Posted on: Wednesday, July 3, 2002

Hawai'i gets $4.9 million welfare-to-work bonus

Associated Press

Hawai'i will get a $4.9 million cash bonus for being a national leader for the second year in a row in getting welfare recipients to work, Gov. Ben Cayetano announced yesterday.

The state's system of incentives to get welfare recipients into the work force "has brought more Hawai'i families a sense of achievement that comes with being self-sufficient," Cayetano said.

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson announced the bonus payments totaling $200 million for Hawai'i and 25 other states and the District of Columbia.

Hawai'i's bonus was for improving its job entry rate and improving the success record on the job, the governor's office said.

Susan Chandler, director of the Department of Human Services which handles the welfare-to-work program, said when Hawai'i started its Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program in 1997, the number of families getting assistance averaged 23,573 a month.

That number has been reduced dramatically and "all indicators show that welfare reform in Hawai'i is working," Chandler said.