Officials at the Turning Point program at Utah Valley State College fear state welfare reform would impose restrictions on women seeking to better themselves.
But Rep. Brent Haymond, R-Springville, said a key element in the welfare reform bills he will introduce in January would be family responsibility.Haymond said his measures would be directed in helping people become employable, and they should then have the ability to further their education themselves. Welfare reform would be phased in over several years, beginning next July.
One of Haymond's bills would consolidate agencies that deliver education services, including Turning Point, which provides education, job training and counseling for displaced women. He said it would make the welfare system more user-friendly because applicants won't have to go to several agencies to get the services they require.
Preliminary recommendations would take Turning Point out from under the state Department of Education and place it under the soon-to-be-formed Workforce Development Department.
Women in the Turning Point program now have no time restrictions on completing their education or job training. But if welfare reform as now envisioned becomes law, a two-year time limit would be imminent, said Mili Peters, marketing director of UVSC's Turning Point and a former lobbyist on women's issues in Hawaii.
Under the present system, Turning Point participants get help to complete four years of college. But under welfare reform, job training would be reduced to two years and must be market-driven, Peters said.
"Women who have been in the program for two years or longer will be kicked out," she said. Although Turning Point is not strictly for women, they are the majority of participants. She said that 3,400 women around the state would no longer qualify for Turning Point assistance.
"I can guarantee you the government will not pay for a four-year program," said Rep. Doyle Mortimer, R-Orem. He said welfare reform would help people get on their feet economically, and then they can pay for the rest of their education "the same way you or I would."
But Peters thinks that consolidation would create more problems than it would solve.
"One caseworker has to be an expert in all things," she said. "That one caseworker decides what's good for you. That's scary."
She fears consolidation could open up the possibility of the system victimizing people on welfare.
Haymond counters that consolidation would give welfare recipients more options to choose from to become employable and that the new system would make access to those choices easier.
In addition to his consolidation bill, Haymond will introduce a bill on the philosophy of welfare reform. "It gets at the heart of welfare reform," he said. "It explains how we do things."
He will also introduce two licensing bills directed at deadbeat parents - people who don't pay their child support payments. The bills would take away a variety of licenses from those people, from drivers' licenses to licenses needed in employment, such as real-estate sales licenses and other state-issued licenses.
Another bill he will introduce creates a "rainy day" fund that puts excess money designated for welfare services in a trust account so it wouldn't be available for unrelated uses.