011, according to a new and more rigorous calculation of completion rates announced Thursday. Figures released by the Office of the State Superintendent of Education show that 58.6 percent of students in the Class of 2011 obtained high school diplomas within four years. That’s a nearly 20 percent decline over the 73 percent rate reported for 2010. The new numbers also revealed a widening gap between the city’s public charter schools and traditional public high schools in the ability to graduate students on time. Eight in 10 charter seniors received diplomas last year, compared with slightly more than half of those in traditional schools…”

Welfare limits left poor adrift as recession hit, By Jason DeParle, April 7, 2012, New York Times: “Perhaps no law in the past generation has drawn more praise than the drive to “end welfare as we know it,” which joined the late-’90s economic boom to send caseloads plunging, employment rates rising and officials of both parties hailing the virtues of tough love. But the distress of the last four years has added a cautionary postscript: much as overlooked critics of the restrictions once warned, a program that built its reputation when times were good offered little help when jobs disappeared. Despite the worst economy in decades, the cash welfare rolls have barely budged. Faced with flat federal financing and rising need, Arizona is one of 16 states that have cut their welfare caseloads further since the start of the recession - in its case, by half. Even as it turned away the needy, Arizona spent most of its federal welfare dollars on other programs, using permissive rules to plug state budget gaps…”

1.2 million Texas children still without insurance, Associated Press, April 8, 2012, Houston Chronicle: “More than 1 million Texas children remain without health insurance, and those kids are not getting the care they need. The startling condition of the state’s children came into vivid focus last week with the release of the annual Kids Count survey. The analysis of official state and federal data by the non-partisan Center for Public Policy Priorities found that 1.2 million Texas children have neither private nor public health insurance. Almost 40 percent of Texas mothers received little or no prenatal care and one in seven babies were born premature, statistics show. The difference between being insured and uninsured is stark: 90 percent of insured kids are healthy, while only 58 percent of kids without insurance are considered healthy. It comes as no surprise that the percentage of children covered by health care is directly related to the employment rate and the parent’s economic status…”

• Employers add 120,000 jobs in March, By Jane M. Von Bergen, April 6, 2012, Philadelphia Inquirer: “The nation’s economy added 120,000 jobs in March - barely enough jobs to keep pace with population growth, the U.S. Labor Department reported Friday. The unemployment rate fell slightly to 8.2 percent. Economists say that the economy must generate anywhere between 100,000 and 175,000 jobs a month simply to keep up. That means that a month that adds just 120,000 jobs does nothing to erase the more than 10 million jobs lost or not created since the start of the recession in 2007…”
• U.S. hiring slowed sharply in March; unemployment fell to 8.2%, By Michael A. Fletcher, April 6, 2012, Washington Post: “The recent improvement in the nation’s job market slowed substantially in March as employers expanded payrolls by 120,000 jobs, the Labor Department reported Friday. The number of new jobs fell far below economists’ estimates and marked the first time since November that employers added fewer than 200,000 jobs. Despite the disappointing numbers, the nation’s unemployment rate ticked down to 8.2 percent. Some analysts called the slowdown in hiring the result of an unusually warm winter that caused seasonal work, such as outdoor construction, to continue apace instead of slowing…”
• For long-term unemployed, help is running out, By Alan Greenblatt, April 6, 2012, National Public Radio: “Diane Turner can’t find work. She spent 30 years managing dental practices in Sonoma County, north of San Francisco, but lost her last job in that field a couple of years ago. She worked for a while greeting customers at an auto body shop, but lost that job a year ago. ‘It was very depressing,’ Turner says. ‘I always worked, and I was always able to get a job.’ Having seen firsthand how competition for jobs is ‘absolutely fierce’ - more than 200 applicants sometimes turn up even when part-time jobs are listed - Turner is not surprised to learn that the unemployment rate is slow to come down. On Friday, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported the economy gained a net total of 120,000 jobs in March, and that the unemployment rate declined to 8.2 percent. Unemployment peaked in October 2009 at 10 percent. While the decline since has been slow, the fact that the numbers are trending down means that people who have been unemployed for an extended period, such as Turner, are going to have a harder time collecting benefits…”
• Georgia jobless benefits among briefest in nation, By Christopher Quinn and Dan Chapman, April 6, 2012, Atlanta Journal-Constitution: “Georgia’s payout period for unemployment benefits will soon be among the two shortest in the nation. A worker who loses a job after July, thanks to new state legislation to reduce hundreds of millions of dollars in debt to the federal government, will draw 14 to 20 weeks of checks, down from 26 weeks. The new sliding scale is based on the state unemployment rate. The lower the rate, the fewer the weeks of payments. More than 190,000 Georgians stand to lose anywhere from $260 to $1,820 in benefits, the nonprofit Georgia Budget and Policy Institute estimates…”

