Good Question: Should Welfare Be Limited?
By Christy Strawser
CBS Detroit Managing Editor
Michigan's unemployment still hovers at 10.9 percent nearly three years after the Great Recession began, and new data shows once someone loses a job it takes time -- a lot of time -- to find something new.
A September report by the Michigan League for Human Services showed it took at least six months, on average, for people aged 25 to 54 to find a job after a lay-off. And 26.6 percent of those new jobs didn't pay enough to push a family above the poverty level.
So, is it time to limit welfare benefits -- or keep them steady?
Gov. Rick Snyder signed a law limiting the time residents can receive welfare and an initiative is winding its way through the state legislature that would limit the ways people can use their Bridge Cards, which replaced food stamps as a way to purchase food and household supplies.
"We are returning cash assistance to its original intent as a transitional program to help families while they work toward self-sufficiency and also preserving our state's integral safety net for families most in need," Snyder said in a release.
Gilda Jacobs, president and CEO of the Michigan League for Human Services, saw it from a different perspective, saying: "With unemployment at nearly 11 percent and half of jobless people looking for work for six months or longer, we know that jobs are not readily available to absorb nearly 41,000 people leaving the state's cash assistance safety net in October. The jobs just don't exist."
The Michigan House also passed bills this week banning welfare recipients from using state-issued debit cards, called Bridge Cards, to draw cash from casino ATMs or buy lottery tickets, alcohol and tobacco. They passed 108-0 and advanced to the state Senate.
Last year, state Sen. Rick Jones, R-Grand Ledge found about $2 million in Bridge Card food and cash assistance was spent in Florida, California, Hawaii and Nevada, and on cruise ships. Jones announced he would work with the Michigan Department of Human Services to end Bridge Card abuse.
"It is shocking that taxpayers would foot the bill for welfare recipients to spend money on vacations to other states and even on cruise ships… this must end" Jones said in a statement.
Speaking with WWJ's Marie Osborne at the time, Jones said there is other potential for abuse.
"Many times, Bridge Cards are sold on the open market and then people get cash, can buy illegal drugs and alcohol and cigarettes. Obviously, that needs to stop," Jones said.
He's right. Welfare benefits paid for by all working people should never be abused. But at a time when it's so difficult to find full-time work, should we limit or end benefits for low-income families? Does it force people back to work, or force them into even more dire straits? Tell us below in comments.
