Michigan Braces for a Surge in Welfare Applications

News from the Washington Post, where Michigan's 14.1% unemployed will soon find their employment benefits gone. Nearly one in seven unemployed workers will have exhausted their jobless benefits by January of 2010 which amounts to about 100,000 Michigan workers.

"We're expecting a huge influx of applications in the next few months," said Barbara Anders, the director of adult and family services at the Michigan Department of Human Services.

Many of these workers will be forced to apply for welfare services, where Michigan has one of the strictest rules in the nation for cash benefits. Nearly one in seven of Michigan residents are receiving food benefits in their households.

Local advocates for low-income people cite Michigan's rules limiting the income or assets of would-be welfare recipients. A family of three that earns more than $814 a month is ineligible for welfare in Michigan, a threshold that hasn't changed in more than two decades, said Sharon Parks, president of the Michigan League for Human Services, an advocacy group for low-income people.

"The fact that it's stayed the same means that you have to be poorer and poorer to qualify for cash assistance," Ms. Parks said.

What this means is that more workers will increasingly depend on a welfare system that is already buckling to support them. I will continue to follow this story as updates occur.