St. Paul, MN – On March 25 Welfare Rights Committee (WRC) members sat in at Minnesota Governor Mark Dayton’s office throughout the morning to demand welfare grant increases for poor families in Minnesota. The sit-in was timed to coincide with a Senate hearing on bills pushed by the Welfare Rights Committee.

“Use the surplus to pay back stolen TANF money,” and “Dayton’s budget hurts poor families!” were just two of the many signs visible to anyone who came by Governor Dayton’s office that day.

The WRC put forward bills this legislative session that move up the implementation dates of victories from last year. They want to put money in the pockets of poor families in the form of increases to the cash welfare grants. These increases would be the first since 1986 – 28 years ago.

In Minnesota, welfare cash grants for the poorest families have not been increased since 1986 – 28 years ago. The cost of living has doubled since 1986. The monthly cash grant for a family of two is $437 per month, “not enough to pay rent for legal housing in most towns, much less other needs,” according to WRC. Because the current welfare grant levels, 70,000 Minnesota children live in extreme poverty – over 60% below the poverty level. This extreme poverty has a devastating effect on children, who are the majority of welfare recipients.

Minnesota, like many states, has a surplus after several years of deficits. Now Governor Dayton is pushing for the surplus to be given to Minnesota business owners.

“We know what the right thing to do with the surplus is. It’s to give it to the 70,000 children in extreme poverty. Instead of coming up with excuses like computer glitches, they should focus on our children,” stated Evelyn Evans, a member of the Welfare Rights Committee who sat in at Governor Dayton’s office. Evans was referring to an argument given by Governor Dayton’s Department of Human Services that it was unable to program its computers to give an increase to welfare grants.

During the sit-in, WRC members gathered support from other groups that also happened to be at the capitol that day, including AFSCME union members who were there for their annual lobby day. Over 100 capitol visitors signed on postcards supporting grant increases. The postcards were delivered directly to the governor’s office.

#SaintPaulMN #PoorPeoplesMovements #WelfareRightsCommittee #TANF #sitin

St. Paul, MN – Because of the Welfare Rights Committee’s fierce battle at the State Capitol, the first increase for welfare since 1986 passed and was signed into law by the governor in late May. The Health and Human Services Omnibus bill includes a housing allowance for MFIP families (MFIP is Minnesota’s welfare program for poor families). The Welfare Rights Committee (WRC) won over $40 million dollars (over a 2 year period) that will go directly into the pockets of poor families. Specifically, MFIP families who do not live in subsidized housing will receive an additional $110 dollars a month.

It is a victory in that it turns the tide after 27 years of no grant increase. It is because of the relentless and persistent work of the WRC that this first cash increase passed. Members of the WRC exposed the theft of federal TANF (welfare) dollars and the extreme poverty of MFIP families. Legislative backers of the bill have declared that this is only a start. The message of poor families was heard loud and clear and the WRC will make sure it continues to be heard.

However, the fact that it won’t help a single person for two years is an outrage. While it as an acknowledgement that the cash MFIP grants that poor families get don’t even come close to covering rent, it is cynical in the extreme in that it actively condemns kids to homelessness for another 2 years.

The Welfare Rights Committee has been fighting to increase the grants since last summer. The WRC introduced a bill to double the grants and struggled with legislators until the bitter end to get even a partial increase. One reason for the disappointing two-year wait before the increase takes effect is the cowardly legislative leadership putting election politics before people. Poof families had to continually urge and re-convince legislators to do right thing, after 27 years

“What a family of two lived on in 1986 was $437. What a family of two lives on today in 2013 is $437.00. The time is now!’ said Welfare Rights member Lena Buggs. Poor families have been struggling to pay their rent and bills with the amount of money that they receive in welfare.

“People are going homeless,” states Angel Buechner, member of the Welfare Rights Committee. If the welfare grants had kept up with inflation since 1986 – the year of the last increase – they would be double. The cash grant levels condemns over 70,000 MN children to extreme poverty.

Another barrier to the full success of the bill to double the grants was interference from the ‘poverty industry’ – agencies and other areas of government that use funds meant for poor families for their businesses or their ‘studies.’

The federal money meant for welfare, the TANF block grant, has been raided for years. Only 28% of the TANF fund goes to actual people in need. The WRC’s work caused many legislators – Democrats and Republican – to question this misuse of TANF funds.

As statement from the WRC notes: “It is clear to the WRC and poor families that the legislature and the governor clearly dance to the tune of the rich. They use regressive taxes to give General Fund money to billionaire stadium owners, then turn around and tell homeless kids that there won’t be money to help them for two years.

