State Reconsiders 1-Year Aid Cutoff for Illiterate

SPRINGFIELD State officials said Wednesday that they arereconsidering a decision to end welfare benefits for 9,000 people whohave difficulty reading, after advocates for the poor raised concernsabout the proposal.

"We're reviewing the plan," said Mike Lawrence, Gov. Edgar'spress secretary, "and there could be adjustments."

The affected recipients are covered by the state's transitionalassistance program, which provides monthly grants, medical care andfood stamps for people considered unable to work because of physicalor mental condition, age, addiction, or other factors.

Under the program's rules, people who cannot read at asixth-grade level are eligible for aid for a year, after which timethey are no longer deemed unemployable. Of those in the program,9,000 have reached the cutoff.

Welfare advocates, however, called the 12-month rule arbitraryand unreasonable.

"How can you expect people to get employment when they are notequipped to do it and you don't provide any real tools to do it?"said Douglas C. Dobmeyer, executive director of the Public WelfareCoalition. He wrote the governor and urged repeal of the rule.

Lawrence said Dobmeyer's letter helped prompt the review of theplan.

Lawmakers and welfare recipients themselves must share the blamefor the problem, suggested Sen. Earlean Collins and Rep. RobertLeFlore Jr., both Chicago Democrats, who sponsored legislation thathelped spell out eligibility for the transitional assistance program.

While the cutoffs are "unfortunate," said Collins, "it's partlyour fault . . . for not having enough checks to ensure that thedepartment was providing enough referrals" to literacy programs.

"You can't make a person go to school," LeFlore said. "We havehundreds of programs in the city . . . but if they don't want it,they aren't going to do it."

The cutoffs began last week, said Dean Schott, a spokesman forthe Public Aid Department.

Welfare officials gave transitional assistance recipients withpoor reading skills first priority for placement in literacy classes,vocational education, and other programs to prepare them for work,Schott said.

"They have had the opportunity over the last 12 months toupgrade their reading levels and their job skills," he said.

The welfare agency also is reassessing about 1,000 cases inwhich people may qualify for aid because of other conditions thatmake them unemployable, he said.

Schott said that those losing benefits may apply for the state'sEarnfare program, which provides training jobs at minimum wages forsix months to help recipients move into the workplace.

The decision could face a court challenge, especially if thewelfare agency cuts off benefits to recipients who qualify fortransitional assistance because of other conditions, said JohnBouman, an attorney with the Legal Assistance Foundation of Chicago.