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Empfaenger : /a/www: welfare-workfare-state Antwort in : /alt/activism/d Absender : tsteege@uuscdc.org (Ted Steege) Betreff : Welfare and Human Rights: New report released Datum : Sa 13.06.98, 16:49 (erhalten: 14.06.98) Groesse : 2780 Bytes ---------------------------------------------------------------------- FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: Ted Steege 202 466-7400 May 21, 1998 Ellen Tuttle 617 868-6600, ext. 203
Human Rights Agency Releases Comprehensive Reports on Welfare Reform
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The Unitarian Universalist Service Committee (UUSC), a human rights and social justice agency based in Cambridge, Mass., has released a series of comprehensive reports chronicling the damaging effects of welfare reform in five states. The reports reflect the findings of the Welfare and Human Rights Monitoring Project, a program which collected nearly 600 testimonies in Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Jersey, California and Washington state during the past two years.
The reports examine the human costs of welfare reform through the lens of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and show an alarming trend of abuses by state agencies towards mothers and children living in poverty. The Welfare and Human Rights Monitoring Project has found that many families on welfare are not only arbitrarily being denied access to benefits, they are also unable to become self-sufficient and care for their children as a result of new regulations. Among other problems, welfare reform is saddling recipients with conflicting requirements and forcing them to abandon education and training programs to accept low-paying jobs.
Colin Bird, director of U.S. Programs at UUSC, summarized the results of the monitoring project stating, These reports reveal a maze of new legislative and bureaucratic obstacles that are preventing welfare recipients from achieving self-sufficiency. The overriding emphasis on caseload reduction in the new state welfare programs has been a distraction from the urgent task of reducing poverty. As a consequence, rights are being violated and recipients are being chewed up in the bureaucracy.
UUSC is recommending the elimination of limits on benefits for families, an increase in the minimum wage, the establishment of more realistic work participation goals and rewards for states that help recipients become self-sufficient.
Founded during World War II to fight Nazi tyranny, UUSC has confronted political, cultural and economic oppression throughout the world for nearly 60 years, developing innovative approaches to social change. Today, UUSC works with program partners in Latin America, the Caribbean, Africa, Asia and the United States in addition to its citizen action and national advocacy initiatives.
Ted Steege, Washington Associate for U.S. Programs Unitarian Universalist Service Committee 2000 P St.,NW, Suite 505 - Washington, DC 20036 202/466-7400 fax 202/775-2636 email: tsteege@uuscdc.org
Index of Welfare-Workfare-State Archives
Last Modified: July 1998