Able-bodied adults without children will not be required to work or seek employment for a few more years following a party line vote in the Maine House of Representatives to kill LD 784, “An Act to Establish Welfare Work Requirements for Able-bodied Adults Without Dependents.”
Sen. Eric Brakey (R-Androscoggin), the sponsor of the bill, said in his testimony before the Committee on Health and Human Services that work requirements align with the goal of the program. It was one of several bills Brakey proposed this session to reform Maine’s various welfare programs.
“For those who are able-bodied and capable of work, welfare should be a safety net and not a hammock,” he said.
The bill, as amended by the Committee on Health and Human Services, would have required able-bodied adults between the ages of 18 and 50 with no dependents to meet a work requirement in order to receive benefits from the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program (SNAP) or MaineCare for more than three months.
This requirement could have been met either by working for at least 20 hours a week, participating in an employment or training program or job search for approximately 20 hours a week, or “participating in a placement with public or private sector employers, including as a volunteer.”
“Right now, there are plenty of jobs. We have a workforce shortage. Unemployment rates are below full employment. And yet, our workforce participation rates are among the lowest we’ve ever seen after an expansion of Medicaid that swept up able-bodied, working-age people and then trapped them behind a welfare cliff that discourages work,” he said.
The “welfare cliff” is the name given to a perverse dynamic where an individual who receives welfare benefits, but who wants to work more or accept a promotion, will actually see their household income fall sharply.
By accepting more hours or a raise, individuals can find themselves suddenly ineligible for benefits all at once.
With tight budgets, those facing the cliff often decide against taking extra shifts or accepting a promotion, an outcome that doesn’t benefit taxpayers, employers, or the employee.
Opponents of the bill raised concerns that the phrase “able-bodied” was insufficient to ensure that access to these programs would not be revoked from those who genuinely need it.
Hilary Schneider of the American Cancer Society Action Network testified that “qualifying for and maintaining an exemption can be confusing and onerous,” and “exemptions often do not cover all situations in which an enrollee is impacted by a serious health condition like cancer.”
Others argued that this bill would not be effective in achieving Sen. Brakey’s stated goal of “help[ing] to counter the disincentives that welfare programs create for going into the workforce and putting yourself on the road to independence and self-sufficiency.””
Megan Hannan, Executive Director of the Maine Community Action Partnership, testified that there are better ways to address the workforce crisis than implementing work requirements for SNAP and MaineCare, including addressing childcare accessibility and easing the welfare cliff.
“We already know the outcome of this bill – we have seen it here and in other states. Creating barriers to supportive programs does not incentivize work. Individuals and families living in poverty spend hours a week meeting with compliance for any and every program they apply for and receive,” she said.
According to Brakey, however, this is not the case.
“All-this proposal does is institute work requirement policies, which are already proven effective, at a time when we desperately need working age people in the workforce,” he said.
The democrats want to keep people dependent on the government. The hard working people of Maine are tired of supporting the lazy people who don’t want to work. The democratic legislators in Augusta do not care for the people of Maine. Just look at all of the horrible bills they are passing that hurt the people of Maine.
thank you for the article