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North Carolina's 15-year-old welfare program, Work First, will begin living up to its name this year by requiring adult recipients to work, go to school, or job hunt before they get their monthly benefits checks.
A handful of counties already have a "pay after performance" rule. The state Department of Health and Human Services made the pay rule a statewide policy this month, though it sent out payments as usual a few weeks ago to give the 8,900 households that have to live by the new policy a month to adapt to the change.
Adults in this group have agreements with their counties that say they will work, look for work or attend classes for a set amount of time each month.
In the past, recipients got their money whether or not they stuck to the plan.
In November, payments won't be automatic, anymore, and social workers will expect recipients to show that they've complied, or have a good reason for not following through, before they get their money.
The state made the change because it falls short of federal goals for getting welfare recipients working, or on a steady path toward getting jobs.
Historically, about one-third of the adults in the state welfare program who must work or engage in work-related activities meet monthly requirements, said Dean Simpson, chief of economic and family services at the state Department of Health and Human Services.
The federal government's goal for the state is 50 percent.
The state feared a strong penalty -- a cut in its welfare grant -- if it didn't take steps to meet the federal goal.
"Counties that were doing this were showing it was successful," Simpson said. "It was good for the client and good for the state."
State and federal changes to welfare laws in the mid-1990s put a time limit on benefits, and set work and job preparation requirements for recipients.
The changes in welfare laws emphasized getting adults who were able to work into jobs, and providing support as they moved from unemployment into the workforce. As a result, some welfare recipients work in low-paying jobs and are subsidized by the government, while others work at jobs without pay to learn skills and work habits.
County Work First directors said they welcomed the rule requiring recipients to stick to their work and training agreements.
Susie Parrott, the Work First manager in Mecklenburg, said the new rule will benefit most of the 2,000 households that must comply because it's another prod toward moving families toward self-sufficiency.
But she anticipates that some recipients will decide to leave Work First because they don't like the new requirements.
"You will have some that will say, 'This is just not for me,'" she said. "You have to work first before you see your check, and that is a change."
