The Telegraph
EDITOR'S NOTE: The desire to reform government 
assistance programs has played a major role in both the ongoing debate to balance the federal budget and in the presidential primary campaign. This story, the fourth in an occasional serie
s compiled by the Voters' Voice project, examines the government's 
role in helping people on public assistance get jobs.
By HATTIE BERNSTEIN, Telegraph Staff, 01/12/96

	NASHUA: Former welfare recipient Beckie Conant appreciates the federal 
system that for four years paid for housing, food and shelter for her and her two young children and also sent her to college.
  But as a new member of the work force, she worries that she might be 
forced back into dependency.
  It's not what she wants.
  Others who used the system while they trained for jobs and straightened 
out their lives share Conant's anxiety. So do current recipients who are 
preparing to cut the apron strings.
  For one, most entry level jobs do not pay enough to cover expenses for 
food, housing, child care and transportation. Nor are families assured of health care, child support collection or student loans after they leave the system.
  Some newly trained graduates find they must take part-time jobs in the 
beginning. Others soon realize that advancement and higher pay depend on advanced education.
  Several former welfare recipients were interviewed by The Telegraph of 
Nashua as part of the Voters' Voice project, a partnership of The 
Telegraph, The Associated Press of New Hampshire, New Hampshire Public Radio and New Hampshire Public Televisio
n. The purpose of the project is to give voters a stronger voice in the presidential primary process.
  The former welfare recipients say they wish government would extend 
supports for a year or two after people leave the system. Encourage 
self-reliance, they say, but don't pull all the plugs on patients before they are able to survive on their own.
  Some say the prohibitive costs of child care and transportation are 
obstacles to independence. While receiving public assistance, they are allowed to own a vehicle valued at no more than $1,500. But both during and after they finish school, there are 
no subsidies to help with car repairs or car loans.
  Add to that the absence of health care coverage for adults after they 
leave the system, and a new worker is freqently overburdened. In addition, day care and health care for children are covered for a limited time only.
  Yet few of these concerns are being addressed in the current political 
debate over welfare reform.
  U.S. Sen. Phil Gramm, R-Texas, for example, says able-bodied recipients 
should have to work in real jobs, not government make-work projects or 
job training, as a condition of welfare. He also wants to impose a 
two-year limit for those able to work.
  Magazine publisher Steve Forbes also supports a two-year limit, though 
he would require recipients at that point to take a government-sponsored job if other work were unavailable.
  Even President Clinton is advocating faster approval of reform 
experiments in states that want to set time limits on benefits, toughen welfare-to-work rules and require teen-age mothers on welfare to live at home and stay in school.
  Mary Gillette, director of two programs at New Hampshire Technical 
College that serve financially disadvantaged single parents, says students on welfare need extended supports in order to succeed after graduation. She says funds for programs like hers
 are also critical.
  "We know what works to get there", Gillette says. "College 
and a decent job. We need funding for services."
  Gillette says the government could help by enforcing child support 
collection, expanding child care and transportation subsidies and providing some money for car repairs. She says career counseling and community liaisons with social services also are 
necessary.
  In addition, she says, the government should provide "health 
care for everyone." She says welfare recipients often stay dependent 
because of the health care benefits.
  But Gillette says education is key to financial independence.
  "Education and training equals quality employment equals financial 
independence", she recites.
  Still, government also should support new graduates and make available 
funds for continuing education, Gillette says.
  Conant, the former recipient, agrees. For almost two years, the Nashua 
mother of two children, 5 and 6, has worked full time as an accounting assistant at Greater Nashua Childcare Centers. But she needs more education to make more money, she says.
Conant, 30, has associate's degrees in accounting and business management 
from New Hampshire Technical College, but she cannot afford either health insurance or a car. 
  She says she had to choose between day care for her son or medical 
coverage for herself.
  Conant has decent housing only because she is sharing expenses with her 
fiance, she says. She also uses one of her partner's two vehicles.
  If she had to pay for everything out of her paycheck, she says, she 
would have to move. She also would have to do more juggling to pay her 
bills.
  Still, the Nashua resident is grateful for the opportunties welfare 
afforded her.
  "The system did work", she says.
  Joseph Arcidiacono, administrator of the office of economic services for 
the state Department of Health and Human Services, says his agency's goal 
is to keep welfare stays as short as possible. He says a record low unemployment rate reflects declin
ing welfare cases: 10,535 in February 1995, compared with 9,071 in 
December.
  Still, he says recipients leaving the system face some obstacles. Lack 
of public transportation, for one, is a problem. Likewise, the shortage of subsidized day care centers in the state. He says families on Medicaid can receive those beneifts for up 
to a year after getting off the system.
  Ray Worden, executive director of the New Hampshire Job Training 
Council, says he sees lack of education as the biggest stumbling block to financial independence. Government, he stresses, needs to invest more in training programs for the economically 
disadvantaged.
  He says his agency, which serves 8,000 people annually, provides 
training for up to 1,500 welfare recipients. But that number could dip drastically with proposed changes in government spending. 
   "The last couple of years, we've had sufficient money to 
respond", Worden says."Not next year."
  In addition to paying for more job training, he says, government should 
help agencies like his improve their information systems.
  "There's jobs out there", he says. But "now it's not 
easy to find out where the jobs are."
Nashua resident Roberta Snow, 26, has her eye on a job. When she graduates from New Hampshire Technical College in May, she will seek employment as an optician.
  But the 26-year-old mother says she worries about supporting herself and 
her 3-year-old son on entry-level wages. Starting pay for opticians is $8 an hour, she says, and first jobs in the field are usually part time.
  "It makes me think,'Am I doing the right thing?'... by 
getting off the system", Snow says.
  Currently, welfare pays for Snow's child care and living expenses. 
But after she takes a job, she will be responsible for almost everything.
  She says she has no car and will have little chance of buying one for 
some time. Even if she were to win $1,000 in the state lottery before she starts working, she says, she would be forced by welfare regulations to use the money for living expenses.
  "You need a car", she says.
  Nashua resident Sarah Eastman, 27, the mother of two girls, 6 and 4, 
says she is more fortunate than most former welfare recipients. Eastman 
earned an associate's degree in business management from New Hampshire 
Technical College last May. In September, she was hired as a staffing specialist with a temporary placement agency.
  She says she is just breaking even financially on her mid-$20,000 
salary.
  "It takes every penny I make. There's no extra", Eastman 
says.
  It was like that on public assistance, she says. But then, she had more 
time for her children and herself.
  "Now, it's harder, because I realize the responsibility for making it 
is mine", she says. "I have nothing to fall back on."
  In addition, she says she wants to go back to school for a bachelor's 
degree.
  Eastman says with child support, she would feel "rich". 
But since she receives none, she is strapped. If the government offered a 
temporary subsidy, she says, she would have some relief.
  Still, the former recipient has no plans to return to the system.
  "I have too much pride", she says."The situation I was in, 
I can feel justified about the steps I took to change my life. I was 
using the system as a crutch. That's a lot different than as a way of life."
  But she says other former dependents could relapse, given the 
difficulties of a self-launching without a life boat.
  "If they (government) really want to see people succeed, there should be 
some type of buffer zone, something to step back on", she says.
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The Telegraph			The daily newspaper of Nashua and
P.O. Box 1008			southern New Hampshire since 1869
Nashua, NH 03061		voice: (603) 882-2741   fax: (603) 882-2681