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Yahoo
26-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Work requirements are better at blocking benefits than helping low-income people find jobs
Meeting work requirements to receive government benefits can lead to burdensome paperwork. (JackF/iStock via Getty Images Plus) Republican lawmakers have been battling over a bill that includes massive tax and spending cuts. Much of their disagreement has been over provisions intended to reduce the cost of Medicaid. The popular health insurance program, which is funded by both the federal and state governments, covers about 78.5 million low-income and disabled people — more than 1 in 5 Americans. On May 22, 2025, the House of Representatives narrowly approved the tax, spending and immigration bill. The legislation, which passed without any support from Democrats, is designed to reduce federal Medicaid spending by requiring anyone enrolled in the program who appears to be able to get a job to either satisfy work requirements or lose their coverage. It's still unclear, however, whether Senate Republicans would support that provision. Although there are few precedents for such a mandate for Medicaid, other safety net programs have been enforcing similar rules for nearly three decades. I'm a political scientist who has extensively studied the work requirements of another safety net program: Temporary Assistance for Needy Families. As I explain in my book, 'Living Off the Government? Race, Gender, and the Politics of Welfare,' work requirements place extra burdens on low-income families but do little to lift them out of poverty. TANF gives families with very low incomes some cash they can spend on housing, food, clothing or whatever they need most. The Clinton administration launched it as a replacement for a similar program, Aid to Families with Dependent Children, in 1996. At the time, both political parties were eager to end a welfare system they believed was riddled with abuse. A big goal with TANF was ending the dependence of people getting cash benefits on the government by moving them from welfare to work. Many people were removed from the welfare rolls, but not because work requirements led to economic prosperity. Instead, they had trouble navigating the bureaucratic demands. TANF is administered by the states. They can set many rules of their own, but they must comply with an important federal requirement: Adult recipients have to work or engage in an authorized alternative activity for at least 30 hours per week. The number of weekly hours is only 20 if the recipient is caring for a child under the age of 6. The dozen activities or so that can count toward this quota range from participating in job training programs to engaging in community service. Some adults enrolled in TANF are exempt from work requirements, depending on their state's own policies. The most common exemptions are for people who are ill, have a disability or are over age 60. To qualify for TANF, families must have dependent children; in some states pregnant women also qualify. Income limits are set by the state and range from US$307 a month for a family of three in Alabama to $2,935 a month for a family of three in Minnesota. Adult TANF recipients face a federal five-year lifetime limit on benefits. States can adopt shorter time limits; Arizona's is 12 months. Complying with these work requirements generally means proving that you're working or making the case that you should be exempt from this mandate. This places what's known as an 'administrative burden' on the people who get cash assistance. It often requires lots of documentation and time. If you have an unpredictable work schedule, inconsistent access to child care or obligations to care for an older relative, this paperwork is hard to deal with. What counts as work, how many hours must be completed and who is exempt from these requirements often comes down to a caseworker's discretion. Social science research shows that this discretion is not equally applied and is often informed by stereotypes. The number of people getting cash assistance has fallen sharply since TANF replaced Aid to Families with Dependent Children. In some states caseloads have dropped by more than 50% despite significant population growth. Some of this decline happened because recipients got jobs that paid them too much to qualify. The Congressional Budget Office, a nonpartisan office that provides economic research to Congress, attributes, at least in part, an increase in employment among less-educated single mothers in the 1990s to work requirements. Not everyone who stopped getting cash benefits through TANF wound up employed, however. Other recipients who did not meet requirements fell into deep poverty. Regardless of why people leave the program, when fewer low-income Americans get TANF benefits, the government spends less money on cash assistance. Federal funding has remained flat at $16.5 billion since 1996. Taking inflation into account, the program receives half as much funding as when it was created. In addition, states have used the flexibility granted them to direct most of their TANF funds to priorities other than cash benefits, such as pre-K education. Many Americans who get help paying for groceries through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program are also subject to work requirements. People the government calls 'able-bodied adults