Updated 12-2-97
- Appendices
- State Links
- State Caseloads
- Block Grants
- State Caseloads
The Great American Welfare Lab Wisconsin has cut its rolls by half. Many former recipients are working, but where have the rest of them gone? By Adam Cohen/TIME (4/21/97)
A Blue-Ribbon County Marquette County, Wisconsin, sheds its welfare load. By Adam Cohen/TIME (4/21/97)
Let Them Eat Birthday Cake Clinton's welfare reform dismays the President's favorite poverty scholar By Jack E. White/TIME (9/2/96)
Ripping Up Welfare With not a little drama, Clinton grudgingly approves the G.O.P. bill, and the U.S. starts a vast and risky experiment By George J. Church/TIME (8/12/96)
The Department of Health and Human Services Welfare Reform Page
Health and Human Services Welfare Reform Fact Sheet
Should Congress restore welfare funds for legal immigrants?
Wisconsin
Wisconsin provides case management and employment activities and requires welfare recipients to either work or look for a job.
Benefits are limited to two years within every four-year period. Exceptions include not being able to find a nearby job that recipients qualify for.
Children born to mothers already receiving aid will not be eligible for the basic welfare benefit, though the child would be eligible for Medicaid and food stamps.
Child support payments will be paid directly to the custodial parents if funds are collected by the state.
All recipients will be offered family planning services and instruction on parenting skills.
Welfare recipients are required to meet with a financial planner to explore alternatives to public assistance.
Individuals who apply for assistance after meeting with the financial adviser are required to complete a 60-hour job program. At least 30 of the 60 hours must include contact with employers.
Families who fail to follow the rules will lose their benefits. Each hour missed from the program knocks the welfare payment down by an hour's worth of the federal minimum wage. If the absences are so often that the family's entire welfare payment is withheld, the state turns to their food stamp allotment. Wisconsin will whittle the food stamp payment almost completely away, leaving the family with as little as $10 a month.
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