• No easy cure for struggling Medicaid, By Mary Garrigan, April 6, 2012, Rapid City Journal: “Jennifer Brown and her children are caught in the middle of a Medicaid storm that’s brewing in South Dakota. Five-year-old Jenasis Brown and her younger brother, Roy, are two of the approximately 115,000 South Dakotans who qualify each month for health care through Medicaid or its corollary for kids, the Children’s Health Insurance Program. But qualifying for Medicaid - and finding a doctor or a dentist who will take you as a new patient - can be two very different things, according to Dr. Karla Murphy, president of the South Dakota State Medical Association. At a time when Medicaid enrollments are rising because of a bad economy, the number of doctors and dentists accepting Medicaid patients is declining in South Dakota. One in seven South Dakotans is already a Medicaid recipient and nearly 70 percent of those are children. The Affordable Care Act, new federal health care legislation aimed at reducing the number of uninsured people, is expected to add another 54,000 South Dakotans to Medicaid rolls between 2014 and 2019…”
• Alabama Medicaid Agency announces late payments to providers, By Casandra Andrews, April 3, 2012, Mobile Press-Register: “As Alabama grapples with covering the rising costs of health care to about a million poor and disabled Medicaid recipients, health care providers across the state were notified last month that some reimbursements for services would be late. Medicaid is a state and federally funded healthcare program for about 1 million lower-income children, families and disabled Alabama residents. For every state dollar spent, the federal government chips in a little more than $2. Late today, the Alabama Medicaid Agency announced that it would be releasing the remaining funds to providers whose payments were delayed because of state cash flow issues at the end of March…”
• Ala. House panel OKs deep state government cuts, Associated Press, April 4, 2012, Birmingham News: “An Alabama House budget-writing committee has approved a $1.39 billion budget that would cut spending by 30 percent for non-education state agencies, a move that could mean massive layoffs and cuts to programs that help the poor. The spending plan contains $430 million less than the budget for the current fiscal year for non-education state agencies. Officials say it could mean layoffs for hundreds of state employees and cuts to key services such as medicine for Medicaid patients. A Department of Human Resources program that provides assistance to poor children could be eliminated…”

U.S. mission: End homelessness for veterans by 2015, By Rob Hotakainen, April 4, 2012, Seattle Times: “Darren Spencer, a 39-year-old Army veteran from Tacoma, found himself homeless after losing his $15.45-an-hour job as a furniture mover a year ago. He takes pills for his depression and has trouble hearing. He has no car. And his unemployment benefits ran out in December. But Spencer considers himself lucky on one count: In August, he got a voucher from the federal government to help pay the $725 monthly rent for his apartment in Tacoma’s Hilltop neighborhood, where he lives with his 18-year-old son, Lamont. ‘I still have a lot of stress, but that’s one thing I don’t have to stress about,’ Spencer said. ‘It’s still hard, but at least now I have a place to stay.’ Spencer is among the thousands of beneficiaries of a federal effort to end all homelessness among veterans by 2015. It’s a lofty goal as the nation gears up to accommodate an additional 1 million service members set to return home from war in the next five years…”

