Monday, Oct. 21, 1996 | 11:59 a.m.
CARSON CITY -- Welfare families will be able to earn more money by working without losing benefits but there will be tougher penalties for those who don't try to get off public assistance under proposed state welfare reforms.
The state Welfare Division on Friday released its plans to comply with the federal welfare reform law and has scheduled public hearings Nov. 5 in Las Vegas and Nov. 8 in Reno. The plan has also been submitted to the federal government for approval.
The goals of the new rules "are to move a greater number of families to self-sufficiency within limited time frames, reduce the incidents of out-of-wedlock births and improve the job retention rate of participants who enter the work force."
Gov. Bob Miller said he's committed "to the social and economic values of work." He will ask the 1997 Legislature to impose a 24-month limit on cash assistance to welfare recipients to "promote work."
Jeanette Hills, chief of eligibility and payments for the Welfare Division, said many elements of the Nevada plan are required by the new federal welfare reform act. But there are some provisions Nevada is adopting that are not mandated.
For instance, the state will permit welfare families to earn more money starting in January.
Hills said the state will allow families to save more money for emergencies before going off the welfare rolls. Today, 29-30 percent of the mothers leaving the Aid to Dependent Children program come back because they're faced with unexpected expenditures and no money.
"We want to give them a little head start," Hills said. These more lenient earning policies were approved by the 1995 Legislature and are now going into effect.
There will be heavier penalties for not cooperating with the work requirements or for not helping get child support from spouses. Now, a family of three loses $59 of the $348-a-month average grant for not following the work requirements. Under the new rules, the family would be docked $119. Those who fail to cooperate to find a spouse that owes child support will lose $87 a month.
This plan will enable the state to receive the maximum amount of money from the federal government for the program now being called Temporary Assistance for Needy Families. Hills says there are many more options that probably will be debated during the Legislature, which convenes in January, and the plan then will have to be amended.
Miller, in his letter to the federal government, said, "I believe a strong message regarding the need for cooperation with work requirements and child support is essential to underscore Nevada's commitment that personal responsibility should be primary and public assistance should be temporary."
Miller's press secretary, Richard Urey, said these rules put more pressure on welfare recipients to get off the system. He called it a "mixed bag" of incentives and stricter sanctions.
As announced earlier by Miller, legal immigrants who arrived in the United States before Aug. 22 of this year will be eligible to receive assistance. He said he will "strongly resist any effort to discontinue eligibility to legal immigrants."
That was one of the options given to states by Congress.
The federal law requires a parent receiving assistance to work. Under the old law, Hills said there were many exceptions. But a lot of the exemptions have been eliminated under the new rules. For instance, in rural areas, there was no work requirement in the past but that has been shelved.
Following the federal rules, an unmarried minor parent must live with her parents or an adult relative to continue to qualify for aid.
A teen pregnancy prevention program is being started to target youths, male and females, ages 9-14 with an "abstinence-based message" to reduce out-of-wedlock births. The program will go for four years and it will also include information about contraception and other options.
The public hearing in Las Vegas will be at 10 a.m. at the Sawyer State Office Building at 555 E. Washington Ave.
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