Clinton Urges Food Aid for Welfare-to-Work Families

WASHINGTON —  President Clinton said Saturday that low-income working families making the transition from welfare should temporarily receive additional food stamps to help cope with “what can be a trying time.”

Clinton, in his weekly radio address, said the Agriculture Department this week will act to allow states to provide three-month transitional food stamps for families going from welfare to work.

“Supporting hard-pressed working families is the right policy for America. It’s also a smart thing to do,” Clinton said in an address taped during a trip to Vietnam. “It encourages millions of people to take responsibility, to strengthen their families, as well as our economy.”

Rule changes will make it easier for food-stamp recipients to own a car that is used for work. It will also give people six months to report income changes and require states to let working families know whether they are still eligible for food stamps.

“If there’s a way to keep the transition seamless, then we should do it,” said Ellen Vollinger of the Food Research and Action Center, who praised Clinton’s action.

She said three months of benefits would make it less likely that families will get into financial trouble and return to welfare.

“This gives new workers stability in what can be a trying time,” Clinton said.

About 62% of households now eligible for food stamps, many of them working families, do not get them, according to the Agriculture Department. Participation rates for eligible families vary widely among states, from a low of 45% in Nevada to 92% in West Virginia.

Experts say many families do not know they are eligible, while others are put off by red tape or the stigma of taking handouts.

“No one who works hard every day should have trouble putting food on the table at night,” Clinton said.

The president also urged Congress to restore food-stamp benefits to legal immigrants and to raise the hourly minimum wage $1.

An estimated 450,000 legal immigrants remain cut off from food stamps as a result of the 1996 welfare reform law.