State's Work participation Rates & TANF
States that do not engage a minimum percentage of welfare recipients in specified activities for a specified number of hours per week face financial penalties. Some states have attempted to increase their work participation rate by closing cases that are not meeting or are not likely to meet their work requirements, thereby reducing the size of the state's caseloads. Others have implemented new service strategies to increase the likelihood that recipients on the caseload can participate in the required activities for the requisite number of hours.
Maryland and Utah are two examples of states that have taken a multipronged approach to increasing their state's work participation rates, and both have more than doubled their rates within one year of implementing most of their reforms. Both states adopted a universal engagement philosophy; implemented a system that uses program data to monitor program performance and increase participation in work activities; increased their use of work experience and subsidized employment programs; and created solely state-funded programs for subgroups of recipients. In addition, each implemented several strategies not adopted by the other state.
Maryland hired designated staff to help counties increase their participation rates, and several larger counties implemented pay-for-performance contracts with their employment service vendors. Utah implemented a transitional benefits program that continues to pay a cash grant to people who have moved into competitive employment, and has overhauled its sanction policies and procedures.
The theory behind the universal engagement model is that engaging recipients in any activity and progressively increasing the number of hours engaged eventually helps to move recipients into federally countable activities for the federally required hours.
Embedded within the theory are two key precepts:
(1) in order to meet the federal work requirements, some TANF recipients first need to focus on removing personal barriers to employment, and participation in activities focused on mitigating barriers will prepare recipients to take part in countable work activities in the future; and
(2) participation begets more participation; that is, once a recipient starts participating in an activity at least minimally, the number of hours the recipient spends in activities in general, and countable activities in particular, is likely to increase over time. Thus, universal engagement is a means to achieving the federal work participation requirement
Work Experience Programs. In 2005, Maryland began encouraging counties to expand the use of work experience as a means toward achieving universal engagement and meeting federal work participation rates. The state issued several memoranda providing technical assistance to counties to ensure that work placements are responsive to the Fair Labor Standards Act requirements while maximizing the hours recipients may spend in work experience. In response, some counties created new work experience programs and others increased the number of available work experience slots in existing programs by partnering with additional employers for placement sites. For example, Baltimore City has had a long-term partnership with the Mayor's Office of Employment Development for work experience positions, but in recent years also has conducted an extensive marketing campaign to develop new work-site agreements with other public and private for-profit and non-profit employers. The unit of job developers from the city's Department of Social Services called itself the Baltimore Employment Exchange (BEE) to present a more business-like, rather than a social services, image to employers. Currently, the city has worksite agreements with 50 to 60 employers, the majority of which are in private for-profit organizations. Between 200 and 250 TANF recipients are in BEE work experience positions such as clerical, hospitality, or custodial positions at any point in time
WORK NOUN (mass noun)
As defined in the Oxford Dictionary, Websters Dictionary, Cambridge Dictionary, Collins Dictionary
DEFINITION:
Activity involving mental or physical effort done in order to achieve a purpose or result.
Mental or physical activity as a means of earning income; employment.
A task or tasks to be undertaken.
KEYWORDS: WorkForce Development, work activities, Work participation rates employment & training
Research: universally engaged maryland tanf
