A coalition of advocacy groups has pushed major reforms of a state public assistance program through the California General Assembly, and now says even more changes could improve its impact.
The program known as CalWORKs provides financial assistance for families with children and helps parents find employment and job training.
Rebecca Gonzales, a policy advocate at the Western Center on Law and Policy, explained CalWORKs was created when negative stereotypes of people on public assistance were common. She said some new provisions give families more freedom to tailor the program’s work-related services to their needs.
“We really wanted to reimagine the program to be more supportive of families, to give families more choice in the activities they’re pursuing and how they are developing the tools they need to support their families,” Gonzales said, “whether that be going to school or a training program, or going straight into work.”
That includes reassessing what have been mandatory activities for people who already have specific skills, and not reducing benefits at the beginning of a family’s enrollment as they try to meet the program requirements. In addition to the Western Center on Law and Poverty, the coalition working on the reforms includes End Child Poverty in California and SEIU California.
More than a half-million families receive CalWORKs assistance, according to the County Welfare Directors Association of California. Gonzales said the coalition isn’t finished making recommendations to improve the program, including the rules for CalWORKs families dealing with a truant child.
“When a CalWORKs family, when the child is not going to school, they would sanction the families and take away part of their grant,” she said, “which is really difficult for these families because that just destabilizes the families.”
She added the coalition also plans to advocate for removing the requirement that a person must work less than 100 hours a month to qualify for CalWORKS, regardless of income. Gonzales noted 100 hours a month doesn’t guarantee enough income to support a family.
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