Welfare Caseloads Fall Nationwide, Increase in Mass. and N.H.
By Randy Trick
WASHINGTON, Sept. 26, 2002–Welfare caseloads have been dropping nationwide since the system’s reforms in 1995, but for the first time Massachusetts and New Hampshire are seeing increasing enrollments.
Nationwide, the number of families on welfare fell 2.6 percent from December 2000 to December 2001, according to statistics released earlier this week by the federal Health and Human Services Department.
From 1995 through the end of 2000, caseloads dropped 67.2 percent in Massachusetts and 51.7 percent in New Hampshire.
But now, human services departments in both states are seeing increases for the first time, just as the two states are seeing higher unemployment rates and a shrinking job market.
The increase in welfare cases is tied to the economy, said Marie Maio, administrator of transitional assistance in New Hampshire’s Department of Health and Human Services. Dick Powers, public information officer at the Massachusetts Department of Transitional Assistance (DTA), echoed the sentiment and said the increasing number of assistance recipients reflects the poor job market.
In addition, the budget situation in Massachusetts presents a dilemma for welfare programs.
“The state is going through a fiscal crisis, there’s no doubt about that,” Powers said. But “when the economy sours, there is a greater need for our services.”
Of all the New England states, only Massachusetts and New Hampshire posted welfare increases during the December 2000-December 2001 period. Other New England states recorded decreases greater than the national average.
The number of families collecting federal Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) in Massachusetts increased 9.5 percent, to 46,790 families. In New Hampshire, the number of families increased 2.6 percent, to 5,786, according to the federal report.
State statistics, which are more up-to-date than federal data, show that the trend has continued in 2002.
In Massachusetts, the number of family welfare cases reached 46,483 in August, up from 42,541 the previous August- an increase of 3,942 families, or 9.3 percent.
In New Hampshire, TANF numbers peaked in May, with 6,196 cases of families receiving welfare, 4 percent higher than for the previous December, the most recent federal figures available.
However, by August the caseload had decreased by 96 families to 6,100, according to Art Stukas, field operations manager in the New Hampshire division of family assistance, part of the Department of Health and Human Services.
“We’re not certain [the decline] is going to continue,” he said.
The increase from August 2001 to August 2002, however, was 6.4 percent, according to numbers from New Hampshire’s Department of Health and Human Services.
In Washington, Rep. Marty Meehan, a Democrat from Lowell, called the increase in caseloads “very disappointing.”
“It’s not too surprising given the state of the economy and the rise of unemployment,” Meehan said.
A bill in Congress to reauthorize welfare reform has hit a blockade, Meehan said, with House and Senate members unable to reach a compromise. Meehan said he hopes the bill will be debated soon.
To understand why the number of TANF recipients is increasing, Maio said her agency has started looking at migration into the state.
“New Hampshire has been publicized as a desirable place to live: housing is abundant and jobs are abundant,” Maio said. But many are finding that this is no longer the case, she said.
Both Maio and Lynn Winterfield, a TANF administrator with New Hampshire’s Department of Health and Human Services, pointed to rent prices increasing 30 to 40 percent and the loss of many jobs in the service industry, including high-tech jobs in Massachusetts and Southern New Hampshire.
Published in The Lawrence Eagle Tribune, in Massachusetts.
