Posts Tagged: Temporary Assistance for Needy Families

Stimulus In a Parallel Universe: What America Can Learn from ‘Put Illinois to Work’

Tonya Grisby, a 39 year-old grandmother who lives in Chicago’s predominantly black and mostly poor Austin neighborhood, worked at a warehouse until December 2009. But the person Grisby carpooled with to work got laid off and, without a ride, Grisby was soon laid off as well.

Grisby had few prospects for employment until last May when she was hired by Chicago’s Westside Health Authority thanks to Put Illinois to Work – a government subsidized job program. Uncle Sam paid for Grisby to work a 40 hour-a-week front-desk job that paid $10 an hour. (more…)

Illinois employees could soon be put out of work

If the economy needs another round of stimulus programs, as Paul Krugman and other economists have suggested, then renewing the federally funded Put Illinois to Work and similar state programs are a good place to start. (more…)

Not going for the easy headline on California strip club welfare ATM card story

Still stinging a week after a Los Angeles Times exposé revealed that California welfare recipients could cash out their benefits at ATMs in Indian casinos and cardrooms, comes word again via the LA Times via the that the cards, meant to feed and clothe the needy, may have been used to entice the clothes right off of performers at strip clubs around the state. (more…)

Food Stamps v. Welfare

The Obama administration and Congress have responded to the recession by ratcheting up the Dept. of Agriculture administered food stamp program. The increase in food stamps, though, sharply contrasts to the Labor Dept.’s Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program, better known as welfare. Here federal aid has not increased in a way commensurate to the rise in joblessness and poverty. Barbara Ehreinreich and Peter Edelman report out the contrast in a piece for the Nation: (more…)