>>FSP and Medicaid are uncoupled from AFDC, so losing TANF has no
>>bearing on their eligibility for the other two.
>
>Not legally, no, but certainly in practice. People kicked off AFDC often
>assume they've lost eligibility for Food Stamps & Medicaid, and no one is
>telling them anything to the contrary. I know this is happening in NYC -
>where the welfare offices have been renamed job centers - and assume it's
>happening elsewhere as well.
This is a very important point. I see a kind of rough parallel between welfare reform and right-to-work legislation. Regarding the latter, many people in right-to-work states think that unions are illegal, the first amendment protection of the freedom of association notwithstanding. Surely the delegitimization of organized labor in the minds of many was not an unanticipated consequence of such legislation. I think the same holds true for welfare reform. Already facing Byzantine laws and Kafkaesque bureaucracies, welfare recipients have received the word from on high that "the end of welfare as we know it" has arrived and now it is time rely upon yourself because there are no more "handouts."
mark
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