Quarter of Texas children live in poverty, By Chris Tomlinson (AP), April 5, 2012, Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: “Texas has the second-highest birth rate in the nation and more than 25 percent of those children live in poverty, according to the annual Kids Count survey released Wednesday. The number of children in Texas rose by nearly 1 million between 2000 and 2010, and accounted for more than half the U.S. child population growth. But 39 percent of Texas mothers received no, or very late, prenatal care and the percentage of babies born underweight jumped 13 percent during that same period, according the Texas survey, conducted every year by the Austin-based Center for Public Policy Priorities and funded by Methodist Healthcare Ministries and the Annie E. Casey Foundation…”

Funding for child care on chopping block; proposal threatens programs serving more than 500 low-income children in Pajaro Valley, By Donna Jones, April 5, 2012, San Jose Mercury News: “A gaggle of small girls took turns peering at pinecones through a magnifying glass Wednesday morning at Freedom Children’s Center. Other children pedaled around the playground, sifted sand and splashed at water tables. Inside the center’s two classrooms, work tacked to the walls and displayed on shelves showed the early academic efforts of 3- and 4-year-olds. The center is part of Pajaro Valley Unified School District’s preschool program, which provides subsidized child care to the low-income parents and educational opportunity to their children. The program is in jeopardy due to changes proposed in Gov. Jerry Brown’s budget that would slash funding and shift oversight from the state education department to county social service agencies…”

State takes step to shift some of poorest, sickest to managed care, By Anna Gorman, April 5, 2012, Los Angeles Times: “California is beginning the process of shifting 1.1 million of the state’s sickest and poorest patients into managed care, which healthcare officials say will cut costs and improve treatment. The move is part of a broader state plan to continue moving residents with publicly funded health coverage into managed care, prompting concerns among critics who fear that patients could lose their current doctors. State officials announced Wednesday that Los Angeles, Orange, San Diego and San Mateo will be the first counties to provide managed care to the patients, who are enrolled in both the federally run Medicare and the state-federal Medi-Cal program…”

Ranks of working poor grow in Europe, By Liz Alderman, April 1, 2012, New York Times: “When Melissa Dos Santos leaves her job at the end of each day, she goes home to an unlikely place: a tiny trailer in a campground 30 miles north of Paris, where scores of people who can barely make ends meet are living on a sprawling lot originally designed as a bucolic retreat for vacationers. ‘I grew up in a house; living in a campground isn’t the same,’ Ms. Dos Santos, 21, said wistfully. Her dreams of a more normal life in an apartment with her boyfriend evaporated when they both took minimum-wage jobs - she in a supermarket and he as a Paris street sweeper - after months of searching fruitlessly for better-paying work. ‘People call us marginal,’ she said. ‘Little by little, it’s eating us up.’ Europe’s long-running euro crisis may be cooling. But the economic distress it has left in its wake is pushing a rising tide of workers into precarious straits in France and across the European Union. Today, hundreds of thousands of people are living in campgrounds, vehicles and cheap hotel rooms. Millions more are sharing space with relatives, unable to afford the basic costs of living…”

Larimer County kids faring better than most, but poverty remains major challenge, By Kathleen Duff, April 4, 2012, The Coloradoan: “Children in Larimer County are faring better than most in Colorado, but many continue to face the overwhelming effects of poverty every day. Larimer County ranked third overall when comparing 40 categories of well-being ranging from education to health care to economic status within the largest 25 counties in the state, the Colorado Children’s Campaign said last week in its 2012 Kids Count Colorado report. The nonprofit, nonpartisan advocacy group releases a report on the status of children each year. While many indicators are improving in Larimer County, local nonprofit, education and service providers say they continue to see children struggle because of the high level of poverty in Larimer County…”

