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There Needs To Be A Penalty When Those On Public Assistance Don’t Hold Up Their End

There should be nothing wrong with expecting someone on public assistance who finds themselves unable to make a required appointment or job training to be able to make a phone call to their caseworker.

If the goal of the public assistance system is to help people move from welfare into the job market, such a simple step should be expected. Someone who fails to show up to work without so much as a phone call more than two or three times wouldn’t have that job very long. Assemblyman Andrew Goodell is right, then, when he describes what should be a basic expectation for those on public assistance.

“The basic consistency is that they show up on Monday, if they’re assigned to start on Monday for a job training program or work experience, that they show up. And if they don’t show up because they can’t, that they promptly contact us and say, ‘I can’t because I have a transportation issue, or a daycare issue or some other accommodation, so that we, as the state, can help them address those issues and make sure that they can continue on with job training and their work experience and maximize their potential.”

The second half of that statement is one of the expectations Democrats in the Assembly have. The legislation they proposed would make it harder to reduce someone’s public assistance amount as retribution for missing appointments while making it incumbent on Social Services workers to help solve the issues that make keeping the appointment difficult. The public assistance system should absolutely help people help the issues they have with child care or transportation or other accommodations. Those issues will have to be fixed before the person can keep a job, after all.

But we also know that many local employers still say they have a hard time finding applicants with simple job skills, like showing up on time or showing up consistently. The remedy to the problem involves parents, schools and the Social Services system teaching accountability. There has to be a penalty when someone doesn’t hold up their end of the bargain.

For employees, that can mean losing their job. For those on public assistance, that should mean losing part of a public assistance check.

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