Senate Bill No. 477
(By Senators Hunter, Unger and Snyder)
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[Introduced February 9, 1999; referred to the Committee on
Health and Human Resources; and then to the Committee on
Finance.]
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A BILL to amend and reenact sections two, three and seven,
article nine, chapter nine of the code of West Virginia, one
thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as amended, all relating
to the West Virginia works program; including participation
in an approved secondary degree program or programs as being
part of "work activities"; adding definition of "education";
and work requirements.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That sections two, three and seven, article nine, chapter
nine of the code of West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred
thirty-one, as amended, be amended and reenacted, all to read as
follows:
ARTICLE 9. WEST VIRGINIA WORKS PROGRAM.
§9-9-2. Legislative findings; purpose.
(a) The Legislature hereby finds and declares that:
(1) The entitlement of any person to receive federal-state
cash assistance is hereby discontinued;
(2) At-risk families are capable of becoming self-
supporting;
(3) A reformed assistance program should both expect and
assist a parent and caretaker-relatives in at-risk families to
support their dependent children and children for which they are
caretakers;
(4) Every parent or caretaker-relative can exhibit
responsible patterns of behavior so as to be a positive role
model;
(5) Every parent or caretaker-relative who receives cash
assistance has a responsibility to participate in an activity to
help them prepare for, obtain and maintain gainful employment
including participation in an approved postsecondary degree
program, or other approved educational program, if they
demonstrate adequate progress toward completion of the program;
(6) For a parent or caretaker-relative who receives cash assistance and for whom full-time work is not feasible,
participation in some activity is expected to further themselves,
their family or their community;
(7) The state should promote the value of work and the
capabilities of individuals;
(8) Job development efforts should enhance the employment
opportunities of participants;
(9) An effective public education system is the key to
long-term self-support;
and
(10) A reformed assistance program should be structured to
achieve a clear set of outcomes; deliver services in an
expedient, effective and efficient manner; and maximize community
support for participants. After five years, there is expected to
be a decrease in the following: (i) The number of persons
receiving public assistance; and (ii) the amount of time an
individual remains on public assistance;
and
(11) The state should encourage education as a key component
in furthering self-sufficiency, family support, and a skilled
workforce.
(b) The goals of the program are to achieve more efficient
and effective use of public assistance funds; reduce dependency on public programs by promoting self-sufficiency; and structure
the assistance programs to emphasize employment and personal
responsibility. The program is to be evaluated on the increase
in employment rates in the program areas; the completion of
educational and training programs; the increased compliance in
preventive health activities, including immunizations; and a
decrease in the case-load of division of personnel.
§9-9-3. Definitions.
In addition to the rules for the construction of statutes in
section ten, article two, chapter two of this code and the words
and terms defined in section two, article one of this chapter,
unless a different meaning appears from the context:
(a) "At-risk family" means a group of West Virginians living
in the same household, living below the federally designated
poverty level, lacking the resources to become self-supporting,
and consisting of a dependent minor child or children living with
a parent, stepparent or caretaker-relative; an "at-risk family"
may include an unmarried minor parent and his or her dependent
child or children who live in an adult supervised setting;
(b) "Beneficiary" or "participant" means any parent or
caretaker-relative in an at-risk family who receives cash assistance for himself or herself and family members;
(c) "Cash assistance" means temporary assistance for needy
families or diversionary assistance;
(d) "Challenge" means any fact, circumstance or situation
that prevents a person from becoming self-sufficient or from
seeking, obtaining or maintaining employment of any kind,
including physical or mental disabilities, lack of education,
testing, training, counseling, child care arrangements,
transportation, medical treatment or substance abuse treatment;
(e) "Community or personal development" means activities
designed or intended to eliminate challenges to participation in
self-sufficiency activities. These activities are to provide
community benefit and enhance personal responsibility, including,
but not limited to, classes or counseling for learning life
skills or parenting, dependent care, job readiness, volunteer
work, participation in sheltered workshops or substance abuse
treatment;
(f) "Department" means the state department of health and
human resources;
(g) "Division" means the division of human services;
(h) "Education" means any hours spent regularly attending and making adequate progress in any approved job training, GED,
literacy, ABE, or equivalent program including any appropriate
remedial program, or postsecondary program. These activities
shall be counted towards satisfaction of the work requirement;
(h) (i) "Income" means money received by any member of an
at-risk family which can be used at the discretion of the
household to meet its basic needs:
Provided, That income shall
not include earnings of minor children in school, payments
received from earned income tax credit or tax refunds;
(i) (j) "Personal responsibility contract" means a written
agreement entered into by the division and a beneficiary which
establishes the responsibilities and obligations of the
beneficiary;
(j) (k) "Secretary" means the secretary of the state
department of health and human resources;
(k) (l) "Subsidized employment" means employment with
earnings provided by an employer who receives a subsidy from the
division for the creation and maintenance of the employment
position;
(l) (m) "Support services" means, but is not limited to, the
following services: Child care; medicaid; transportation assistance; information and referral; resource development
services which is assisting families to receive child support
enforcement and supplemental social security income; family
support services which is parenting, budgeting and family
planning; relocation assistance; and mentoring services;
(m) (n) "Unsubsidized employment" means employment with
earnings provided by an employer who does not receive a subsidy
from the division for the creation and maintenance of the
employment position;
(n) (o) "Work" means unsubsidized employment, subsidized
employment, work experience or community or personal development;
and
(o) (p) "Work experience" means unpaid structured work
activities that are provided in an environment where performance
expectations are similar to those existing in unsubsidized
employment and which provide training in occupational areas that
can realistically be expected to lead to unsubsidized employment.
§9-9-7. Work requirements.
Unless otherwise exempted by the provisions of section eight
of this article, the West Virginia works program shall require
that anyone who possesses a high school diploma, or its equivalent, or anyone who is of the age of twenty years or more,
to work or attend an educational or training program for a
minimum of twenty hours per week to receive any form of cash
assistance.
Work activities include approved educational
programs as defined in section three of this article. In
accordance with federal law or regulation, the work, education
and training requirements of this section are waived for any
qualifying participant with a child under six years of age if the
participant is unable to obtain appropriate and available child
care services. In order for any participant to receive cash
assistance, he or she shall enter into personal responsibility
contracts pursuant to the provisions of section nine of this
article.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to permit persons
receiving cash assistance under the West Virginia Works Program
to participate in postsecondary degree programs or other
educational programs. It adds a definition for "education" and
provides that work activities include approved educational
programs.
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken
from the present law, and underscoring indicates new language
that would be added.
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