“We will take this truth to the streets, and continue to demand justice. This is just the beginning. We will keep up the fight to Raise the Welfare Grants until poor families in MN get the justice we deserve!”

The Welfare Rights Committee will hold a protest outside Minnesota Governor Mark Dayton’s mansion July 10. For more info, see http://welfarerightsmn.com/

#StPaulMN #PoorPeoplesMovements #WelfareRightsCommittee #TANF #Capitalism #lowincomeFamilies

St. Paul, MN – The Twin Cites-based Welfare Rights Committee (WRC) issued a statement today, Jan. 22, responding to Governor Dayton’s 2014-2015 budget proposal. It read, “A shameful part of the budget proposal is how it fails the poorest families in Minnesota, by not calling for a substantial increase in Minnesota’s welfare cash grants.”

Welfare grants have not been increased since 1986 – 27 years ago. Meanwhile the cost of living has doubled since 1986. In 1986, a family of two (a parent and a child) received $437 per month in cash to live on. Today, that same family of two still only gets $437. If the grants had kept up with inflation they would now be doubled.

The WRC statement notes, “The governor pays back the school funding shift, but it is also time to talk about paying back the TANF funding shift. TANF is the yearly block grant that Minnesota gets from the federal government to fund its welfare program. Year after year, TANF dollars have been raided to supplant general fund spending. Right now, there is almost enough money in the federal TANF block grant to double the grants in 2013, if it were used for poor families.”

The statement concludes, “The Welfare Rights Committee, supported by dozens of other organizations, has a bill to double the welfare grants. The bill will be introduced soon. We don’t care what the governor’s budget says – we will call on legislators to do the right thing. It is time to use TANF money for TANF families. It is time to double the grants.”

#StPaulMN #PoorPeoplesMovements #WelfareRightsCommittee #TANF #GovernorMarkDayton

On Aug. 22, 1996 President Clinton signed the welfare-attacking bill into law. This legislation, called the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA) established the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) block grant. Under the TANF law, states received fixed block grants and had broad flexibility to design their own rules for their cash assistance programs and broad authority to use the block grant resources for other programs outside of cash assistance to assist low-income families. Khan explained, “In one sweeping move, this law destroyed the social safety net that had existed for poor and working families for the previous 60 years. Since the passage of this law, states around the country have seen increasing poverty, hunger, homelessness, infant mortality rates and overall devastation for families.”

According to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, since 1996, the proportion of families eligible for state TANF assistance that actually receive assistance has fallen dramatically. Most U.S. families in poverty are now denied any cash support for children. Despite great need, welfare rolls have been reduced from about 12 million to 4.5 million. The law put a lifetime limit on welfare of 60 months. Minnesota imposed a five-year lifetime limit, while other states have put in time limits as short as two years. In only three years – from 2002 to 2005 – over 7,000 Minnesota families have hit the 60-month time limit. The anti-welfare legislation also opened the door to privatization of public welfare programs and some states turned the entire welfare block grant over to private corporations.

“Ten years of welfare ‘deform’ has meant ten years of increasing poverty, ten years of attacking the poor, ten years of denying education and pushing poor women into poverty-level jobs, ten years of moving families from welfare poverty to working poor poverty,” said Kim Hosmer of the WRC. “Welfare ‘reform’ was never about ending poverty; it was about manipulating us as poor mothers into accepting the unacceptable low-wage, dead-end, no-benefit jobs at places like Wal-Mart!”

Tracy Furney of the WRC states. “Over 1 million poor single mothers with 2 million children are both not working and not receiving any welfare assistance. This means women and children are living in hell. These rich white men who are making these vicious decisions are condemning, endangering and abusing our poor mothers and children. And this is only the tip of the iceberg!”

Another dark side of this reform law is the workfare program. Virginia Weldon explained that in March of 2005 she had to work to receive her public assistance grant under the workfare rules. She stated her doctor told the Hennepin County Welfare Office three times that she was not able to work because of her multiple internal injuries but was still force to work for no pay. “I was told by my job counselor that I had to do volunteer work because I could not find paid employment.” By ‘working off’ her grant, she was only making $2.86 per hour. Weldon continued, “This is slave labor for any poor and working families on welfare. This is a clear example of how this brutal welfare reform is not about ending poverty it is about pushing poor women into free labor or low wage labor and trapping us into poverty for life.”

Polly Mann, of the Women’s Political Alliance, stated the fact that minimum wage has not risen for ten years. “We are talking minimum wage not a living wage here.” She added, “It’s good to have groups like Welfare Rights Committee to keep up the fight and to fight for economic justice.”

