Idaho welfare program receives bonus

BOISE – Idaho’s welfare program has received a $1.6 million bonus from the federal government for helping former welfare recipients move into the workforce and succeed.

The award, which will add to the $35.5 million federal block grant that Idaho received this year for welfare, is significant, said Idaho Health and Welfare spokesman Ross Mason.

“It’ll just be used to do more of the same thing that we did last year – getting people off of welfare, and trying to get them into jobs that will keep them off of welfare,” Mason said.

Idaho is one of 37 states receiving a performance bonus this year. “I guess it’d be sending you a message if you didn’t win it,” Mason said. But he said Idaho was one of only 11 states to get the maximum allowable bonus.

Idaho also received a bonus last year.

This year, Idaho has 1,960 families on its Temporary Assistance to Needy Families, or TANF, program. In 1996, as Idaho’s welfare reform efforts began, 9,211 families were on welfare.

Idaho’s program is among the nation’s leanest, with a two-year lifetime limit for cash assistance and a maximum cash benefit of $309 per month per family.

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson announced the performance bonuses Tuesday.

“President Bush is dedicated to helping more families transition from welfare dependency to work, and I am pleased to award this bonus to Idaho for doing just that,” Thompson said in a news release.

According to HHS figures, Idaho was rated highly for the success in the workforce of former welfare recipients, which includes salary, job retention and advancement.

Mason said under welfare reform, Idaho’s program has focused on retaining benefits such as Medicaid coverage, food stamps and child-care subsidies to ease the way as welfare recipients move into the workforce.

“Those are support mechanisms meant to keep people in jobs, particularly now with companies dropping health insurance right and left,” Mason said. “Those programs are essential to keeping people in the workplace.”

Child-care subsidies in particular have been “one of the single largest things that have allowed this program to work effectively, getting people back to work,” Mason said.

Idaho’s child-care subsidy program works on a sliding scale, with former welfare recipients paying more of the cost as their incomes increase.

This year, an average of 6,222 Idaho families receive child-care subsidies each month, covering an average of 9,413 children.