Federal matching would be reduced if state error rates exceed 3%, and this tolerance level would decline 1% a year to 0 in FY 1986. This is simply a straightforward reduction in federal matching. There is no way in which errors can ever be totally eliminated, and there is a point at which the money spent to further reduce errors is more than the cost of such errors. Tying a reduction in federal matching to error rates is particularly pernicious, since it encourages states to take any action necessary to avoid overpayments and payments to ineligibles, including risking erroneous denials and terminations, and underpayments. (- $234 million) Federal matching for the Work Incentive Program would be eliminated. Despite the Administration's repeated emphasis on work requirements for AFDC recipients, it is proposing to eliminate the only federally funded employment and training program specifically earmarked for AFDC recipients. Admittedly the program has had only limited success in providing opportunity for training and in finding jobs for recipients but that seems the inevitable result of the fact that it has never been funded above $365 million. Simply eliminating the program without providing any federally funded replacement obviously is not going to provide any more training or find any more jobs. (-$245 million) |