Special Report

Not long ago, they sat on a stoop at Constantine Homes, taking a break from a class and wondering what life would be like off the public dole.

Each had different circumstances that led to being on welfare. Each could carry a different torch into the battles currently raging in Washington – and soon in Montgomery – over welfare reform. Within their lives lies the answer to the welfare myths and problems, experts and analysts say.

The analysts’ biggest fear, and it’s one people on welfare echo, is that the politicians reforming the system won’t take the time to sort the facts from the myths.

“They’ve talked about changin’ it before, you know,” said the woman who left a man who beat her. She walked away from her source of income and the ability to support her children. “It needs to have something done to fix the system, ’cause people do take advantage of it. I don’t know if they’ll do the right things, though.”

When politicians talk about reforming the welfare system, limiting the time people can receive welfare is usually high on their to-do list. It’s a prominent feature of both versions of legislation pending in Congress.

No family would be allowed to receive cash welfare for more than five years – with a few exemptions built in for hardship cases. States have the option for less time. The legislation also demands that people on welfare get jobs, job training or education that will lead to employment. If they don’t within a specified time limit, their benefits will be cut or eliminated. The milder Senate bill prevents states from penalizing welfare mothers with children under 6 if they can’t work because child care is unavailable.

The time limit is meant to reach those who have made welfare their lifestyle, said Joel Sanders, head of the welfare-reform unit at the Alabama Department of Human Resources. Although those people make up a modest portion of the welfare rolls, they are the ones who foul the system. Sanders said that over the course of a year, most people getting welfare use it for a short-term handout until they can get back on their feet.

When many taxpayers think welfare, they think of people who have lived on it for decades. It’s a picture politicians love to paint to rile voters, said Mark Greenberg, a senior staff attorney for the Center for Law and Social Policy in Washington, D.C.

In real life, the average person on welfare in Alabama gets benefits for about 16 months; nationally, it’s about two years. A 1994 study followed 700 families from 1968 to 1988 and found that nearly two-thirds of the children whose parents collected welfare benefits did not receive them as adults. The conclusion: Most people getting government assistance aren’t caught in a generation-to-generation welfare cycle.

Another proposal aims to reduce cash supports for children born out-of-wedlock or for children of unwed teen-age mothers. The Senate bill says teen-age mothers must live with their parents and go to school. The argument is that this will reduce the number of illegitimate births – especially among teen-agers – and will stop women from having more children just so they can get larger welfare checks.

The premise is preposterous, says Erin Snowden, director of the Calhoun County Department of Human Resources. In her 25 years with the agency, she said, she’s seen no relationship between illegitimate or teen-age births and the welfare rolls.

In fact, there may be an inverse relationship. For instance, Mississippi and Alabama have the highest numbers of out-of-wedlock births, but the same two states also have the country’s lowest welfare benefits.

And consider this: An Aid to Families with Dependent Children check – your basic welfare check – increases only about $30 for each additional child, with benefits starting at $137 per month for the first child.

“You ain’t gonna get rich havin’ kids on welfare,” said one woman with three children. She’s been getting an AFDC check for about four years and requested her name not be used. “There’s girls who have babies and babies, but cuttin’ off their checks ain’t gonna stop that. I don’t know what will, but cuttin’ off checks won’t stop ’em from havin’ sex.”

Facts further confuse the family size and teen-age mother issue. Statistics from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services show that about 1 percent of people on welfare are teen-age mothers. Alabama can’t give reliable estimates for the number of its teen-age mothers, because it’s not clear how many may be living with parents and don’t show up as independent households. The average – state and national – welfare family is one adult with two children.

The next biggest bone of contention among voters seems to be the amount of money spent on welfare programs, said Larry Brown, director of the Center on Hunger, Poverty and Nutrition Policy at Tufts University in Medford, Mass.

“The biggest myth is that somehow welfare is a budget-buster,” said Brown, whose agency has put together numerous analyses of welfare-reform proposals and their possible impact. When inflation is accounted for, welfare benefits have not increased much if any over recent years. Welfare benefits as a whole account for about 1 percent of the federal budget, or $13 billion.

“You have a very unhappy electorate,” said Brown, who has testified before Congress on welfare policies. “As a result, you have to have a scapegoat, and it’s the poor.”

Alabama Gov. Fob James appears set to follow – at least roughly – reforms suggested in Mountain Brook Democratic Rep. Jim Carns’ bill, which emphasizes personal responsibility and work requirements for people on welfare.

The highlights: With a few exemptions, able-bodied people have a maximum of two years benefits in a five-year period. People who get jobs while on welfare can continue receiving benefits temporarily. There would also be an initial, temporary increase in benefits immediately upon getting a job, and those new benefits would be exempt from taxes. Benefits would gradually decrease.

The state proposal, like the national reform legislation, would require welfare mothers to identify the father of all children so that proceedings to collect child support can be started.

Welfare mothers would not get more benefits for additional children.

Despite the ire they raise among experts such as Brown and Greenberg, time limits and family caps have some appeal among those on welfare.

If women know they won’t get more payments – no matter how small – for their children, they will be more receptive to the idea of working, said the woman who left an abusive husband. She went on welfare in July, and isn’t planning on being on it long.

“I’m not saying it will stop them from having kids, but they’ll know up front they’ve got to get a job,” she said. “I had a job, and I’m going to get another one to support my kids.”

An unscientific survey of local people on welfare showed they support the idea of putting a time limit on receiving benefits, and Sanders agrees it may be a way to send a message to the minority of people who have been lazing on the welfare rolls for years.

“They give you time to better yourself,” the woman said. “If you follow their rules, you can do it. You have to follow the rules, though, and get off your butt.”

Some argue a time limit will keep the public from judging everybody who is on welfare as harshly as they do those who are long-term dependents on the system.

“If a time limit will keep people from taking advantage of the system, fine,” said Oxford resident Tammy Williams, a mother of two who went on welfare in 1992. She’s studying at Ayers State Technical College for a degree in computer science. “The programs give you time and give you help till you get a job.”

It isn’t clear yet if Alabama legislators will commit to spending the money DHR says it will take to pay for welfare reform. Officials and experts are doubtful and hope that communities will step forward to fill the expected gaps.

A provision in Carns’ bill would develop a volunteer system, allowing civic organizations, churches and other groups to help welfare mothers get jobs. The catch: Churches and civic leaders must be willing to act as mentors and instill a work ethic in people for whom a paycheck has been an unattainable goal. Their efforts would be aided by a job-referral program, according to the legislation.

The complete answer can’t come from Montgomery, Sanders said, and communities will have to do a better job dealing with welfare than they have been doing.

Welfare mothers agree that more understanding needs to come from the community. Employers need to look beyond a welfare mother’s sketchy resume and realize they’re going to have to make an investment to help reform the system.

“I’ve looked for jobs. I’ve filled out applications, and I contact ’em twice after that,” said Rhonda Vermillion, who has been on welfare four years. “I’m tired of my daughter asking, ‘Mom, when are you going to get a job?’

“And when you apply for work, they say, ‘It’s been so many years since you’ve worked, how do you know you can do it?’ All I can say is let me try, and I’ll give it my best.”