COSTS RISE AS WELFARE ROLLS FALL.

Byline: - Troy Anderson

Los Angeles County's welfare rolls shrank under welfare-to-work reforms passed by Congress nearly a decade ago, while budgets for taxpayer-funded assistance programs continued to soar, a study released Thursday said.

Although the county's welfare caseload dropped 44 percent from 1996 to 2001, the welfare-to-work budget nearly doubled from $463 million to $863 million, and the total budget for the Department of Public Social Services jumped from $2.3 billion to $3.1 billion, according to the study by the nonpartisan Manpower Demonstration Research Corp.

``Welfare-to-work hasn't saved taxpayers any money,'' said Bob Erlenbusch, executive director of the Los Angeles Coalition to End Hunger and Homelessness.

``And just because you reduce the welfare rolls doesn't mean you reduce poverty. The rolls have gone down, but we've seen an increase in homeless families and an increase in poverty.''

The 302-page study by nonprofit Manpower Demonstration analyzed how welfare reform unfolded in Los Angeles County - which has the largest caseload in the nation, including nearly half who are non-English speakers - and in Cleveland, Miami-Dade County and Philadelphia.

Jon Coupal, president of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, said the study is similar to one the association commissioned. It found while the number of welfare recipients in the state dropped from 2.6 million to 1.1 million from 1997 to 2002, the number of welfare workers increased 36 percent, and payroll costs shot up 72 percent.

``My suspicion is the extra money went to salaries,'' Coupal said.

But Phil Ansell, director of programs and policies for the county Department of Public Social Services, said that as more welfare recipients have gone to work across the nation, the government has had to spend more money on additional services including child care, transportation, job training, education and domestic-violence classes.

Ansell noted the study found some positive outcomes of welfare reform, including reduced teenage pregnancy and higher employment rates for low-income parents.

``The California program allows parents to retain more of their (welfare) grant when they go to work, which helps parents climb the ladder from poverty to work to self-sufficiency,'' Ansell said.

The study found the county had a higher proportion of people remaining on welfare than any of the other areas studied. Also, after welfare reform, more than one-third of welfare recipients - most of whom were employed in low-wage jobs - had three or more hardships related to food, housing or health care.