State misses welfare target
The potential penalty against Gov. John Hickenlooper’s troubled Department of Human Services now totals more than $6 million after the state agency missed another federal target for the program that provides cash assistance to the poor.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services informed the state Monday that it failed to meet an employment participation requirement for the Colorado Works program in fiscal 2013.
The additional $1.2 million sanction comes months after federal authorities levied a $4.8 million sanction for defaulting on the same target in 2012.
DHS executive director Reggie Bicha informed Colorado lawmakers at a hearing this week that he is disputing the penalty, although he acknowledged that the state probably will miss the 2014 and 2015 marks as well.
In a letter obtained by The Denver Post, federal officials said 24
percent of the participants who receive cash through the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program — known at the state level as Colorado Works — are engaged in work-related activities, far short of the 40 percent target. The state’s rate for two-parent families is 18 percent, again well below the 80 percent goal set in federal formulas.
Colorado is one of 22 states to miss the target, according to state officials, and no state has had to pay the fine. But it’s another hit to Bicha and the agency, which have suffered major setbacks and faced significant questions over the past year. Colorado lawmakers were forced to pay a $1 million fine to the federal government in June after the agency violated rules associated with a separate federal food-assistance program.
The letter states that Colorado spent 0.7 percent of its federal money from Temporary Assistance for Needy Families and other sources on work-related activities in 2013. “We encourage you to consider increasing your state’s investment in work-related activities for TANF participants,” the letter states, suggesting subsidized employment and training for high-demand occupations.
Bicha told lawmakers the formula for calculating work participation is flawed, saying it doesn’t count all educational programs but rewards unpaid community service. He said the agency is measuring outcomes in different ways and “this federal law simply has to change.”
The federal government, the agency complained, is not forthcoming with how the formula works, making it difficult to correct in the future.
Rep. David Young, a Greeley Democrat and state budget writer, expressed concern that the state didn’t know how the algorithm worked. “Now we know we are going to be out of compliance and out of compliance and out of compliance again,” he said.
Young commended the department for trying to measure more meaningful results and agreed that the state needs to press for changes. But at the same time, he said, “we should follow the law.”