In 1996, seeing the danger on the horizon, the Welfare Rights Committee initiated and organized a national day of protests around the country to fight to stop this anti-poor law. Poor families and organizations in 26 states held protests. As the welfare reform law was headed to Clinton’s desk, members of the Welfare Rights Committee set up an encampment at the Federal Building in St. Paul and began a hunger strike lasting seven days.

Annabell LaClaire from Duluth, Minnesota and a member of Low Income People Organizing for Power said, “We are proud to have been a part of the fight back in 1996 and will keep on fighting. There are many families struggling and that isn’t right. Without employment and no stable housing, poor women have been forced to put themselves and their families at great risk to be able to feed their children. Women have been forced to stay in or go back to abusive relationships.”

Deb Howze, a WRC member since 1996 stated, “Massive funding for professional poverty pimps is taken from cash support for families and is creating a dependent class of professionals who enforce cruel poverty policies, punish, police, humiliate, endanger and ignore poor moms and kids.”

The WRC statement addressed the issue of attacks on poor immigrants: “When the federal law eliminated food stamps and SSI for non-citizens, the WRC fought and won at the Minnesota legislature to restore these rights to Minnesota immigrants. We fought to eliminate the five-year limit in this state, to put a moratorium on the time limit, to restore education and eliminate sanctions. We won extensions to the five-year limit, we won education rights, we stopped numerous cuts and sanctions, but our work has only just begun.”

Many groups continue the fight today to stop any attacks on welfare. Since the law went into effect, low-income families in Minnesota and around the country have continued to organize and fight to stop the devastating effects of this law. Deb Konechne, who participated in the 1996 hunger strike said, “As low income families across this state and country, we are organizing and continuing the fight for our basic human rights. Those who want to oppress us and attack us have been met with our fierce resistance. As poor families we refuse to see our families suffer and die in the streets. We will continue to fight until every last attack on the poor is stopped. We will continue to fight back until we get justice.”

#MinneapolisMN #PoorPeoplesMovements #News #TANF #Clinton #PRWORA

St. Paul, MN – Low-income families spoke out April 15 against the state politicians who are raiding federal welfare (TANF) funds to balance the budget. The tax day protest was organized by the Twin Cities-based Welfare Rights Committee.

After the reading a statement on the steps of the State Capitol building that blasted moves to hijack federal welfare dollars, WRC members wound through the capitol complex holding a long banner reading, “Stop balancing the budget on the backs of the poor! Tax the rich.” Governor Pawlenty, House Speaker Kelliher and Senate Majority Leader Pogemiller had piggy banks delivered to their offices that showed the disparity between what the rich are getting out of this session, vs. what the poor are be losing.

The TANF fund is a block grant from the federal government that is supposed to be used for welfare for poor families. “It is a crime to take poor children’s money and dump it into the state’s general fund,” said Deb Konechne, of the WRC.

A deal between Republican Governor Pawlenty and the Democratic Party legislative leaders to divert TANF dollars was reached early on. The Welfare Rights Committee will continue to fight this attack on the poor in coming

#StPaulMN #PoorPeoplesMovements #WelfareRightsCommittee #GovernorPawlenty #TANF

St. Paul, MN – Taking the podium at the June 3 meeting of the Legislative Commission to End Poverty by 2020, Angel Buechner, flanked by members of the Welfare Rights Committee, stated, “We are here today at the ‘retreat’ of the Legislative Commission to End Poverty to speak out against the tens of millions of dollars stolen from Minnesota’s poor. Just 15 days ago, on the last day of the Minnesota legislative session, tens of millions of dollars were taken from the TANF fund – the federal block grant for welfare – and used to pay for the state’s budget deficit. Furthermore, not one dime of the tens of millions in federal welfare dollars was spent to put money back into the pockets of poor families.”

By speaking of putting money back in the pockets of poor families, Buechner was referring to bills pushed by the Welfare Rights Committee. Most of the items in the bills cost less than $3 million, compared to the $80 million in TANF dollars that were taken to balance the budget. Deb Konechne and Kim Hosmer also pointed out that welfare grants in Minnesota have not been increased for 22 years. Meanwhile, the cost of living has increased by over 89%.

Welfare Rights members entered the hearing after picketing outside the building as legislators entered. Some legislators expressed outrage at the directness of the remarks of the women of the Welfare Rights Committee. But WRC member Linden Gawboy said, “They know they’re guilty as sin about taking our money. They’re all spluttering because we called them out.”

#PoorPeoplesMovements #News #WelfareRightsCommittee #TANF