House Bill 4041-Michigan (Research Paper Sample)

House Bill 4041-Michigan
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Institution:
House Bill 4041-Michigan
A.  Bill Identification
The following is an analysis of a Social Welfare Legislation, namely Michigan State’s House bill No. 4041. This bill proposes to amend the Social Welfare Act, 1939 Public Act 280 by amending section 57b (MCL 400.57b) (legislature.mi.gov). It intends to further amend the amendments made by 2011 PA 131. Sponsored by Representative Al Pscholka, on January 21 2015, the bill was presented and read for the first time in the house. It was then referred (on the same date) to the committee on Families, Children, and Seniors.
Substantive Issue Analysis
The House Bill 4041is a legislation that defines the pre-qualification requirements for individuals who wish to benefit from the family independence assistance program (FIP). As detailed in this bill, beneficiaries of the FIP aids shall be compliant to the group’s compulsory school attendance in order to be viable for assistance. The FIP is an initiative of the Michigan state’s government that offers aid to families who are taking care of at least one minor child. In addition, the family must have at least one primary caretaker who is responsible for the physical care and monitoring of the child. Families without minor children may also be considered with certain exceptions such as pregnant women and parents whose children are placed under foster care. However, for the parent to a child in foster care, the child must be returning home in a year’s spell at the time of applying for FIP.
Aside from the child requirement, there are other regulations that govern the FIP award procedures. First, the prospective beneficiary must be a resident of Michigan State who is either a US citizen, permanent resident of the US or a legal immigrant. For immigrants, an individual who has the legal alien status may apply for FIP aid even if the rest of the family members are not legally qualified.
Presently, the FIP initiative has a minimum income and asset requirement. The evaluation of the minimum income requirement takes into account the present burden of certain expenditure such as medical bill. In addition, the beneficiary should either be unemployed, under employed or about to lose the job. People with a steady flow of income, as determined by the state officials, are not eligible for FIP.
Once a candidate is declared eligible for FIP, they are required to follow a work participation program for further assessment. The work participation program, usually called the Partnership, Accountability, Training and Hope (PATH), is a 21-day rigorous training in which social workers help the FIP candidate to address unemployment issue and secure job placement. PATH is part of the FIP pre-qualification as one may be declared ineligible for being uncooperative during PATH program. Under certain circumstances, the State official is authorized to determine if a given candidate need not to go through the PATH.
As at today, a person can only benefit from FIP only for 48 months in the lifetime. Prior to the 2011 Amendment, however, Michigan was the only state in the country with no limit for social welfare grants. People would clinch on the program for years without making effort towards self-reliance. As a result, Michigan’s budget on social welfare skyrocketed, thus necessitating the 2011 amendments. According to a report by the Department of Humana Service (DHS), Michigan spent over 12 billion dollars on welfare annually before 2011 (Morin, 2013). Further, an audit by the office of inspector general proved that about one percent of the money went to fraudulent cases due to improper regulation of the welfare kitty. The burden of social welfare became unbearable for the state, prompting for the amendment of the social welfare act.
The amendments were proposed through the bills 4409 and 4410 of March 2011, sponsored by Ken Horn, and Sharon Tyler, among other republican legislatures. The bills proposed changes on PA 131 and 132, introducing the 48 months limit. Although this time limit was first included in the social welfare act in 2007, it was not enforceable due to the sunset clause in the Act. As Morin explains, the sunset clause declared law inexistence after a given date (2013). For this reason, PA 131 and 132 proposed to eliminate the sunset clause, rendering the 48-months limit enforceable. Although these acts became were approved on September, 2011, their effectiveness was backdated to 2007 which led to the elimination of a large number of FIP beneficiaries. The amendment did not, however, take effect immediately following a series of suits that were filed by the FIP affected beneficiaries. While the course battles were still on going, a senate representative Bruce Caswell brought a senate bill 1386 to the house, seeking to increase the time limit from 48 to 68 months. The bill that was introduced on August 2012 received the governor’s assent on January 2013 to become PA 607.
The present bills, House Bill 4041 seeks to amend the regulations for eligibility of FIP. The present bill proposes to amends section 57b (MCL 400.57b) that was amended by PA 131(legislature.mi.gov). If it becomes law, a family independence program assistant group will cease to receive family aid through FIP if one or more members of the group are not compliant with the attendance requirements of section 1561 of the reviewed school code, 1976 Public Act 451. This act requires all the school going age to attend schools accordingly and purposefully. Children who drop out of schools are considered truant unless it is for a valid medical reason. This bill intends to redefine the child requirement rule by ensuring that parents to the school going age children sends them to school accordingly. It seeks to eliminate parents who harbor and encourage truant behavior. If it becomes law, some of the people whose children are old enough may be declared ineligible for FIP.
The child requirement regulation is the primary pre-qualification criterion in FIP awards. Therefore, by proposing to adjust this critical requirement, this bill is likely to affect a larger group of FIP beneficiaries. However, most families will not be locked out since the level of truancy in the modern society is relatively low. Nevertheless, there are still some who will be found non-compliant. Despite it affecting quite a minimal number of people, as compared to the 2011 amendments, those affected will still raise a public outcry. This is because no one is willing to lose their source of livelihood without a fight. Further, people may come out with different reasoning as to why children becomes truancy, some arguing that the parent may not be in a position to control the truancy in children.
In as much as the bill is good to the Michigan taxpayers since the state’s expenditure will reduce, but what will happen to those affected by the bill? To them, it will be human service crisis. Some the people likely to be affected by the bill rely solely on the aid from the DHS. Unless they are served with an adequate notice so that they have time to establish an alternative source, life may be difficult for them. Alternatively, the government should instigate measures to ensure that the immediate effect to the families affected is contained. After the 2011 amendment, for example, several families came out in public to narrate the painful ordeal after they were exonerated from the FIP. Also, different non-governmental organizations such as Michigan Welfare Rights Organization (MWRO), protested the legislation in support of the affected group. If the proposed bill is passed, similar stir is also likely to be experienced.
Committee Analysis
The proposed bill to remove parents to truancy children have since been referred the committee of Families, Children and seniors. However, by the time of this research, the bill was not among those scheduled at a committee meeting. Once scheduled, the committee will invite witnesses for a public hearing. In the researcher’s views, the hearing is likely to attract a multitude of people since the bill in question public is of public...