The Community Work and Training Program, authorized by the
1962 amendments to the Social Security Act, was a comprehensive program of
manpower and social supportive services especially designed to help needy,
disadvantaged individuals -- specifically recipients of AFDC -- prepare for and
get jobs in the open labor market.
The Work Experience and Training Program (Title V Projects)
was authorized in late 1964 by the Economic Opportunity Act. It retained the
same program concept of a comprehensive approach tailored to the social and
manpower needs of the individual, but operated under broader authority and more
attractive funding. This second program was widely adopted in the States by
public assistance agencies as a viable means of helping recipients become
employable and employed.
The 1966 Economic Opportunity Act amended Title V,
including the Work Experience and Training Program, in order to facilitate and
increase the contribution that Department of Labor (DOL) programs could make to
the program.
The 1967 amendments to the Social Security Act established
the Work Incentive Program and legislated the transition of the Work Experience
and Training Program into WIN and the phase-out of the Community Work and
Training Program. Under WIN, the program maintained its comprehensive program
concept but became the responsibility of two Federal Departments and their
counterpart State agencies, the Department of Labor and the Department of
Health, Education and Welfare.
The 1971 amendments to the Social Security Act further
refined the WIN Program with strong emphasis on "jointness" at all levels,
National, Regional, State and Local, including the parallel organizations in
both agencies to effect a practical working relationship. The Separate
Administrative Unit (SAU) which was mandated in the social service agency for
WIN activities was a revival of the separate Self-Support Unit that generally
existed in the welfare agency when it was conducting Title V projects. The
amendments also pointed in the direction of making manpower activities more
relevant to the labor market.
The present Work Incentive Program was amended December 28,
1971, by Public Law 92-223. The intent of the amendments was "improvement of
the Work Incentive Program" based on experience with the program and the
findings of evaluation studies. The principal changes effected by the new law
included the following:
A. an increase
in Federal matching to 90% for self-support social services provided under
WIN.
B. the term "referral" for WIN
was replaced by the words "registration" and "certification". Registration of
nonexempt persons for the WIN Program became a condition of eligibility for
receiving AFDC. The Act further specified who must register and who is exempt,
with criteria for exemption and the registration procedure established by the
Department of Labor. Certification, the responsibility of the social service
staff, was the provision of or arrangement for, those self-support services
needed by the registered recipient. Certification also signified to the
manpower agency that the individual was ready to enter employment or WIN
manpower activities.
C. it further
specified roles and responsibilities for both Department of Labor staff and
public welfare agency staff and areas where joint cooperation was
required.
D. sanctions were
imposed. Beginning July 1, 1973 the Federal match of assistance payments was to
be reduced by one percentage point for each percentage point by which the
number of individuals certified to WIN was less than 15% of the average number
of individuals in such State who, during such year, were required to be
registered for WIN.
E. assistance
payments funds were to no longer to be used to subsidize wages under special
work projects (now eliminated from the WIN Program). There was no disregard of
the $30 plus one-third of the earnings from public service employment which
replaced special work projects.
F.
responsibility for paying for training related costs, including transportation,
was transferred from the State agency to the WIN manpower agency.
G. the WIN manpower agency was directed to
accord priority in selecting registrants in the following order, taking into
account employability potential:
1.
unemployed fathers
2. mothers who
volunteered
3. other mothers and
pregnant women under age 19
4.
dependent children and relatives who had attained age 16 and who were not in
school or engaged in work or manpower training
5. all others certified to WIN
H. the Statewide Operational Plan
(SOP) described how WIN would be operated at the local level, indicating for
each area within the State the number and types of positions provided for
training, on-the-job training and for public service employment, the manner in
which information provided by the Labor Market Advisory Council would be used,
and the establishment of administrative responsibility for the various
activities and functions of the plan.
I. employers providing public services
employment were to be paid no more than 100 percent of the cost of providing
such employment to an individual during the first year of such employment, 75
percent of the costs during the second year and 50 percent of the costs during
the third year of such employment of the individual.
In September, 1975 the United States Department of Labor
and the United States Department of Health, Education and Welfare jointly
issued new regulations to achieve several purposes and which are the current
basis for operation of the Program. These regulations directed counterpart
agencies to:
A. assist as many clients
as possible to obtain employment before they apply for welfare.
B. speed up job placement for job-ready
registrants.
C. increase
employment-related services to registrants through immediate labor market
exposure and intensive manpower services.
D. teach registrants job finding
skills.
E. facilitate communication
and coordination between the Income Maintenance Unit (IMU), the Separate
Administrative Unit (SAU) and the WIN sponsor. To accomplish this the following
major changes were mandated:
1. transfer
registration to WIN Sponsor
2.
provide labor market exposure at the point of registration
3. provide intensive manpower services as an
optional component, emphasizing placements, job findings and interviewing
skills.
4. transfer deregistration
to the WIN Sponsor.
5. provide
Training Related Expenses (TRE) to certified or uncertified registrant
recipients seeking employment outside a component.
6. abolish the concept of a registrant pool.
All registered recipients who are not in a component or working full-time will
be in an Unassigned Recipient Status. If certified such recipient become
eligible for SAU and Employment Security services.
7. limit regular social services to up to 90
days after entering On-the-Job Training (OJT), Public Service Employment (PSE)
or unsubsidized employment.
8. in
special circumstances, provide for up to 30 days of child care to prevent
working registrants from losing employment.
9. permit the SAU to provide additional
services to certified registrants without prior request of the Manpower
Agency.
10. broaden the definition
of appropriate work to include part-time and temporary employment.
11. provide up to 60 days counseling to
certified registrants prior to deregistration for failure to participate and to
limit a certified registrant to one counseling period.
12. strengthen the role of the National
Coordinating Committee (N.C.C.) by having it appoint the WIN Executive Director
and making National Coordinating Committee Issuance binding.
