Letter to The Honorable Blanche L. Lincoln, May 21, 2002

May 21, 2002

The Honorable Blanche L. Lincoln
United States Senate
Washington, DC 20510

Dear Senator Lincoln:

The National Council on Disability (NCD) is an independent federal agency responsible for making recommendations to the President and Congress on issues affecting over 54 million Americans with disabilities. NCD's charge is to promote policies, programs, practices, and procedures that guarantee equal opportunity for all individuals with disabilities, and to empower people with disabilities to achieve economic self-sufficiency, independent living, and inclusion and integration into all aspects of society.

The current deliberations in the House and Senate on reauthorization of the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families Block Grant (TANF) under the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunities Reconciliation Act are among our interests in a wide spectrum of legislative issues. I am sure you are aware of the importance of these discussions to many individuals with disabilities. In the wake of a House-passed TANF reauthorization bill that does not sufficiently address the needs of people with disabilities, I write today to share relevant information and offer our staff expertise to assist you with disability specific issues as the Senate continues to pursue this reauthorization.

Research data indicate far-reaching effects, including some unintended negative consequences (i.e., unique barriers and extraordinary challenges) of the TANF program on the disability community. A General Accounting Office report recently stated that 44 percent of TANF recipients have physical or mental disabilities, a proportion almost three times as high as among adults in the non-TANF population. According to the Consortium for Citizens with Disabilities, "Studies demonstrate that families with an adult or child with a disability comprise a substantial proportion of the families receiving TANF cash assistance. While some families have exited TANF and entered the workforce, others remain on the caseload without access to the assistance they require to be successful. Alarmingly, studies confirm that adults with disabilities are disproportionately represented among the former TANF beneficiaries who have lost assistance due to a sanction." The Brookings Institute reports that bottom income mothers include people with learning disabilities, mild retardation, health or substance abuse concerns. Their situations are worse as a result of welfare reform.

Given these realities, the work requirements and lifetime limits to benefits, which are key elements of welfare reform, pose special challenges for state and local TANF agencies to: 1) effectively screen for and assess disabilities, 2) provide services or programs needed by recipients who have disabilities or children with disabilities, 3) address the reality that certain individuals may still have severe work limitations requiring long-term assistance, and 4) set policies that reflect both the intention and desire of people with disabilities to work.

On one hand, parents with disabilities often face multiple barriers to work. In addition to the barriers most low-income Americans face as they attempt to work (e.g., inadequate transportation, limited opportunities to improve education and skills), people with disabilities must meet the specific challenges of a health condition, physical or mental disability. When appropriate assessments of individual needs for reasonable accommodation are omitted, people with disabilities are denied equal opportunity for full participation, independent living, and economic stability.

Similarly, parents whose children have disabilities face additional extraordinary challenges such as frequent inability to find or to afford a child care setting that is able or willing to handle their children's special needs. The Future of Children reported in 2001 that low-income and higher-income families spend 16 percent versus 6 percent of their earnings, respectively, on child-care. Additionally, parents of children with disabilities often must miss work to provide for a child's special needs, putting the family at risk for TANF sanctions. They are more likely than people without disabilities to experience significant hardships when forced to leave the TANF program due to time limits.

While the data may paint a bleak picture, in fact, TANF creates a great opportunity to creatively design programs with the potential to give parents with disabilities and parents of children with disabilities the training and support they need to secure and maintain employment. Some states and communities are already collaboratively working to this end. However, greater national emphasis on systemic collaboration and review of policy and legislation would serve to remove barriers, make links, and combine resources. This needs to occur initially among federal, state, and local entities as consumers with disabilities are included in dialogue and actions.

If the next five years of welfare reform are to continue to replace dependency with appropriate opportunities for independence, the concerns of the disability community must be addressed in this year's reauthorization. We have enclosed two documents to provide Congress with the broadest possible set of recommendations. Since passage of the 1996 welfare reform legislation, NCD has reported on TANF and disability in its annual NCD Progress Reports to the President. One attachment summarizes recommendations from those reports. We also commend to you the attached TANF Reauthorization Policy Priorities--recommendations by the Consortium for Citizens with Disabilities.

Thank you for your careful consideration of the concerns from the disability community. For additional information, please feel free to contact, Dr. Gerrie Hawkins of NCD's policy team at (202) 272-2116 or ghawkins@ncd.gov.

Sincerely,

Jeffrey T. Rosen
General Counsel and Director of Policy