Mayor Bill de Blasio is revamping the city’s welfare program, vowing to dismantle what was once the largest workfare program in the nation and to embrace new strategies for moving thousands of people off the welfare rolls and into jobs.
Workfare? Do you remember workfare? It is the program that ballooned during the administration of Rudolph W. Giuliani, with 36,224 people working in it or assigned to it by the year 2000.
The program mostly dropped out of the headlines after Mr. Giuliani, a Republican, left office, but his work-first ethos still prevails: In April, 9,194 welfare recipients participated in or were assigned to workfare, and thousands more were required to engage in job-search programs that de Blasio administration officials have described as largely unsuccessful.
Now, Mr. de Blasio says, it is time for change.
Mr. de Blasio, a Democrat, plans to prioritize education and training for able-bodied welfare recipients instead of automatically assigning them to workfare positions — cleaning parks and subway platforms and performing clerical duties — that have been described as dead ends by advocates for impoverished families.
Over the next two years, city officials say, those workfare jobs will vanish completely and be replaced by transitional employment programs, internships and community service positions in growing sectors of the economy to ensure that more welfare recipients find paying jobs.
Research shows that programs heavily focused on education and training have been less successful than others at moving welfare recipients into the workplace. And somewhere out there, Mr. Giuliani must be wagging his finger, warning of the dangers ahead.
6 comments:
They should take away most welfare in this city. It's called tough love. Stop living off of taxpayers money and get a job. Then again most people on welfare here are just too lazy to work and would rather sit at home all day, after all, we now live in times where welfare pays more than a lot of jobs in this city. The other half of welfare recipients are illegals who leach off the system and have children living on the taxpayers dime. The whole welfare system in NY is a freaking joke and needs a huge overhaul along with up keeping of our immigration policies.
"those workfare jobs will vanish completely and be replaced by transitional employment programs, internships and community service positions in growing sectors of the economy to ensure that more welfare recipients find paying jobs."
These "transitional employment programs" will fit right in with the "transitional housing" (homeless shelters) that the City is building in Queens. Just another chance to piss away millions to the politically connected who run them.
"The whole welfare system in NY is a freaking joke and needs a huge overhaul along with up keeping of our immigration policies".
The same can be said for the whole nation. And an overhaul won't do-it needs to be scrapped and replaced with something else.
"They should take away most welfare in this city."
Taking welfare away suddenly without would not magically fix the problem of the millions of people living at the margins of eligibility for various programs, because they effectively pay more than 100% tax rate. Learn something.
A communist mayor who supports entitlements for the lazy...strictly a one termer....I hope!
Mayor Di Blah Blah will not dare to dis his people of color voters. Has not done shit and is already running for his second term. Bring back Bloomberg!
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