Letter-to-the-editor based on multiple barriers

In response to (article citation about families that remain on welfare and those with multiple barriers.)

Since the implementation of the 1996 welfare reform laws with a "work first" approach to reform, caseloads have fallen more than 50 percent. However, almost one-half of families receiving assistance through Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) experience multiple barriers to employment, such as low levels of education, child care and transportation needs, physical or mental health problems, and a history of domestic violence or substance abuse.

Families with multiple barriers to employment need individual self-sufficiency plans to help them go to work and remain on the job. For that to happen, frontline welfare staff need training to help them become more than eligibility clerks. Many families on welfare need resources to address mental health disorders, substance abuse, and domestic violence. Work activities should be expanded to include treatment and counseling for mental illness, substance abuse, and domestic violence. Extended time limits or work exemptions should be permitted for families actively working to overcome their barriers to employment.

Many families want to work—they want to become self-sufficient and remain off welfare. Our job should be to help them become self-sufficient by providing long-term supports.