The centerpiece of California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s state budget proposals is the wholesale elimination of the CalWORKS program, the state’s welfare-to-work program begun in 1997.
Over 1.4 million low-income people, including 1.1 million children, are served by this program. The maximum monthly grant for a family of three is $694, or 45.5 percent of the federal poverty line, and is the exact amount that families received in 1989-90 without adjusting for inflation. For many, the CalWORKS check pays the rent or covers childcare expenses.
Included in Schwarzenegger’s proposals were cuts to other programs affecting the poor:
• $750 million from the state’s In-Home Supportive Services program
• $532 million from Medi-Cal, the state’s Medicaid program
• $15 million from Healthy Families, California’s children’s health insurance program.
CalWORKs is the state’s Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) program, established by the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996, which abolished Depression-era entitlements to “end welfare as we know it” carried out under the Clinton administration. With the exception of some disabled individuals, recipients must find jobs and work, undergo vocational training or participate in community service activities for at least 32 hours a week.
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2010/jul2010/calw-j12.shtml