• Gregoire suspends plan to limit Medicaid emergency-room visits, By Carol M. Ostrom, March 31, 2012, Seattle Times: “A plan by the state Medicaid program to stop paying for emergency-room visits for all conditions deemed ‘nonemergency’ - set to go into effect Sunday - has been suspended by Gov. Chris Gregoire pending the outcome of budget negotiations under way in the state Legislature. Gregoire’s budget director, Marty Brown, said Saturday that Gregoire on Friday stopped the Medicaid plan from going into effect, noting growing legislative support for a less-drastic alternative. The alternative plan, pushed by Rep. Eileen Cody, D-West Seattle, is a modified version of a proposal offered by emergency-room doctors and hospitals, Brown said…”
• Colorado Medicaid expansion to add 10,000, but many more out of luck, By Michael Booth, April 3, 2012, Denver Post: “Colorado’s latest Medicaid expansion is long overdue, health advocates say, but is burdened from the outset with a lottery system serving only 1 in 5 of those in need. The state starts taking applications this week for a new group of Medicaid patients - adults without dependent children - breaking a mold that long defined the insurance program in both scope and cost…”
• Uncovering kids: 89,000 poor Pa. kids slashed from Medicaid, By Michael Hinkelman and Catherine Lucey, April 3, 2012, Philadelphia Daily News: “Kheli Muhammad was trying to schedule a routine pediatrician’s appointment last summer when she discovered that her 2-year-old son, who has a congenital heart disorder, had been kicked off the Medicaid rolls. The 30-year-old mother of two boys was stunned. ‘It is written in stone that he’s covered,’ Muhammad said of Samad, who qualifies for Medicaid based on his serious medical condition, not the family’s income level. ‘He’s pacemaker-dependent . . . [H]is heart will not beat without a pacemaker.’ But the heartbeat of the fragile little Samad was clearly not a priority for welfare officials, who informed Muhammad that she had failed to renew his benefits - even though she said she had not received renewal paperwork in the mail - and that she’d have to reapply…”

Under scrutiny, some Head Start programs in limbo, By Claudio Sanchez, April 3, 2012, National Public Radio: “The Obama administration is calling for major changes in Head Start, the 46-year-old early childhood education program that helped launch President Johnson’s War on Poverty. President Obama says too many children today aren’t learning, and too many education programs are mismanaged. ‘We’re not just going to put money into programs that don’t work,’ the president announced late last year. ‘We will take money and put it into programs that do.’ To that end, the administration has released a list of 132 Head Start programs in 40 states it has rated ‘deficient.’ Those programs will now have to compete for federal funding…”

Child welfare spending to stay high, By Martha Stoddard, April 1, 2012, Omaha World-Herald: “Nebraska’s 2½-year experiment in privatizing child welfare services has yielded one clear result: It forced the state to put more resources into the care of abused and neglected children. Spending shot up when the State Department of Health and Human Services began contracting with private agencies to coordinate child welfare cases. Now, although four of the five contractors are gone and the state has resumed oversight of most cases, child welfare spending is budgeted to remain at a level $35 million higher than before privatization began. State Sen. Bob Krist of Omaha and others said more funding has long been needed for Nebraska’s child welfare system. ‘As an unintended consequence of our journey, we will do what we should have done from the beginning,’ he said, ‘but I think it’s been a too-expensive trip to get there.’ Nebraska officials went into privatization saying they would do it within existing resources. Instead, spending took a $20 million unplanned jump in the first year of the private contracts and grew another $10 million in the second year…”

Low-income students struggle with AP exam fee waiver cuts, By Stephen Ceasar, March 31, 2012, Los Angeles Times: “Because of a federal budget cut, tens of thousands of low-income high school students will face steeper price tags for their Advanced Placement exams this May - forcing many to scramble to meet costs and others to forgo exams that could save thousands in college tuition. At El Rancho High School in Pico Rivera, where nearly two-thirds of would-be test takers are from low-income families, anxiety over passing is being replaced by worries that students will not be able to afford the college-level exams they have studied for all school year. Rocio Ramirez planned on taking six tests, which now ring up to $204. Gerardo Artega has begun chipping away at his $151 bill for five tests by saving and paying the school $10 a week. And Alexis Lemus, who planned to take four exams, will now take only three - reluctantly dropping the English literature exam he feels certain he could pass. In December, Congress slashed funding from $43 million to $29 million for the federal Advanced Placement programs that fund fee waivers for low-income students…”

