Testimony Submitted by the Consortium for Citizens with Disabilities TANF Task Force

1331 H Street, NW, Suite 301

Washington, DC 20005 (202) 783-2229

United States Committee on Finance

Hearing on Welfare Reform: Building on Success

March 12, 2003

The Consortium for Citizens with Disabilities (CCD) is a coalition of approximately 100 national consumer, advocacy, provider and professional organizations headquartered in Washington, DC.   We work together to advocate for national public policy

that ensures the self determination, independence, empowerment, integration and inclusion of children and adults with disabilities in all aspects of society.   The CCD advocates on behalf of people of all ages with physical and mental disabilities and their

families through organized Task Forces on such issues as housing, health care, education, and welfare reform.  The CCD TANF Task Force seeks to ensure that families that include persons with disabilities are afforded equal opportunities and appropriate accommodations under the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families block grant.

We believe that many individuals with disabilities receiving TANF, or those parents caring for a child with a disability, can successfully move from welfare to work if the appropriate supports and policies are in place.  In a report issued earlier this month, the National Council on Disability stated:

"'Every American should have the opportunity to participate fully in society and engage in productive work.  Unfortunately, millions of Americans with disabilities are locked out of the workplace because they are denied the tools and access necessary for success.'  President George W. Bush, New Freedom Initiative at p. 18, (Feb. 2001), www.whitehouse.gov/news/freedominitiative/freedominitiative.html.  For many people with disabilities, TANF, if appropriately designed, could provide the tools and access needed to unlock doors to opportunity, productivity, and economic self-sufficiency."[1]

We agree with their findings and start from the premise that all people with disabilities must have the opportunity to maximize their potential — including to be able to work — and that it is the legal obligation of the government — federal, state and local — to ensure that people with disabilities have equal and meaningful access to all programs receiving federal funds.  This is the promise of the Americans with Disabilities Act and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, both of which Congress specifically incorporated into the TANF statute in 1996 at Section 408(c), 42 U.S.C. §608(c).

It is still common for policymakers not to realize that many people with disabilities are in the families being served by TANF programs.  Early in the process of welfare reform, the thinking among many state level policymakers was, if the person was really disabled then she would be receiving Supplemental Security Income (SSI).  And, for some parents and children on TANF, it is true that they should be receiving SSI and may need their state’s help in securing these benefits.  But, there are many individuals with major physical or mental impairments that do not meet the legal definition of disability as set forth in the Social Security Act, but whose impairments impede their ability to work. The studies now show that many parents on TANF have disabilities and other health conditions that inhibit their ability to work, but who with appropriate supports and services, could be working.  The General Accounting Office found that 44 percent of parents receiving TANF had at least one physical or mental health impairment, three times higher than the rate of such impairments among adults not receiving TANF benefits.[2]  This confirmed earlier findings from the Urban Institute and others.[3]

The studies show that parents on TANF have mental impairments such as severe depression, general anxiety disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, brain injury, learning disabilities, and mental retardation, as well as physical impairments.  These impairments can make it difficult for a parent to work or to understand and comply with state rules.  Many families have multiple barriers to work, one or more of which is a disability or health condition.[4]  In many instances, parents would like to work but will need intensive supports and services if they are to succeed.  Some examples of these supports include training and education designed to take into account the person’s disability, counseling, substance abuse treatment, on-the-job supports, child care and transportation.  For some, full-time work may be the long-term goal, but there will need to be numerous smaller steps taken over time before such a goal can be reached.  For others, part-time work in a supportive setting may be the ultimate goal.

There also are children with disabilities in TANF families. The General Accounting Office reports that fifteen percent of families on TANF include a child with a disability; and eight percent of families on TANF include both a child and an adult with a disability.  In contrast, only 3% of children in the general population have a disability and 1% of the families include both a child and an adult with a disability.[5]   The Manpower Demonstration Research Corporation (MDRC), studying TANF recipient families in four urban counties — Los Angeles, CA, Philadelphia, PA, Miami-Dade, FL, and Cuyahoga County, OH (Cleveland) — found that one-fourth of non-employed mothers receiving TANF had a child with an illness or disability that limited the mothers’ ability to work or attend school.[6]

The success of welfare reform over the past five years as it applies to people with disabilities is mixed.  Some parents with disabilities are now working, but many others have been inappropriately sanctioned and lost TANF or have not received the services and supports they will need — often on a long-term basis — in order to take the steps that will ultimately allow them to work or achieve a greater degree of independence.  Even among those who are working, we are concerned that some may be struggling to hang on to jobs and need additional supports and services to succeed. We were very pleased when the Office for Civil Rights at HHS issued guidance to states and counties explaining how the ADA and Section 504 apply in the TANF program.[7]  This important step has helped to alert states and counties to their obligations to assist people with disabilities and to focus their attention on the types of policy changes that will be needed to ensure that people with disabilities are fully protected and served in their programs.

