Ohio program for poorest children holds back on help

Which is worse — not having the resources available to help children in need, or hoarding the resources that could relieve some of their struggles?

We believe it is the latter and strongly urge the administration of Gov. John Kasich to think carefully how it plans to spend a half-billion-dollar surplus in the program to assist the poorest of poor Ohioans.

While they’re at it, the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services should ponder why this program even has so much money left over and why the excess is expected to grow more this year.

The surplus is noted in a recent report from the Cleveland-based Center for Community Solutions, a nonpartisan think tank that focuses on health, social and economic issues. The report’s title says it all: “Temporary Assistance for Needy Families in Ohio: Majority of Ohioans living in deep poverty don’t receive cash assistance.”

The report examined the state’s TANF program, which was created in 1996 to replace Ohio’s welfare program, consistent with changes at the federal level to reform welfare.

Certainly the intent of moving more Ohioans from welfare to work has been positive, but there will always be individuals who aren’t able to work and who are in such dire straits that some financial assistance is critical and even life-sustaining. Today, 90 percent of those helped by TANF are children.

The CCS study notes that a family of three —think a single mother and two children — can have an income of no more than $10,390 a year to qualify for assistance under TANF. That’s less than $ 200 a week. It’s also just half of the federal poverty level for a family of three, which is $ 20,780.

And keep in mind that most experts who study such grim situations agree that the minimum income required for being able to pay for food, housing and other basic needs is 200 percent of the poverty level — or four times the income of families who qualify for help from TANF.

Even receiving cash assistance through TANF won’t get a family to that minimum level of subsistence; far from it. The average benefit is just $ 203.58 a month, or $ 2,443 a year. Even if all three members of a poor family receive a TANF cash assistance benefit, their standard total payment of $5,796 is still not going to bring their annual income up to the federal poverty level of $ 20,780 a year.

So how was this $522 million surplus created? And why has it ballooned even though Ohio’s poverty rate has increased from 11.6 percent in 1997 to 14.6 percent today?

The CCS report notes the number of poor Ohio families helped by TANF has greatly declined. When TANF began in 1996, it helped 68 of every 100 families living in poverty. By 2016, that had declined to just 23 of 100 families in poverty. Some of the reduction is due to Ohio’s three-year limit for receiving cash assistance and work requirements for adults.

ODJFS plans to spend the TANF surplus not on direct aid to families but helping Ohio child-care programs meet new state quality requirements.

CCS recommended better opions including a Franklin County program that helps families avoid eviction or find new homes or even to help them land temporary jobs with subsidized employment.

We encourage this administration — and Ohio’s next governor elected in November — to stop underspending for TANF and ensure the state’s neediest children are not victims of budget hoarding.