New York State’s s safety net is failing to capture many people in need, according to a new report released today by the Federation of Protestant Welfare Agencies (FPWA). The report, "The State of New York's Social Safety Net for Today's Hard Times," is one of the first reports in New York State that examines the implementation and impact of welfare restructuring over the past decade and what it portends for the hundreds of thousands of unemployed New Yorkers.

“Despite an increase in the need for public assistance a year into a deep recession, the welfare rolls actually decreased in 2008 by over twenty thousand recipients,” stated Fatima Goldman, Executive Director & CEO of the Federation of Protestant Welfare Agencies.  “One correlation we found is the significant increase in the rate of denials of applications for public assistance in the past decade, jumping from a 26% denial rate in 1999 to 42% in 2007.”

FPWA examined data over a 10-year period from the Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance’s (OTDA) Statistical Report on the Operations of New York State Temporary Assistance Programs to assess the changes in number of applications, denial rates, withdrawal rates and case “churning” – welfare recipients cycled on and off welfare with repeated openings and closings of their cases.  The report has found that welfare restructuring over the past decade has created a multitude of roadblocks that limit access to basic assistance. In specific:

·         Despite a 35% increase in the number of applications comparing the years 1999 and 2007, the number of people receiving welfare decreased by 45% during that time period.

·         The number of New York City applications increased from 221,895 applications in 1999 to 341,635 in 2007, a 54% increase. The rest of the State saw a 13% increase.

·         Two factors contributing to the decline in caseloads since welfare reform are the increased rates of appli­cation denials and withdrawals statewide, despite an increase in overall welfare applications.

o   The public assistance denial rate jumped from 26% in 1999 to 42% in 2007.

o   The public assistance case withdrawal rate in NYC increased 17% between 1999 and 2003.

The FPWA report also examines the impact of welfare reform on the unemployed and low-income workers.  Although welfare reform’s stated goal was to promote self-sufficiency, results of its implementation in New York have largely been the contrary – leading to financial hardship, low-wage employment and a return to welfare.

“The report’s findings are consistent with similar state and national reports finding that most people who left welfare struggled to find or keep jobs and to make ends meet,” said Bich Ha Pham, FPWA Director of Policy, Advocacy and Research and co-author of the report.  “Vocational training and education must therefore play a key role in developing our state’s workforce and placing low-income people on the path out of poverty.”

The report gathered local and national data to assess how the changes in the public assistance program have impacted children and families.  The research results include:

• The new sanctioning system under welfare reform impacted many families and led to increased hunger and homelessness as people’s benefits were cut and cases were closed.  New York City currently has a quarter of its engageable caseload sanctioned or going through the sanctioning process.

• Welfare reform also strictly limited access to education and training despite the fact that education and training has proven to be the best route out of poverty.  City University of New York (CUNY) lost 22,000 out of 30,000 of its students on welfare after enactment of the Welfare Reform Act.

• Even those who were successfully placed into jobs were earning very low wages.  In New York City, the average wage of welfare recipients was $8.30/hour in 2007.  The statewide average wage was $8.50/hour. 

• Many have had to return to welfare. During the period from 2003 to 2008, between 21% and 30% of New York’s closed public assistance cases were individuals who had left public assistance for greater than one month, and then returned to full public assistance status.

“Training and education is a proven route out of poverty and we should be encouraging, rather than prohibiting, single mothers receiving public assistance to access these programs,” commented Liz Accles, FPWA Senior Policy Analyst for Income Security.  “If we want people to stay off of welfare permanently, it is imperative that people be placed into jobs paying family-sustaining wages.”

For additional coverage of the report and response from state and city officials, see today's New York Times.

 Click here for a copy of the full report.

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