There is evidence that some states are taking positive steps to assist people with disabilities in their TANF programs — and some of this evidence pre-dates the OCR guidance.  A number of states, including Iowa, Utah, Tennessee, Vermont, and some counties in Colorado, have developed partnerships to address the needs of individuals with disabilities and help move them from welfare to work.  Such partnerships often include TANF agencies, vocational rehabilitation, workforce investment, and local business and community groups.  These efforts, however, require a great amount of flexibility in developing the programs that help individuals with disabilities achieve self-sufficiency.  However, the research reflects that most of these efforts are still very much in their infancy and unfortunately, parents with disabilities and parents caring for children with disabilities continue to be at a disadvantage in most state TANF programs.  We know, for example, that significant numbers of parents with disabilities are among those who have been sanctioned off of state TANF programs — often because their disability prevented them from complying.  MDRC found that, “[w]elfare recipients with multiple health problems and with certain health problems (notably, physical abuse, risk of depression, having a chronically ill or disabled child) were more likely than other recipients to have been sanctioned in the prior year.”  And, among those who had left welfare, “[w]elfare leavers with multiple health problems were more likely than other women who had left welfare to say that they had been terminated by the welfare agency rather than that they left on their own accord.”[8]

We also know of numerous disturbing examples of families with a member with disabilities where the system has failed them —as well as some for whom the system has worked.  Consider, for example, these two parents’ stories, included by the Colorado Governor’s Task Force on Welfare Reform in their report, Moving Forward with Welfare Reform:[9]

Client A:

“A client was tested and had an IQ of 67.  She was sent to Vocational Rehab and then instructed to seek work.   She received child care for two occasions and then was sanctioned in Colorado Works.  Her family became homeless in November 1998 and the children were placed in foster care in December 1998.”

Client B:

“A client has an IQ of 67 and is a victim of domestic violence.  There is suspicion of brain damage as a result of  abuse.  She cannot communicate well, she is conscientious but has few skills.  She has an anxiety disorder which cannot be treated because of her heart problem.  She sees a physician weekly to manage blood thinning

medications.  She had surgery for a valve replacement one year ago.  She was assigned to a community college program which reported that she would be doing fine but then the next day she couldn’t remember what she had learned.  It takes the parent approximately one month to learn a bus route.  The county required that she find a job in six months.  Later that expectation was lowered to ten hours of time within her supported living program.”

The description of the steps the state took to help Client B provides a sense of the types of steps that states will need to take in order to help some parents with disabilities to maximize their potential.  Unfortunately, no steps — not even ongoing child care

for her children — were taken to assist Client A, with the tragic consequence that she was sanctioned, lost her home, and then lost custody of her children.  It should not be acceptable to the Congress that even one parent with disabilities or one parent caring for a child with disabilities faces these types of consequences in TANF.  Unfortunately, the research suggests that problems like this are all to frequently occurring across the country, at great personal expense to parents and children.

The CCD TANF Task Force recommends that Congress take the following steps to ensure that parents with disabilities and parents caring for children with disabilities are able not only to fully benefit from the TANF program but also not harmed by policies that do not take into account the impact of their disabilities on their ability to comply with program rules:

(1)   Retain state ability to design welfare to work strategies that will help families that include a person with a disability achieve greater self-sufficiency and ensure reasonable accommodation for individuals with disabilities.

Some states  — including Iowa, Utah, Maine, Tennessee, and Vermont  —  have designed their TANF policies and procedures so that they identify a family’s barriers, including whether there are family members with disabilities, and then design the family’s work and related activities to help the family move to greater independence.   It is essential that the 2003 legislation not undercut  —  or even make impossible  —  the fine work of these states.  Three provisions would help to secure this flexibility and signal to other states that similar policy choices could lead to good results for families with disabilities in their states as well.

1. Permit states to determine how long a family will need rehabilitative services and allow participation in rehabilitative services to meet the full weekly work requirement. 

The 2002 Senate Finance bill provided that a state may treat up to three months of rehabilitative services as a countable work activity; this could be followed by another three months of rehabilitative services provided that rehabilitative services are combined with other work activities.  While this represents an improvement over the provision adopted by the House  (H.R. 4) this year which provides for only three months, it still would have left many parents with disabilities without sufficient time to build the skills and systems of support needed to fully support themselves and their families and successfully move from welfare to work or greater independence.

We recommend that in 2003, the Senate Finance Committee adopt a provision similar to the Committee's 2002 provision allowing for at least six months of rehabilitative services to count as work and permitting this period to be extended where the state determines that additional time spent in activities that are rehabilitative services will help the parent or

family move closer to greater independence in circumstances where it has been determined that the parent or family is facing barriers to work such as a disability, domestic violence, or substance abuse.  This would allow states to develop plans that  help individuals with disabilities, and their families, achieve self sufficiency.  In addition, if the parent or a child in the family has a disability, the provision should specifically provide that the state can provide rehabilitative services appropriate to the individual's needs for the period of time needed to meet the needs of the individual in accordance with the Americans with Disabilities Act or Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973.  States should receive credit in their work rates for the weeks that parents are engaged in such activities.  In addition, if a family is meeting the terms of its individual responsibility plan and is engaged in rehabilitative services, then the state should receive full credit for the parent's activities even if the number of hours per week is less than the number of hours regularly required of parents, so long as the state has determined that to be the activity best designed to help the parent continue to move to success.