R.I.’s child population declines, poverty rises, By Richard Asinof, April 2, 2012, Providence Business News: “The number of children in Rhode Island decreased by 10 percent between 2000 and 2010 from 247,822 to 223,956, respectively, according to the 18th annual Factbook released Monday by Rhode Island Kids Count. Rhode Island was one of only three states to lose at least 10 percent of its child population during this time period. Only the communities of Central Falls, North Smithfield and West Greenwich recorded slight increases, according to the 2012 Factbook. The 171-page report, which charts improvements and decline in the well-being of children and youth in each of Rhode Island’s 39 cities and towns, provides a comprehensive compilation of the latest available statistics on 67 different aspects of children’s lives, from birth through adolescence…”

Tribe takes control of child welfare from state, By Jennifer Sullivan, March 28, 2012, Seattle Times: “Jessie Scheibner’s eyes cloud with tears and her voice trembles as she talks about the day, almost 70 years ago, when a stranger’s car pulled up to her parents’ home on the Port Gamble S’Klallam Reservation and took her and her two sisters away. The memories of that car ride when she was 3 and the years spent in one foster home after another are hazy. Foster care was difficult enough, but Scheibner, now 72, clearly recalls being ashamed of her dark hair, brown skin and Native American roots as she bounced from home to home off the reservation. She eventually was reunited with her mother and her sisters when she was 7, but the emotional scars remain. For decades, children who were removed from their homes in child-welfare cases among the Port Gamble S’Klallam Tribe and other tribes across the United States were taken off their reservations and placed in the homes of nontribal members. Because individual states handled child-welfare issues for Native-American tribes, including foster care, abused and neglected children were forced to leave their communities and, often, their cultures…”

Court: Some Michigan welfare recipients wrongly cut, By Kathy Barks Hoffman (AP), March 28, 2012, Detroit News: “Michigan can’t take away welfare benefits under a five-year federal limit if recipients still qualify for cash assistance under state law, a judge ruled Tuesday. Genesee County Circuit Court Judge Geoffrey Neithercut said in his ruling that state Department of Human Services Director Maura Corrigan “exceeded her authority” by ending benefits for more than 11,000 families last October because they had reached the federal limit even though they remained eligible under state limits. Michigan lawmakers in 2007 adopted a four-year limit that had several exceptions, then approved stricter enforcement last year…”

Unemployment rates fall in most US states as job growth picks up nationwide, Associated Press, March 30, 2012, Washington Post: “Unemployment rates fell last month in most U.S. states, including in some hit hardest during the recession. The Labor Department said Friday that unemployment rates declined in 29 states and rose in 8. Rates were unchanged in 13 states and Washington, D.C. The improvement was broader last month: rates fell in 45 states in January. Still, job growth was more widespread than in previous months. Employers added jobs in 42 states, the most in almost a year. Ohio, Texas and New York reported the biggest job gains…”

• Food stamp program under fire, By Pamela M. Prah, March 23, 2012, Stateline.org: “The odds of winning one of Michigan’s high-stakes lottery games are 1 in 10,000, but the probability of two people hitting million-dollar jackpots and still be collecting food stamps has to be even more remote. That is exactly what happened in Michigan, stoking a nationwide debate over whether the program is becoming an out-of-control entitlement. A lottery winner ‘can certainly afford his own food, and should not be able to get more money from hard-working taxpayers after his big pay out,’ says Michigan state Representative Dave Agema, who has introduced proposals aimed at ensuring lottery winners aren’t on the public dole. ‘Michigan’s taxpayers have an absolute right to know when their tax dollars are going to millionaires,’ he said. While these kinds of cases are seen as rare, the $75 billion spent last year on food stamps across the country is coming under more scrutiny, as Congress struggles to pare down the federal debt. With a record 45 million Americans relying on food stamps, states and Congress are taking a closer look at who should get help paying for groceries…”
• Idaho bill would stagger food stamps, By Holly Beech, March 29, 2012, Idaho Press-Tribune: “Grocers are asking Health and Welfare to distribute food stamps - or SNAP benefits - over a number of days rather than just the first of the month. But for the second year in a row, a bill that would answer that request probably won’t make it to the governor’s desk.  It costs hundreds of thousands of dollars more to stagger issuance, said Senate Health and Welfare Committee Chairman Patti Anne Lodge, R-Huston. Lodge is holding the bill in committee after it glided through the House Friday, sponsored by Rep. Christy Perry, R-Nampa…”
• State panel to review EBT cards, with eye toward proper usage, By Conor Berry, March 28, 2012, MassLive.com: “The panel created to examine potential misuse and abuse of electronic benefit transfer cards - better known as EBT cards and formerly known as Food Stamps - is scheduled to meet at 10 a.m. Thursday in Boston. The session is the final meeting before the EBT Commission releases an April 1 report with recommendations on how to improve local enforcement of the federal program, which in Massachusetts is administered by the state Department of Transitional Assistance. The program, which is aimed at helping low-income households pay for food, is known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP. The federal Food Stamp program officially changed its name to SNAP in October 2008…”

