Giving participants more choice in their pathway out of poverty and making the program less punitive makes the program more successful

(SACRAMENTO, CA) — A powerful coalition of nine advocacy organizations has moved forward a broad spectrum of program modifications to better serve the employment and family needs of families in the California Work Opportunity and Responsibility to Kids (CalWORKs) program. These reforms are a necessary step in the continued modernization of the CalWORKs program, moving it beyond its outdated original design rooted in racist and sexist assumptions that people were not motivated to move beyond poverty.

The Reimagine CalWORKs coalition is comprised of End Child Poverty California, SEIU California, County Welfare Directors Association of California, California Partnership to End Domestic Violence, Project SPARC, End Poverty in California, Coalition of California Welfare Rights Organizations, Inc., Parent Voices, and Western Center on Law & Poverty. The coalition has proposed meaningful provisions to improve the program in this year’s legislation and budget package. The budget advocacy provisions include:

• Defer sanctions to families for the first 90 days they are in the program—Deferring sanctions for the first 90 days helps families as they are becoming acclimated to the program. During this time, CalWORKs recipients are at their busiest meeting various requirements and appointments. Removing this time period will ensure people are not sanctioned as they are onboarding the program. Sanctions can reduce an already low CalWORKs grant by almost 25%.
• Streamline the appraisal process—Reimagine includes a faster and simpler appraisal process and combines it with a program orientation rather than two separate steps, minimizing the number of sanctionable appointments. It also allows people who know what welfare-to-work activities and services they need to inform the county and move directly into participation. This provision will help to focus resources on those that need them most and allow others to proceed.
• Reassess Mandatory Activities—Some participants who have experience looking for and obtaining a job, or who extensively looked for work without success before needing to apply for aid don’t need job search programs, such as the 4-week Job Club, which is currently mandated. By eliminating this requirement, while providing the service for those who want it, the state saves money while allowing recipients to get into meaningful activities more quickly.
• Expand Welfare-to-Work Activities—This will also allow participants to self-determine activities of their choice and how they want to proceed with worker support. People are more successful if they can have input on how they want to escape poverty and they are allowed to do what they are passionate about.
• Eliminate unnecessary paperwork—By allowing for verbal confirmation and eliminating a signature requirement, the re-enrollment process will be streamlined and two key sanctions will be eliminated.
• Child Care Check—This will codify current guidance and ensure that prior to a sanction, counties must verify that they followed the notice and verification of childcare rules before requiring participation in an activity. Without childcare, people cannot regularly attend school, go to work, or attend supportive service appointments, such as mental health and substance use services.
• Transportation—This will change the payments for transportation necessary to attend school, a job, etc. from a “request & reimbursement” system to one of “advanced pay.” People struggling financially do not have the financial resources to pay up front and wait for reimbursement.
• Repeal Work Participant Rate (WPR) penalty pass through—Removing the county share of federal penalties enables workers to focus on helping families move toward self-sufficiency and away from shoehorning people into narrow federal activities that may not lead to successful employment given the local economy and the adult’s skills.

CalWORKs management and staff, as well as involved families, all agree that this program was in dire need of change, and these improvements address those needs.

“This is a critical juncture in which the cycle of poverty can be broken by simplifying the program and making it more efficient, humane and people-focused, allowing workers to focus on those who need the most help and minimizing the need for sanctions” said Western Center Policy Advocate Rebecca Gonzales

“County human services departments have long recognized the need for policy changes to support a cultural shift in how we serve families through the CalWORKs program. These reforms represent the next step in aligning policy with the values of dignity, trust, and partnership that counties strive to uphold every day in their work with families,” said Roshena Duree, Director of Self-Sufficiency Policy, County Welfare Directors Association of California

“Fundamentally, reimagine CalWORKs is about trusting parents – who are overwhelmingly Black and Latina mothers – that they know best their pathway out of poverty, and this campaign centers CalWORKs parents and children. For too long, California chose to have policy barriers that reflect racist and sexist biases about people experiencing poverty, and perpetuated a punitive, stigmatized program. It’s hard to overestimate the impact of this package toward fulfilling the potential of CalWORKs as our bedrock anti-poverty program. We look forward to implementation and continuing the work to achieve the remaining reforms parents have identified,” said Andrew Cheyne, Managing Director of Public Policy, End Child Poverty California

Addressing the diverse needs of residents in poverty in California requires policy focused on providing what people need and meeting them where they are. The success of the CalWORKs programs should be largely based on supporting the efforts of the people enrolled and allowing their own self-sufficiency to drive their progress, ultimately alleviating poverty through a person program partnership.

Addressing racial, economic, and gender bias
The Reimagine CalWORKs slate also focuses on removing the racist and sexist language that has served as a basis for welfare reform. Reimagine coalition advocacy efforts include efforts to ensure accessibility and eliminate inherent racial and gender bias, moving away from myths about welfare recipients that have stymied the program’s ability to treat people with dignity. While these bills are part of a handful that address racial and gender leanings in the public benefits space, the ongoing focus is to recognize that CalWORKs adults, who are primarily women-headed families, are in the best position to determine what their families need to improve employability and family well-being.

• SB 290 (Smallwood-Cuevas)—A Reimagine bill that would increase information about immunization obligations and resources for families, while ending sanctions which drive families into deep poverty without helping the families meet the requirements or underlying issues the families face.
• AB 461 (Ahrens)—Ensures that families facing school attendance challenges receive the support they need, rather than punishment. By eliminating harmful penalties such as fines of up to $2,000, jail time of up to one year, and CalWORKs program sanctions, this bill paves the way for families and children to be offered more help, effectively eliminating criminalization to prevent families falling deeper into hardship.
• AB 1324 (Sharp-Collins/Ransom)—Expands eligibility by removing the rule that denies aid to two-parent families who work more than 100 hours. The bill instead would base eligibility on family size and income as a meaningful measurement of need.

Through these efforts, the Reimagine CalWORKs coalition is taking aim at the outdated aspects of the program that focused on meeting numbers and required activities not appropriate for all families, which resulted in barriers to achieving family self-sufficiency and increased sanctions. It instead advocates for proven, humanitarian solutions to remove barriers to employment and better meet family needs.

Addressing real policy solutions, the Reimagine CalWORKs slate is included in the recently approved budget, while pending legislation should be headed to the Governor’s Desk for approval later this year.