2. Clarify that compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 constitutes “reasonable cause” if that is the reason a state fails to meet a requirement of the federal TANF law.   

A significant percentage of parents still receiving TANF have disabilities that may affect their ability to work.  These individuals are protected from discriminatory practices by the Americans with Disabilities Act and Section 504.  The 1996 welfare reform law specifically incorporates these and other key civil rights laws to guard against limitations that would deny equal access to TANF programs. As states focus their attention on how best to help families facing barriers to employment to move from welfare to work, it will be important that they are able to individualize the help the family’s needs, at whatever pace and in whatever manner the state and professionals determine have the best chance for helping the family to succeed.  (This is the approach currently taken in Iowa, Utah, Maine, Tennessee, and Vermont.)  Sometimes, this may mean that the state will need to engage parents in activities or services that do not meet the federal work definitions or engage them in rehabilitative services beyond the time permitted by the TANF statute, if it includes a fixed number of months. To the extent that a state does not meet the federal participation rate because it has engaged individuals with disabilities in activities appropriate to their conditions, thereby ensuring that they receive equal and meaningful access to the state’s TANF program, the state should not be subject to a federal penalty.  The current law says that a state is not subject to penalties where it has “reasonable cause.”  While compliance with the civil rights laws is inherent in the definition of “reasonable cause,” it would be helpful to make this explicit.  This would provide adequate assurance to states that they can provide individuals with the services and supports the state believes to best address the person’s and family’s needs without being concerned that a federal penalty might be imposed, no matter how inappropriate.

3. Permit states to exempt parents caring for a child or adult relative with a disability from the work requirement and time limit. 

The 2002 Senate Finance bill included an amendment offered by Senator Conrad which permitted states to exempt from the work requirements parents caring for a child with a disability or an adult relative with disabilities if caring for the person with disabilities prevented the parent from meeting the state’s work requirement.  This important provision should be included in the Committee’s bill in 2003 with one improvement:  the time that a parent is caring for a child with a disability that prevents complying with the state’s work requirements also should not be counted in determining whether the family has reached the federal time limit for receipt of cash assistance.  This will allow the parent time to prepare to leave welfare permanently once she is no longer needed to care for the child or adult relative with disabilities. 

(2)        Include provisions that protect families with barriers from unnecessary and inappropriate sanctioning. 

The 1996 law requires states to impose sanctions where a parent “refuses” to comply with a state work requirement.  Unfortunately, many of those who are being sanctioned cannot comply  —  they are not refusing to comply, they simply cannot because of a disability or other barrier, or may not even understand what is being required of them.  Efforts to increase the number of hours of required work activity and states’ overall work participation rates are likely to harm these same families.  Without strong protections against inappropriate sanctioning, it is likely that the number of inappropriate sanctions will increase.  Sanctions in TANF are associated with negative health consequences for very young children. Toddlers and infants (36 months and younger) have greater odds of experiencing food insecurity and hospitalizations if their family's welfare benefits have been terminated or reduced due to sanctions compared to those in welfare families whose benefits have not been reduced.  Children in sanctioned families have a nearly 30% higher risk of hospitalization and a 50% higher risk of food insecurity than similar children in families who benefits had not been reduced.[10]  States should be required to have procedures that review a family’s circumstances prior to the imposition of a sanction; determine whether additional assessments are needed (and secure them); determine whether there are services and supports the family needs before work can be required and whether modifications are needed to the requirements so that the family is better able to comply.  States such as Maine, Tennessee, Iowa and Vermont already do this.  Fairness dictates that all states have such basic policies.

(3)   To effectively help families move from welfare to work and avoid inappropriate sanctioning, states must have screening and assessment policies and procedures that identify a family’s barriers and the steps needed to assist the family to move to greater independence.  

Current law requires that states provide an assessment of employability, which has been interpreted to cover assessment of barriers to work.  To ensure that effective plans are developed for families with barriers, it is important to include specific language requiring that assessments be done by qualified personnel.

Finally, in closing, we are very concerned that proposals to increase the number of work activities per week required of parents and to increase states’ work participation rates will increase the negative outcomes for people with disabilities in TANF-funded programs.  Even under current law, many people with disabilities cannot meet the work rules.  Any increase in the work requirement will only create a new, even more insurmountable barrier.  The TANF law should be designed to allow states to encourage parents to work for as many hours as they can, recognizing that the goal should always be independence and that, for some families, that goal will be reached by degree and, for a smaller number, will never mean they are meeting the full state work requirement.  Independence—not failure—should be the basis for all federal public policy including TANF reauthorization.

The members of the Consortium for Citizens with Disabilities TANF Task Force concur with the findings of the National Council on Disability that “[f]or many people with disabilities, TANF, if appropriately designed, could provide the tools and access needed to unlock  doors to opportunity, productivity, and economic self-sufficiency.”[11]  We appreciate your attention to our concerns.  We look forward to the opportunity to work with the Committee to address these essential questions in TANF reauthorization.