Welfare recipients would have to wait at least one more year before their monthly cash assistance is increased, despite a bill that changes the standard to reflect the 2006 federal poverty level.

Currently, payments are based on a percentage of the 1993 federal poverty level, even though the cost of living in Honolulu has increased 23 percent since the last adjustment.

Welfare advocates say the bill — which passed the Legislature and is under review by Gov. Linda Lingle's administration — is a mixed bag, falling short of what they asked for, but still holding out hope of improvement.

"This was an opportunity to increase low-income families' payments," said advocate Teresa Bill, who added that the bill only created a vehicle to increase payment.

What it lacks is funding that would allow the state to cut bigger monthly checks. "It's fiscally neutral. There's no positive or negative effect on families," Bill said.

A family of three on welfare now receives about $570 a month. Under the bill before the governor, the state would have the option to raise that payment by almost $400 a month — but not before July 1, 2007.

However, the state also could opt for a smaller increase — or no increase at all — although Sen. Suzanne Chun Oakland, D-13th (Kalihi, Nu'uanu), one of the champions for the increase, said, "we hope that's not the case."

Chun Oakland, chairwoman of the Senate Human Services committee, said the increase can't take effect immediately because the federal government recently changed the federal welfare law and the state needs to figure out what the impact will be and how much more it can afford to pay. One of the major questions is whether heightened work requirements will force the state to invest more in work programs rather than raise cash assistance.

"That's the hesitancy with us moving forward this year because we don't know all the ramifications of the federal rules coming down this year," Chun Oakland said.

She hopes, as do advocates, that there will be some way to increase cash assistance, although "not to the extent that it would then (discourage) people to work."

"We want to provide the funds necessary to at least meet some of their basic needs that are not covered, like rent," Chun Oakland said.

Welfare advocates say that increasing payments enough so that recipients can find stable housing is critical for those trying to become self-sufficient, and it's hard for a family of three to find a place to live when they have only $570 a month in cash.

For that reason, interested parties say the discussion about increasing the cash payments will continue next session.

Joel Fischer, a professor of social work at the University of Hawai'i, said the final version of the bill came as a surprise to those who had lobbied for an increase in cash payments, as well as other measures to help the needy, which they thought would have immediate impact.

"We literally thought we had it in the bag. It had never gone through both houses (in the Legislature)," he said. "That was the disappointment, but the hope is that this will still provide some relief for welfare families."

While raising the "standard of need" to the 2006 poverty level was progress, Fischer said he had hoped the law would use the "current" federal poverty level in the law instead, so advocates wouldn't have to request an increase every year, as they have done annually since the previous increase 13 years ago.

"The 1993 standard of need was just obscene and was just so regressive for welfare families," he said.

Reach Treena Shapiro at tshapiro@honoluluadvertiser.com.