Steady drops in the state's unemployment rate mean that some of the thousands of Arkansans who receive food stamps will now have to meet work or job training requirements, according to state officials.
On Monday, a deputy director at the Department of Human Services, Mark White, told lawmakers that changes in the state's relative unemployment rate mean the state is no longer exempt from federal work requirements for some who receive food stamps. The change will require about 25,000 Arkansans to work or enroll in job training, education or volunteer programs to get food stamp benefits for more than three months.
Starting Jan. 1, White said, his agency and the Department of Workforce Services began enforcing the new requirements on those seeking help from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, a process that will be in full effect by the end of June.
"Over the next year, we will be working with [the Workforce Services Department] and other partners to expand the availability of employment and training programs," White said. "We want [able-bodied adults] to have transitioned to gainful employment. It's better for them, it's better for our state and it's better for our economy."
Though the state is no longer exempt, White said, there are many counties that could get waivers from the work requirements.
But Gov. Asa Hutchinson will not seek such waivers, White said. Twenty-five of the state's 75 counties would be eligible for a waiver based on their unemployment rate.
"The governor believes for the able-bodied, childless adults we're talking about, SNAP should be temporary assistance, that the goal should be to move the beneficiaries away from dependence to employment," White said.
In 1996, Congress passed the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act, a measure aimed at tightening welfare. President Bill Clinton signed the act, which required able-bodied food stamp recipients to work an average of 20 hours a week or demonstrate an effort toward full-time employment through job training or a workfare program. Able-bodied citizens were defined as those between 18 and 50 years old who have no dependents and are physically and mentally fit for employment.
White was unsure how long Arkansas had been exempt from the work requirements.
A report by the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities found that Arkansas is among 23 states that will for the first time impose work-related requirements for the benefits. The group, a left-leaning think tank based out of Washington, D.C., found the work requirements will be active in 40 states this year.
White and Daryl Bassett, head of the Department of Workforce Services, spoke Monday to the House and Senate Public Health, Welfare and Labor committees. They told lawmakers that their agencies will help beneficiaries enroll in vocational education or other work programs.
They will also work to develop more "work fare" programs. "Work fare" jobs are volunteer positions with local governments or nonprofit agencies aimed at building job skills that could lead to employment.
Rep. Fred Love, D-Little Rock, said he was all for food stamp recipients becoming "self-sufficient," but he said he worried there weren't enough resources for job training and education to make that happen.
"I'm thinking of the individual who has very little in life skills. ... It takes a little time to become self-sufficient and employed," Love said. "My concern is where the bridge is to getting them to self-sufficiency and dropping them."
Sen. Stephanie Flowers, D-Pine Bluff, wanted to know why Hutchinson would not seek waivers for some of the state's economically struggling counties, including those in her district.
"The governor's rationale ... for programs like SNAP, he believes this should be temporary assistance and we should not have a goal of placing individuals on these programs with the intent of keeping them there," White said.
Flowers said prison overcrowding and the growth in parolees should have weighed more into the governor's decision not to seek exemptions for poorer counties.
"Where I'm from, we have a very high number of parolees and we have a high unemployment rate," Flowers said. "If people don't have food and you know they have to eat, what are they going to do? Are we going to load the prisons back up for theft of food?"
The House committee chairman, Rep. Kelley Linck, R-Yellville, said a carrot-and-stick approach toward awarding the federal benefits is a sound approach to increasing employment and minimizing government dependence.
The requirements "do not force a hand, but encourage a hand" to go to the Workforce Services Department, Linck said. "We're not saying you have to have a job. That would defeat the whole point of [assistance]." He said the work requirement "moves you forward where you're looking for a job and get yourself ready."
Metro on 01/12/2016