• Justices suggest Medicaid expansion is unconstitutional, By David G. Savage and Noam N. Levey, March 28, 2012, Los Angeles Times: “The Supreme Court’s conservative justices took aim Wednesday afternoon at a final key piece of President Obama’s healthcare law, suggesting it was unconstitutional to require states to expand their Medicaid programs to cover more poor Americans. The states have ‘no realistic choice,’ said Justice Anthony Kennedy, effectively accepting the argument by 26 states challenging the law that they are being unjustly forced to administer a massive Medicaid expansion. Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and Justices Antonin Scalia and Samuel A. Alito Jr. echoed Kennedy’s concerns, signaling their willingness to invalidate yet another part of the healthcare overhaul Obama signed two years ago…”
• Medicaid expansion: What’s in it for Utah?, By Kirsten Stewart, March 28, 2012, Salt Lake Tribune: “It has drawn less media attention, but Wednesday’s arguments on health reform’s expansion of Medicaid are a big deal for states. If the U.S. Supreme Court upholds the expansion, Medicaid will be the path to coverage for more than a third of Utah’s uninsured, about 139,000 adults with incomes of less than $15,000 a year. And the feds will pick up most of the tab: $4.1 billion to $4.7 billion by 2019, estimates the Kaiser Foundation. States, too, will have to pony up cash; nothing for the first three years, but eventually up to 10 percent of the total bill. In Utah, that mounts to between $174 million and $227 million by 2019, Kaiser found - a figure that strikes fear in conservatives…”

Cuomo, Legislature strike $132.5B budget deal; will be 2nd straight on-time budget, By Michael Gormley, Schenectady Daily Gazette: “New York is poised to embark on a large economic development program, provide more assistance to the poor, and increase spending on public schools under a budget deal announced Tuesday by Gov. Andrew Cuomo and legislative leaders. The basic welfare grant for poor families would increase by 10 percent this year, Cuomo will have money to provide incentives for improved schools, and billions in state and federal dollars will be committed to economic development and rebuilding the state’s infrastructure, guided in part by a ‘New York Works’ task force to improve coordination of the spending…”

• Annual survey says kids’ aren’t slipping into poverty so quickly, By Karen Augé, March 27, 2012, Denver Post: “The good news is that the rate at which Colorado’s kids are slipping into the ranks of the poor has slowed down.  The findings, contained in the 2012 Kids Count in Colorado report, released today by the Colorado Children’s Campaign, are cause for cautious optimism, not celebration, the campaign’s executive director Chris Watney said. ‘It’s too soon to tell what this means long-term,’ Watney said. ‘We still have to remember we’ve doubled the number of kids living in poverty’ over the past decade. ‘We need to think about how we can mitigate the impacts on those kids,’ she said. While the percentage of Colorado’s children living in poverty remains comparatively low, the rate at which childhood poverty has grown in the state has been the fastest in the nation for much of the past decade…”
• Kids’ well-being varies across counties, By Rebecca Jones, March 27, 2012, Education News Colorado: “The dramatic yearly increases in poverty that have put hundreds of thousands of young Coloradans at risk for the past decade seem finally to have slowed, but the well-being of the state’s children still depends greatly on the county in which they live, a new report shows. Children in Douglas, Broomfield and Larimer counties appear to be faring the best, according to the 2012 KIDS COUNT in Colorado report, released today. Children in Adams, Morgan and Denver counties rank the lowest statewide on 12 key indicators of overall well-being…”