Welfare cases spike in Washington state because of sour economy

The nation's economic woes have caused a spike in Washington state's welfare cases, sending state officials scrambling for additional federal money to pay for them.

Applications to Washington's welfare program — officially called Temporary Assistance for Needy Families — increased 32 percent in the past year, state statistics show. Meanwhile, enrollment in the program, which provides small monthly cash grants to poor families, has increased 18 percent.

The cost of Washington's TANF program is expected to rise from $1.43 billion in the 2007-2009 biennium to $1.56 billion in 2009-11, according to Glenn Kuper, communications director for the Office of Financial Management.

In March, Washington's caseload was about 59,000 — an addition of 8,000 cases in the past year.

The increase comes after a decade of sharp reductions in the state's welfare rolls.

While the recent increase is a cause for concern, enrollment numbers are far from what they were in the 1990s, when the caseload exceeded 90,000.

But there's something else significant about the numbers, state officials say.

Today, TANF recipients aren't the stereotypical families mired in poverty for generations or young, uneducated single mothers.

Welfare officials say a higher percentage of the caseload now is made up of two-parent families with children.

Officials also believe they are seeing more people who once owned homes or had good-paying jobs before being laid off.

"People who, a year or two ago, were hanging onto middle class," said Shelley Ronnfeldt, administrator of the Community Services Office in Kent.

Recently, one of Ronnfeldt's caseworkers saw familiar faces walk through the door: a family from her neighborhood. One of their two children goes to school with the caseworker's.

Until recently, Dad had earned enough that Mom was able to stay home. But Dad lost his job, and unemployment ran out. Their home now is in foreclosure. They have no idea what's going to happen when the home is sold and they're kicked out.

That family was significant to caseworkers, Ronnfeldt said. In essence, the workers were seeing themselves walk through the door.

The economic downturn is doing more than increase enrollment. It's making it harder for people to get off TANF, which — ever since President Clinton famously vowed to "end welfare as we know it" — has been part of the program's mission.

For years an entitlement for poor families with children, the welfare program now imposes myriad requirements on recipients. They must attend training programs, engage in formal job-search activities, or earn their high-school equivalency diploma, if needed. Those who fail to participate can be cut off. Lifetime limits on benefits have been imposed.

The idea was to get people off the dole and into jobs — and that was happening for about a decade across the country.

The trend, however, seemed to reverse in December 2007 as enrollment began creeping upward. There has been a significant spike since October.

The trend corresponds with rising unemployment, according to Rebecca Henrie, communications manager for Community Services. The state's jobless rate is 9.2 percent.

So entries into the TANF program are increasing but exits are decreasing, said Carole Holland, senior budget assistant to Gov. Chris Gregoire. "It is harder for people to get jobs because they're competing with people who have much more recent work experience and probably higher education," she said. "We're struggling ourselves with how to deal with these issues."

In some states, officials are cutting welfare rolls despite the economic downturn, according to a New York Times analysis. Advocates are worried that applicants are being wrongfully turned away here, too, as a way to contain costs.

But Holland said she knows of no such efforts. Instead, the state has requested — and expects to receive — an additional $171 million from the federal government in the next biennium to help pay for the increase in TANF costs. Washington plans to apply for an additional $18.8 million in TANF stimulus money in 2010.

In the meantime, Holland's staff — which also has shrunk because of budget woes — is trying its best to keep up with the influx.

"Most of us are one paycheck away," Holland said. "I think that is what my staff are really seeing."

Maureen O'Hagan: 206-464-2562 or mohagan@seattletimes.com

The information in this article, originally published May 5, 2009, was corrected July 15, 2009. A May 5 story on a spike in welfare cases inaccurately described the qualifications for the program. To receive assistance, you must be the caretaker of a child under 18 --19 if they're still in school -- or be pregnant.