without dependents' can only receive SNAP benefits for three months within a three-year period if they are not employed. Lawmakers in Congress and in statehouses have debated whether to add work requirements for Medicaid before. More than a dozen states have applied for waivers that would let them give it a try. When Arkansas instituted Medicaid work requirements in 2018, during the first Trump administration, it was largely seen as a failure. Some 18,000 people lost their health care coverage, but employment rates did not increase. After a court order stopped the policy in 2019, most people regained their coverage. Georgia is currently the only state with Medicaid work requirements in effect, after implementing a waiver in July 2023. The program has experienced technical difficulties and has had trouble verifying work activities. Other states, including Idaho, Indiana and Kentucky, are already asking the federal government to let them enforce Medicaid work requirements. Complying with these work requirements generally means proving that you're working or making the case that you should be exempt from this mandate. This places what's known as an 'administrative burden' on the people who get cash assistance. It often requires lots of documentation and time. If you have an unpredictable work schedule, inconsistent access to child care or obligations to care for an older relative, this paperwork is hard to deal with. What counts as work, how many hours must be completed and who is exempt from these requirements often comes down to a caseworker's discretion. Social science research shows that this discretion is not equally applied and is often informed by stereotypes. The number of people getting cash assistance has fallen sharply since TANF replaced Aid to Families with Dependent Children. In some states caseloads have dropped by more than 50% despite significant population growth. Some of this decline happened because recipients got jobs that paid them too much to qualify. The Congressional Budget Office, a nonpartisan office that provides economic research to Congress, attributes, at least in part, an increase in employment among less-educated single mothers in the 1990s to work requirements. Not everyone who stopped getting cash benefits through TANF wound up employed, however. Other recipients who did not meet requirements fell into deep poverty. Regardless of why people leave the program, when fewer low-income Americans get TANF benefits, the government spends less money on cash assistance. Federal funding has remained flat at $16.5 billion since 1996. Taking inflation into account, the program receives half as much funding as when it was created. In addition, states have used the flexibility granted them to direct most of their TANF funds to priorities other than cash benefits, such as pre-K education. Many Americans who get help paying for groceries through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program are also subject to work requirements. People the government calls 'able-bodied adults without dependents' can only receive SNAP benefits for three months within a three-year period if they are not employed. Lawmakers in Congress and in statehouses have debated whether to add work requirements for Medicaid before. More than a dozen states have applied for waivers that would let them give it a try. When Arkansas instituted Medicaid work requirements in 2018, during the first Trump administration, it was largely seen as a failure. Some 18,000 people lost their health care coverage, but employment rates did not increase. After a court order stopped the policy in 2019, most people regained their coverage. Georgia is currently the only state with Medicaid work requirements in effect, after implementing a waiver in July 2023. The program has experienced technical difficulties and has had trouble verifying work activities. Other states, including Idaho, Indiana and Kentucky, are already asking the federal government to let them enforce Medicaid work requirements. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article. Anne Whitesell is an assistant professor of political science at Miami University. Through its opinion section, Kansas Reflector works to amplify the voices of people who are affected by public policies or excluded from public debate. Find information, including how to submit your own commentary, here.
New York Post
22-05-2025
- New York Post
Mother won't fund son's wedding after his fiancée's ‘manipulation test'
This mom just found out her son failed a Tinder loyalty test… set by his own fiancée. Her contribution to the wedding? Cancelled. Her faith in this relationship? Wobbling. Her 23-year-old son proposed only a few months ago, but trouble in paradise didn't take long to brew. 'Recently, he admitted to me that he had been texting with a girl he met on Tinder. That alone already shocked me. He's engaged, and that's obviously not acceptable behavior,' the mom revealed. 'Creating a fake profile to trap your partner? That's manipulation' Taking to Reddit, the mom dropped a plot twist that not even a reality TV producer could see coming. 5 This mom just found out her son failed a Tinder loyalty test… set by his own fiancée. JackF – 'The girl on Tinder was actually his fiancée,' she wrote. 'She made a fake account to 'test' whether he would stay loyal. When he flirted back, she confronted him.' Fair to say, he didn't pass the temptation test, leaving wedding plans up in the air. The mom isn't exactly thrilled, and she's concerned about what this means for the foundation of their marriage. 