Welfare-to-Work Program

* Unfortunately, the unused welfare-to-work training funds (May 31) typify the failure of short-term, simple solutions to long-term, complex problems. Welfare to work has been “successful” to date in putting recipients to work in part-time, minimum wage jobs. That success has been mostly because of a booming economy.

Without training and preparation for jobs that can sustain families, welfare to work in the longer term may easily turn out to be a dismal failure. The longer-term result may be either only a temporary reduction in recipients or more children and families suffering poverty, lack of adequate medical care and homelessness.

And what have some welfare recipients in Orange County been told who sought training? They’ve been told child-care funds are only available for working, not for training. Even recipients who work must find their own baby-sitting as the county doesn’t seem to have ready referrals. If a recipient finds a baby-sitter, the paperwork for child-care reimbursement that arrives is thick and onerous.

We’ve had 18 months of welfare to work--many recipients are approaching their two-year limit for assistance and are little more qualified to obtain a “family-sustaining” job than they were before.

The training and development component of welfare to work needs to be jump-started and implemented and the funds not wasted. Child-care assistance needs to be expedited and simplified. The bureaucracy needs to be streamlined and barriers removed.

JUDITH A. LEWIS

Huntington Beach