A 2-month-old policy requiring welfare applicants to look for work or lose some benefits has at best met with mixed results, according to county social services officials.
So far, three people have found work through the Up Front Job Search, but four have been penalized with reduced welfare payments for not making enough job applications.
Since March 1, people seeking cash grants through Aid to Families With Dependent Children (AFDC) have been required to apply for five jobs a week while waiting for their aid applications to be processed, which may take up to a month.
Of the 25 welfare applicants who participated in the job search, three have found jobs, according to social services statistics through April 30.
M. Alexander Jones, director of the county Department of Social Services, said it is too soon to draw any conclusions about the policy.
"I don't know if I had specific expectations for a program that's been in effect for eight weeks," Mr. Jones said.
"The Up Front Job Search is not very structured," he said. "The philosophy is that any job is better than no job; it's a steppingstone to something else."
Local social services officials adopted the policy in expectation of statewide welfare reforms enacted by the General Assembly last month. The state measures call for "welfare avoidance grants" to tide recipients over hard times, instead of providing long-term cash assistance.
Carroll, similar to other counties, has begun to make changes geared toward moving welfare recipients to self-sufficiency.
But local AFDC recipients are facing a job market that doesn't offer many possibilities.
Job listings distributed every two weeks by the county unemployment office generally include 50 to 60 positions. Mr. Jones estimates that welfare recipients might qualify for about 20 of those jobs.
But he said he was encouraged by a recent county job vacancy report that listed 47 full-time jobs requiring no education beyond a high school diploma.
"There are more jobs open than we've had in months," Mr. Jones said. "And there's a good possibility that those who continue looking will find a job."
The new job search policy has affected only a small portion of county welfare applicants. Of the 112 people who applied for aid since March 1, 87 were exempt from the job search requirements, most because they had children under age 3.
But beginning July 1, only people with children under one year will be exempt.
