July 31, 2003
The Honorable Gordon Smith The Honorable Kent Conrad
United States Senate United States Senate
Washington, DC 20510 Washington, DC 20510
The Honorable James M. Jeffords
United States Senate
Washington, DC 20510
Dear Senators Smith, Conrad and Jeffords:
We are writing to thank you for introducing legislation that addresses two key problems facing TANF families with a parent or child with a disability. We believe that these provisions, if included in a larger TANF reauthorization bill, will significantly improve the ability of states to help families successfully move from welfare toward work while also ensuring that the needs of family members with disabilities are met. We enthusiastically support this legislation.
The Consortium for Citizens with Disabilities (CCD) is a coalition of 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 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 (TANF) block grant.
The research is clear that many TANF families include a parent or a child with a disability, and in some families, there is both a child and a parent with a disability. The numbers are high — GAO has found that as many as 44 percent of TANF families have a child or a parent with a disability — and need to be addressed in the policy choices that Congress makes in TANF reauthorization. We believe that, by designing policies that take into account the needs of families with a member with a disability, Congress can help the states move greater numbers of these families off of welfare and toward greater independence. Without reasonable supports, however, and through no fault of their own, these families sometimes fail at work activity and are often subject to inappropriate sanctioning and the crises that flow from abrupt — and often prolonged — loss of income.
Your bill could provide low-income families with members with disabilities real opportunities to achieve self-sufficiency in two significant ways, if included in larger TANF reauthorization legislation:
Allow states to count individuals participating in rehabilitative services beyond three months, while the individual progressively engages in work activity.
Under current law, states have the flexibility — either through a waiver such as Oregon has or as a result of the caseload reduction credit — to ensure that a parent with a disability, including a substance abuse problem, receives the rehabilitative services she needs in order to move towards work. In recent years, increasing numbers of states have used this flexibility as they realized that some parents would need more specialized help if they were going to successfully leave TANF. Some of the current reauthorization proposals, however, — including the House-passed bill, H.R. 4 — limit states to counting three months of rehabilitative services as work activity. An arbitrary limit of three months of rehabilitation services would be inadequate to help many families with members with disabilities find and sustain employment, and, in light of proposed increases in state participation rates, would discourage states from designing programs and requirements that work for people with the most severe barriers.
Your bill will allow states to count rehabilitative services as work activity beyond three
months as long as the rehabilitative services are mixed with work activity. We believe this mix of activities and supports will help an individual with severe barriers move toward greater independence. First, the provision would extend the period of time during which rehabilitative services, including substance abuse treatment, can count toward the work participation requirements from three months to six months. However, during the second three months, the state would require a small amount of work activity in addition to rehabilitative services. Further, the provision would allow states to count individuals participating in rehabilitative services after this six month period as long as at least one-half of the hours in which the individual participates are in core work activities. This will allow states to create a progression of work activity hours combined with rehabilitative services over time that will assist in moving the family from welfare to work at a pace that is designed to lead to success for that family.
CCD is not asking Congress to exempt individuals, or family members, with disabilities from participation in the TANF program. On the contrary, we are looking for the essential assistance and supports that will help families move off of welfare toward greater independence. Your bill does not create any exemptions from participation requirements, and in fact, provides the necessary assistance and supports that can come with participation in the TANF program. Under the bill, states would have to engage the same number of recipients in welfare-to-work activities as under the standard set in a new reauthorization law. The provision simply allows states to utilize a broader range of activities to help recipients with barriers move to work. In short, this is a way to make the TANF program work for parents with disabilities and substance abuse problems. The provision would give states credit when recipients with barriers are engaged in activities and, thus, will encourage states to assist families with barriers to progress toward work in a manner and at a pace that is more tailored to their needs and disabilities.
Allow states to count as work activity the time that the adult in the TANF family spends caring for a child with a disability or an adult relative with a disability.
It is very difficult to find safe, accessible, and appropriate child care for a child with a disability. This is often the case regardless of the family’s income. In addition, the nature of some children’s disabilities and health conditions means that parents are called from work regularly to assist a school with the child or to take the child to medical appointments. At the same time, many parents would like to work as much as possible or receive the training they will need to secure a good job when they are no longer needed in the home to care for their children with disabilities.
Your bill will allow states to receive work credit for the time that a parent spends caring for a child with a disability, if the state has determined that this is the best way to secure the child’s care. The provision also would apply to providing care for an adult relative with a disability. This would help to address the bind that some TANF recipients face when they are told they must work away from home, but leave an elderly parent or other relative with a disability without the care they need to continue to live in the community. Nothing in the provision would prevent a state from designing a plan with the parent that combines some amount of in-home care as work activity with other activities that will help the parent prepare to enter the workforce at a time that is appropriate in meeting the needs of the child or adult relative with a disability.
Thank you again for introducing this legislation and your leadership on these very important issues. We look forward to working with you and your staffs to ensure that these provisions become law.
Sincerely,
American Association of People with Disabilities
American Association on Mental Retardation
American Congress of Community Supports and Employment Services
American Counseling Association
American Music Therapy Association
American Network of Community Options And Resources
Association of Maternal and Child Health Programs
Association of University Centers on Disability
Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law
Community Legal Services
Council for Exceptional Children
Council for Learning Disabilities
Council of State Administrators of Vocational Rehabilitation
Disability Service Providers of America
Division for Early Childhood of the Council for Exceptional Children
Easter Seals
Epilepsy Foundation
Goodwill Industries International
Helen Keller National Center
Learning Disabilities Association
National Alliance to End Homelessness
National Association of Protection and Advocacy Systems
National Association of Social Workers
National Association of State Directors of Special Education
National Association of State Mental Health Program Directors
National Coalition of Parent Centers
National Coalition on Deaf-Blindness
National Mental Health Association
National Rehabilitation Association
National Organization of Social Security Claimants’ Representatives
PACER Center
Spina Bifida Association of America
TASH
The Arc of the United States
United Cerebral Palsy