Efforts to get people of welfare and back to work appear to be successful

A new report shows nearly all the Iowans who were on welfare in 1996 are no longer on the public dole. Just over 98 percent of those who signed a “Family Investment Plan” five years ago have moved off the welfare rolls. Former legislator Lee Plasier of Sioux Center helped craft the welfare reform plan.Plasier says no one in the legislature imagined the re-tooling of welfare programs would be so successful. Under the reforms, welfare recipients sign an agreement to find a good-paying job, and the state agrees to help in the interim with things like childcare and education. Plasier says that was definitely a change, he says it made clear that there would be a good faith effort by clients and the states to help people.On January 1, just 350 Iowa families who’ve been on welfare for the past five years — and who’ve been unable or unwilling to find an alternative to welfare — will be kicked out of the system.State officials say the people who stay on welfare the longest are those with the biggest problems, like a drug addiction or mental illness.