WASHINGTON Indiana will begin cutting off food stamp benefits next year to tens of thousands of people who fail to get a job or train for work.
Beginning in the spring, the state will limit benefits to no more than three months during a three-year period for able-bodied adults without children who don't work or participate in job training for at least 20 hours a week. The time limit is a requirement for the federally funded program, but states can ask for a waiver if jobs are scarce in all or part of the state.
Although Indiana is among the majority of states that qualify for a waiver, the state plans to reinstate the requirement.
"We view the re-establishment of the ... time-limited benefits in Indiana as an opportunity to help improve the skills of our fellow Hoosiers and advance their prospects for meaningful employment, while at the same time establishing a pool of better-prepared candidates for the Indiana workforce," Lance Rhodes, director of the division of family resources for the Indiana Family and Social Services Administration, wrote in a letter to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Advocates for the poor say it would be better for Indiana to first make sure it has sufficient programs to help the unemployed find jobs or new skills before reinstating the time limits.
"Let's figure out what the goals are for these able-bodied adults without dependents, and then let's build a program that meets those goals," said Jessica Fraser, program manager for the Indiana Institute for Working Families. "That seems to make a little more sense to me."
The work requirements were put in place when Congress revamped welfare programs in 1996. The law also included pots of money that states could tap to help recipients become self-sufficient.
In addition to a set amount of funding for education and training programs, states can get funding by putting up some of their own dollars, or by pledging to offer services such as workfare for those at risk of losing benefits. Congress this year added funding for a limited number of states that want to test employment and training services programs.
Ed Bolen, senior policy analyst at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, said an indication of whether states are serious about helping people get jobs and skills is if they're applying for the matching funds or other extra resources.
"If a state is just saying, we want to encourage folks to work, but we're not putting anything into doing that, that to me indicates that what they really want to do is get people off their (food stamp) rolls," Bolen said.
Indiana does seek some matching funds, according to the FSSA. A spokeswoman said the office will consider applying for additional funds in the future.
The office estimates that about 65,000 of the approximately 877,000 Hoosiers receiving food stamps will be affected by the work requirements.
Average monthly food stamp participation rose every year in Indiana from 2009 through 2013, when it reached 926,011, or about 14 percent of the population, before falling this year. The average monthly benefit is about $131. To qualify, someone generally has to make less than 130 percent of the federal poverty level, about $15,170.
Indiana's unemployment rate has fallen from about 10 percent in 2009 to 5.8 percent, although it's higher in some parts of the state.
Advocates say they expect most parts of Indiana will not qualify for a waiver from the work requirement next year, but that doesn't mean the state should have rejected it this year.
"To us, it's an extra threat to someone's food security to impose a time limit when you don't have to because a waiver is available," Bolen said.
Of the states that qualified for a waiver, 28 are taking it for the full fiscal year that began this month. Fourteen states, including Indiana, are taking the waiver for only part of the year or for only part of the state. Indiana plans to reinstate the time limits around March, April or May.
Of Indiana's neighboring states, Michigan, Kentucky and Illinois are continuing to waive the requirement.
Ohio restarted the work requirement for most counties last year.
Of the 2,541 adults who lost benefits in Ohio's Franklin County, 1 in 3 had poor physical or mental health, said Lisa Hamler-Fugitt, executive director of the Ohio Association of Foodbanks. Other barriers to employment included not having a high school diploma or transportation, having a criminal background and needing to care for an elderly relative.
Most who lost their benefits relied instead on food pantries, churches and soup kitchens. Some turned to begging or searching in trash bins for food, the group said.
The time limits for those not working were imposed in Ohio as the temporary boost to food stamp benefits, put in place nationally during the recession, expired last year.
"It has been the perfect storm for emergency food providers: more people needing more food more frequently in a population that had no resources to feed themselves," Hamler-Fugitt said.
Despite Indiana's improved economy, only a few of the food banks and agencies that are part of the Feeding Indiana's Hungry network have seen a drop in need, said Executive Director Emily Weikert Bryant.
"We know that a large number of our clients are dealing with high blood pressure or diabetes and there are a number of complications that come with either of those that may make it difficult for someone to work in a job that may be available to them," she said.
State Rep. Gail Riecken, D-Evansville, said Indiana doesn't have either the quantity or quality of job training programs to help those whose benefits will be cut off.
"I think it's an easy out to say that people should go back to work after three months," she said. "It doesn't really get to the root of the problem."
