Home : Editorials and Commentary : The United States
By Analisa Drew
April 2000
Last month, I wrote and article about the outcome of the implementation of W-2 and the suffering it has wreaked throughout the Wisconsin, particularly Milwaukee, community. This month I would like to attempt to unravel the tangled web that is W-2 and expose the big money forces behind it. It comes as no surprise that the primary motive behind welfare reform is profit. The whole W-2 system is implemented and run by private agencies, which stand to make huge amounts of money off of welfare reform. Statewide in Wisconsin, W-2 agencies are projected to receive a total of 66 million in unrestricted profits, with 26 million going to agencies in Milwaukee County. We, the people and taxpayers, have no say over how these profits should be spent. The private agencies are held accountable to no one. They are not required to document what they are using their profits for. Under this screwed up system, the less effective and agency is, the more they stand to profit.
It's called a light touch policy. Meaning, don't ask don't tell. The agents are not allowed to tell the welfare recipients of benefits they are allowed to have unless directly asked or stated by the recipient. This means that a needy person who is in desperate need of assistance, whether food stamps, child care, or other services, will go without simply because they did not directly ask. An example of the outcome of this policy is the statistics regarding childcare. Of all applicants that are eligible for child care assistance only 15% receive it. That means that 85% of those eligible, go without!
Most of the people in this program are lacking in job skills to begin with and there is very minimal access to schooling beyond High School. As Tommy Thompson put it, "this is not a scholarship program". Of course he doesn't want these people to get ahead. These people end up in low wage, low skill, dead end jobs, right where the market needs them. There is a labor shortage for these types of jobs currently, and the labor provided by welfare recipients fills this gap nicely. The minute a recipient accepts a job, even if it is minimum wage part-time, they become ineligible for assistance.
Many of the people currently left on the welfare rolls and nearing the end of the 2 year time limit for benefits come from situations of domestic violence, mental health problems, or in a position of caring for a disabled spouse or child. One woman whose 18-year-old daughter has cerebral palsy and needs to care for her and her other 6-year-old daughter was told to put her disabled child in an institution and get to work. This is outrageous!
Another tactic used to maximize profits for the agencies is diversion. When you go to apply for assistance, they will ask you many questions such has, "Have you asked your family for help?" "How about your church?" "Your ex-boyfriend?" "Your high school?" "Did you graduate high school?" "Why not?" and so on. If you answer no you are told to go back and do so. If you were offered a job, which you turned down because the wages and hours were not enough for you to live off of, you are reprimanded for not wanting to work and told to accept that job. Even if you get past all the diversions they create, and get signed up for W-2 assistance, you won't get a check for eight weeks. In which time, you are allotted $100.00 emergency assistance to survive off of. Many people grow frustrated and give up all together. Each time this happens, the agencies' wallets get a little bit fatter. 3 out of 4 workers in Milwaukee County work within the Community Service and Transition Job categories. However, these workers receive no wages from their employers, just their welfare check plus support services. What this comes down to is that these employers are being provided with free labor from the 10,000 W-2 workers. In line with this, the PIC, or Private Industry Council, which are the people whose job it is to oversee the work of W-2 agencies, stands to directly benefit from the system. Amongst the PIC, we see such organizations as Aurora Health Care, Wisconsin Gas, Marcus Corporation, American Moving and Storage, Goodwill Industries, Rockwell Automation/Allen Bradley, and Pro-Staff.
Government stands to profit also. State Senator Gwen Moore, an advocate for changes in welfare reform, made a deal with the devil, so to speak. She offered Republican Representative John Gard a 100 million dollars in order to pass reforms in the state budget, which would positively affect W-2. Of course, Governor Tommy Thompson vetoed each and every provision and John Gard kept his 100 million. David Reimer, the Director of Administration for Mayor of Milwaukee, John Norquist, personally takes the credit for coming up with the idea of welfare to work and is promoting W-2 nationwide. Finally, we reach Governor Tommy Thompson. Both chief operating officer and chair of the PIC have made campaign contributions to the Governor. He is also carving out a name for himself nationwide and one can only speculate that the Governor is hoping to move on to bigger and better things. If you think these politicians and businesses in bed together care about the people they're supposed to serve, you're definitely and terribly wrong. They only care to see the money come pouring in at the expense of so many individual lives. We must put an end to this!