By Nelson Helm
Rockbridge County residents might need to pass drug tests to receive their welfare benefits, if a new bill is passed in Richmond.
Del. Ben Cline has proposed legislation to the General Assembly to test some welfare recipients for drugs before they can receive government assistance. Cline represents the 24th House District, which includes Rockbridge, Bath, Augusta and Amherst counties and the cities of Lexington and Buena Vista.
Twenty-five Rockbridge area residents, including one in Lexington and seven in Buena Vista, would be affected by the proposal. Statewide, the bill would affect almost 9,000 people.
The proposal to screen and drug test participants of the Virginia Initiative for Education not Welfare, or VIEW, program would cost an estimated $200,000 to $300,000 in 2017 alone, Cline said in a statement. However, he expects the drug testing would save close to $200,000 in Temporary Assistance to Needy Family, or TANF, benefits in the first year, and $400,000 in each year thereafter.
The VIEW program was initiated in 1995 to make welfare recipients self-sufficient. It provides job readiness and job placement services to those who qualify. The original VIEW bill also limited the number of months a person could receive certain benefits.
In the Rockbridge area, 302 people were receiving TANF benefits at a total cost of $185,566 for fiscal year 2015. This amounts to close to $51 per month per person, less than the state average of $72 per month.
Meredith Downey, director of the Rockbridge Area Department of Social Services, said that the state does not currently screen for any type of addiction for the VIEW program.
“The purpose of the [VIEW] legislation was obviously to get the numbers down, and they are way down, because if you don’t cooperate you are sanctioned,” Downey said. “The first time you are sanctioned you lose a month’s benefits. After that, you just can’t receive TANF.”
According to Cline’s bill, which was filed on Jan. 12, social service workers would occasionally interview a VIEW recipient and decide if a drug test is necessary. If a person fails or refuses to take the drug test, he or she would be ineligible for TANF assistance for 12 months unless they enter into a drug treatment program. According to the bill, other members of the household who were receiving TANF benefits would not be affected.
Cline’s proposal assumes a 10.2 percent rate of drug use among VIEW program participants, which matches the national average cited by the National Survey on Drug Use and Health for persons aged 12 or older in 2014. The proposal also assumes that 909 VIEW participants would test positive every year, with half of those entering into a drug treatment program.
Downey said that if a person was on other forms of welfare, it too could be affected if they do not comply with VIEW guidelines.
“If it were something like you refused a job, then it involved your portion of the TANF check being withheld,” she said. “If you receive SNAP benefits and your child is above 6 years old, then it can affect the SNAP benefits too.”
Cline’s office did not return several calls for comment.
Fran Elrod, associate director of community-based learning at Washington and Lee University, does not support the legislation because she said that drug treatment is “woefully” underfunded and underprovided in the area.
“I imagine what will actually happen is that people will be mandated to services that simply aren’t available and then they, and their children, will lose necessary food assistance,” she said.