'What my son did was messed up. But creating a whole fake profile to trap your partner? That's manipulation,' she insisted. 5 'Recently, he admitted to me that he had been texting with a girl he met on Tinder. That alone already shocked me. He's engaged, and that's obviously not acceptable behavior,' the mom said. estradaanton – 'If you have to run sting operations to trust your fiancé, maybe you shouldn't be getting married.' She revealed to the forum that she's taken a firm stance in response to the couple's antics. 'I told my son I wouldn't be paying for the wedding anymore. I don't want to support a marriage that already starts with lies and games from both sides.' 5 'The girl on Tinder was actually his fiancée,' she wrote. 'She made a fake account to 'test' whether he would stay loyal. When he flirted back, she confronted him,' the mom continued to explain. Jelena – 'The fear was well-founded' The comment section largely agreed that the couple isn't ready to tie the knot. 'That doesn't sound like a healthy relationship. Honestly, if the girl is smart, she should break it off,' one commenter wrote. 5 'I told my son I wouldn't be paying for the wedding anymore. I don't want to support a marriage that already starts with lies and games from both sides,' the mother said. motortion – 'They don't sound mature enough for a marriage,' another added. Still, some defended the fiancée's decision to catfish her groom-to-be. 'The fiancée needs to bail. This dude is going to be trash, and mommy clearly enables it,' one user claimed. 5 The comment section largely agreed that the couple isn't ready to tie the knot. Prostock-studio – 'They appear to be blaming the catfish fiancée more than their own cheating spawn,' another pointed out. A third chimed in: 'You can't be too mad if someone 'tricks' their partner and finds out they were right. It's not my speed, but the fear was well-founded.' Much of the family failed to have her back, too. 'Some people in the family say I'm overreacting and punishing both of them,' she revealed.
New York Post
01-05-2025
- General
- New York Post
These popular baby names are too ‘ugly, old-fashioned, weird,' grandparents say — the ones they hate the most, revealed
Oh, baby, that's a weird name. A new survey conducted by Mumsnet revealed that one in five grandparents are not fans of their grandchild's name. The research analyzed how involved grandparents were in the process of the baby name decision and whether or not they liked the name chosen for their new grandkid. 3 One in five grandparents is not a fan of their grandchild's name. WavebreakMediaMicro – The top names hated by grandparents, according to the survey, include Aurora, Charlotte, Elijah, Finn, Jack, Lindsay, Noah, Sally and Tabitha. Grandparents' complaints about their grandchild's names include that the name is ugly (28%), too weird (17%), too old-fashioned (11%), they disliked the spelling (6%) or it reminded them of someone they didn't like (11%). Of the 2,000 grandparents and parents questioned, some even admitted to being annoyed that the baby's parents wanted to use a family name related to the other side of grandparents (11%) or being annoyed that the parents didn't use their suggested name (6%) or a family name (6%). After being told the name of their new grandkid, 8% of grandparents said that they told the parents that they loved the name when they didn't, 9% simply said, 'What?' and 4% responded with silence. 3 The top names hated by grandparents include Aurora, Charlotte, Elijah, Finn, Jack, Lindsay, Noah, Sally and Tabitha. JackF – And even over time, 4% said that they still haven't accepted the name of their grandbaby, though 39% shared that they've come to terms with the 'weird' name. Of the parents surveyed, 15% admitted that at least one grandparent dislikes the baby's name — and 2% of grandparents said they have had falling outs with their children over the baby name choice. And 6% even shared that they fell out of contact temporarily due to the name disagreement. Those grandparents who haven't gotten used to the hated name will sometimes avoid mentioning the child's name when talking about them to others (17%), use the name begrudgingly (17%) or avoid saying their name at all (6%). 3 Grandparents' complaints about their grandchild's names include that the name is ugly, too weird or too old-fashioned. LIGHTFIELD STUDIOS – However, 69% of grandparents said that it's alright for them to give their opinions on their grandchild's name, though it's not their place to give uninvited suggestions. Meanwhile, 38% of parents said it's none of the grandparents' business — and 31% of grandparents agreed. 'Choosing a baby name is fraught enough for parents when you're only taking into account your own views. If you add grandparents' biases to the mix, it can become impossible, unless by some freakish chance you all agree that the baby has 'Cedric' written all over him,' Mumsnet Founder Justine Roberts said in a statement. 'Parenthood is one long object lesson in not pleasing everyone. New parents should think of any naming tussles as preparation for coming battles over what constitutes an appropriate outdoor outfit, whether it's alright to cut the cat's hair, and whether two hours is enough time to revise for a GCSE,' Roberts warned.
