Social Services Director Beth Duncan told the Work First Planning Committee Tuesday that Moore County has consistently ranked in the top 12 counties in meeting mandatory client participation rates.
Since the Work First program went into effect in 1995, Moore County’s Work First caseload has dropped from 807 to 197.
The planning committee, chaired by County Manager Steve Wyatt, reconvened to study and adopt a Work First plan for the 2005-07 fiscal years. The county commissioners must adopt a plan in time for submission to the state by the Sept. 30 deadline.
The N.C. Depart-ment of Health and Human Services must submit its plan to the legislature for adoption during the 2005 session.
Committee members reviewed the draft plan and voted unanimously to approve it, subject to final approval at another meeting, tentatively scheduled for Sept. 16. The county is required to update its Work First plan every two years.
In the meantime, copies of the draft plan will be available for public inspection at public libraries, the Department of Social Services Carriage Oaks facility in Carthage and county administrative offices. Wyatt said the document would also be available on the county Web site.
Michael Holden, chairman of the Moore County Board of Commissioners, said he appreciates the effort put into the program by the DSS staff.
“This shows the hard work that goes into trying to meet the needs of the community,” Holden said after the meeting. “We’re putting out resources where they’re most needed. Although these are hard economic times and we’re not growing, at least we are moving people into jobs through a really good system.”
Wyatt agreed.
“You’ve done a really fine job with this,” he said, holding up the blue-clad document.
Duncan reported that the proposed plan includes only minor changes from the plan adopted in 2001 and presently in effect.
The motion to approve the draft, made by Health Director Robert Wittmann, carries with it the county’s intention to remain with the standard program adopted by the state.
Counties are given the option of becoming electing or standard counties when it comes to administering Work First.
When Moore County first entered the program, it applied to be an electing county but lost out in the drawing because the electing program was available only on a limited basis. Since that time, however, the county has opted to remain as a standard county, after determining that the state’s standard program works best.
Duncan said Tuesday that even some of the electing counties have since decided to return to the standard format. Originally, about 20 were chosen for electing status, but now that number has dropped to nine.
Electing status allows a county to receive a block grant from the state to develop its own program with the understanding that certain goals will be met. An electing county may design its own plan, one crafted to meet that community’s special needs, as long as its provisions do not conflict with the state’s legal requirements.
The 2005-07 plan calls for a 2004-05 allocation of $964,343 for child welfare services.
New System
As part of child welfare services, the Moore County is implementing the new Multiple Response System, in which staff members work with each other and with clients in development of safety plans and what is known as the Mutual Responsibility Agreement.
Social workers in Child Protective Services will use the eligibility information system to monitor each child to determine if this is an active Work First case.
The new plan calls for cutting in half the limit on assistance to low-income families, which drops from $1,500 a year to $750. This assistance is provided on a nonrecurring basis for short-term benefits designed to deal with a specific episode of need.
The plan is also cutting the exemption to six months for the work requirement. Known as the S-code exemption, this allows an eligible client to relinquish the exemption from work in order to be employed, but it also allows the exemption to be restored if the client becomes unemployed and some time remains in the exemption.
The exemption usually applies to a single parent with a child under the age of one.
Another reduction is in the area of transportation with the maximum mileage check capped at $125 a month. This transportation assistance encourages clients to continue working by providing financial assistance with transportation costs.
Transportation remains a major obstacle to people seeking employment.
In connection with this need, the draft plan reports that 19 Work First clients have received vehicles through the Wheels to Work program in the past two years.
Wheels to Work is a project of the Sandhills Interfaith Hospitality Network, a nonprofit coalition established to assist homeless families. SIHN accepts donated vehicles, repairs them and provides them at low cost to people needing transportation help to accept employment or to continue working.
Goals Surpassed
The committee was advised that the Moore County Work First program has surpassed all state goals.
For example, the state goal for staying off welfare after finding employment was 90 percent, but Moore County’s outcome was 100 percent. The state’s Benefit Diversion goal was 65 cases, and Moore County completed 160 such cases.
In addition, the county’s job retention rate is 100 percent for all Work First participants, according to the draft plan.
Work First is North Carolina’s response to the federal welfare reform initiative of the mid-1990s.
Under this program, clients receiving financial assistance are given a deadline in which to find employment. The program provides job training, counseling and an array of services, including childcare, to enable them to find work and continue to work.
In earlier years, the financial assistance was administered through a program known as Aid to Families with Dependent Children. Now it is known as TANF (Temporary Assistance to Needy Families).
Because many jobs offer low pay and few if any benefits, most Work First clients are eligible to receive a number of other services even after they have found jobs. Most notably, these services include food stamps and Medicaid.
Duncan reminded the committee that Moore County entered the Work First program with several hundred cases and that number is now down to about 200.
“That is a significant drop,” Duncan said.
The present 197 figure is not expected to drop significantly in the future, largely because many of these cases are the most difficult to resolve and because of a less than promising economic situation.
When the plan was being written, the county’s unemployment rate was 5.7 percent. The report shows that several major employers, including Perdue, Kmart, Stanley Furniture, Big Lots, Oakwood Homes, have either closed or ordered layoffs.
In addition to Wyatt, Holden and Duncan, the committee includes representatives of institutions and agencies that provide services to Work First clients, such as the Sandhills Center for Mental Health, Board of Health, public schools, business community, Board of Social Services, Sandhills Community College, Employment Security Commission, Cooperative Extension, Partnership for Families and Children and Moore County Transportation Services.
