Some Georgians who begin to sign up for welfare opt not to once they learn about the work requirement, resulting in fewer households receiving benefits. Those who sign up get access to job-searching assistance, or, if necessary, they receive help finishing high school, completing a GED program or finding another specialized certification program. In Georgia, state officials require welfare recipients to work or participate in training for at least 30 hours each week.
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Changes implemented in the ‘90s gave states more control over how to run welfare, which has long been politically stigmatized. Since Congress passed sweeping changes to the federal welfare program in 1996, the number of households receiving benefits has consistently dropped in Georgia and across the country. That same family could have a monthly gross income of up to $2,311 and still qualify for food stamps. To be eligible for welfare in Georgia, a family of three must have a gross income below $784 a month. That’s a decrease of nearly 81% since 2006, the earliest year for which DFCS could provide data, when 33,302 households received welfare benefits. By June 2022, that number was down to 6,190. In June 2021, welfare benefits were granted to 7,358 Georgia households, according to DFCS data. Recipients have to qualify annually and often they choose not to seek renewal, officials said. The agency doesn’t track why welfare recipients leave the rolls. The criteria to qualify for TANF are more strict than for food stamps, DFCS officials said.
“SNAP is more sensitive to households economic needs than a program like TANF.” “(Welfare) is structured to be a temporary support and to try to assist those that the state believes are truly, truly needy - and, certainly, we can debate who is needy,” Floyd said. The decline of nearly 1,200 households in the past year - despite the pandemic - follows a long trend of fewer people receiving public cash benefits. State officials and advocates, meanwhile, say there could be a number of reasons for the decrease in the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program, commonly known as welfare. The work requirements will remain waived as long as the country continues to be in a health emergency as declared by the federal government. The work requirements were abandoned once the coronavirus pandemic began, scrapping plans for the statewide rollout. They were given three months to find a job or training program before losing their benefits.Ībout 600,000 fewer people received food stamps in 2019 than in 2013. The federal work rules required “able-bodied adults without dependents” between the ages of 18 and 49 to work at least 20 hours a week or be engaged in some sort of education or work training.
The state’s food stamp rolls shrunk after “work requirements” were reinstated in several Georgia counties in 2016 with plans to go statewide in April 2020. “Maybe $95 for people who make a middle-class income is not that much, but when you’re on a fixed income, those additional dollars - whether it’s $10 or $95 - are really, really meaningful when you’re purchasing food.” “Households and individuals have felt the loss of that $95 on average per household,” she said. Ife Finch Floyd, an analyst with the left-leaning Georgia Budget and Policy Institute, said a number of factors could have led to more families seeking food stamps. Enrollment also typically decreases in December of each year, which officials say is caused by lags in recipients reapplying for the annual benefit.Īn increase in benefits of about $100 due to the pandemic ended in May, bringing the average monthly benefit down by about that much between May and June. Sometimes families need more help with groceries during the summer months when children are at home from school.
Officials with the Department of Human Services, which manages DFCS, said food stamp enrollment is seasonal. In June, the most recent numbers available, 778,000 households received about $251 million in food stamps, averaging about $322 per household. The number of households receiving food stamps has grown by about 48,000 from the same time last year.
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