Easy chair or safety net?
Posted August 25, 2013 in Press Releases
"A new study says welfare discourages work, in Ohio and across the country. It isn’t that simple or clear."
So begins an editorial in the Toledo Blade, citing an attack by the libertarian Cato Institute on programs that help low-income people across the country make ends meet. The group released a study claiming that Americans can make more money collecting welfare than they can working at entry-level jobs.
The value of tax-free welfare benefits greatly exceeds the poverty level, the report says.
Such findings will convince those who want to be convinced. Others will suspect, correctly, that things aren’t quite that clear or simple.
The report’s authors call on state and federal lawmakers to curb welfare dependence and reward work by cutting benefits and tightening eligibility and work rules for recipients. That message has found a receptive audience among Republicans in Ohio’s legislature and congressional delegation.
Citing Policy Matters Ohio and Jack Frech of the Athens County Department of Jobs and Family Services, the editorial cuts through Cato's claim that “recipients who forgo work for welfare may trap themselves and their families in long-term dependence.”
. . . liberal advocacy groups dispute the Cato report’s premise that Ohioans are substituting welfare for work. Instead, they say, safety-net programs are keeping working families