The Community Work and Training Program, authorized by the 1962 amendments to the Social Security Act, was a comprehensive program of manpower and social supportive services especially designed to help needy, disadvantaged individuals -- specifically recipients of AFDC -- prepare for and get jobs in the open labor market.
The Work Experience and Training Program (Title V Projects) was authorized in late 1964 by the Economic Opportunity Act. It retained the same program concept of a comprehensive approach tailored to the social and manpower needs of the individual, but operated under broader authority and more attractive funding. This second program was widely adopted in the States by public assistance agencies as a viable means of helping recipients become employable and employed.
The 1966 Economic Opportunity Act amended Title V, including the Work Experience and Training Program, in order to facilitate and increase the contribution that Department of Labor (DOL) programs could make to the program.
The 1967 amendments to the Social Security Act established the Work Incentive Program and legislated the transition of the Work Experience and Training Program into WIN and the phase-out of the Community Work and Training Program. Under WIN, the program maintained its comprehensive program concept but became the responsibility of two Federal Departments and their counterpart State agencies, the Department of Labor and the Department of Health, Education and Welfare.
The 1971 amendments to the Social Security Act further refined the WIN Program with strong emphasis on "jointness" at all levels, National, Regional, State and Local, including the parallel organizations in both agencies to effect a practical working relationship. The Separate Administrative Unit (SAU) which was mandated in the social service agency for WIN activities was a revival of the separate Self-Support Unit that generally existed in the welfare agency when it was conducting Title V projects. The amendments also pointed in the direction of making manpower activities more relevant to the labor market.
The present Work Incentive Program was amended December 28, 1971, by Public Law 92-223. The intent of the amendments was "improvement of the Work Incentive Program" based on experience with the program and the findings of evaluation studies. The principal changes effected by the new law included the following:
A. an increase in Federal matching to 90% for self-support social services provided under WIN.B. the term "referral" for WIN was replaced by the words "registration" and "certification". Registration of nonexempt persons for the WIN Program became a condition of eligibility for receiving AFDC. The Act further specified who must register and who is exempt, with criteria for exemption and the registration procedure established by the Department of Labor. Certification, the responsibility of the social service staff, was the provision of or arrangement for, those self-support services needed by the registered recipient. Certification also signified to the manpower agency that the individual was ready to enter employment or WIN manpower activities.C. it further specified roles and responsibilities for both Department of Labor staff and public welfare agency staff and areas where joint cooperation was required.D. sanctions were imposed. Beginning July 1, 1973 the Federal match of assistance payments was to be reduced by one percentage point for each percentage point by which the number of individuals certified to WIN was less than 15% of the average number of individuals in such State who, during such year, were required to be registered for WIN.E. assistance payments funds were to no longer to be used to subsidize wages under special work projects (now eliminated from the WIN Program). There was no disregard of the $30 plus one-third of the earnings from public service employment which replaced special work projects.F. responsibility for paying for training related costs, including transportation, was transferred from the State agency to the WIN manpower agency.G. the WIN manpower agency was directed to accord priority in selecting registrants in the following order, taking into account employability potential: 2. mothers who volunteered3. other mothers and pregnant women under age 194. dependent children and relatives who had attained age 16 and who were not in school or engaged in work or manpower training5. all others certified to WINH. the Statewide Operational Plan (SOP) described how WIN would be operated at the local level, indicating for each area within the State the number and types of positions provided for training, on-the-job training and for public service employment, the manner in which information provided by the Labor Market Advisory Council would be used, and the establishment of administrative responsibility for the various activities and functions of the plan.I. employers providing public services employment were to be paid no more than 100 percent of the cost of providing such employment to an individual during the first year of such employment, 75 percent of the costs during the second year and 50 percent of the costs during the third year of such employment of the individual. In September, 1975 the United States Department of Labor and the United States Department of Health, Education and Welfare jointly issued new regulations to achieve several purposes and which are the current basis for operation of the Program. These regulations directed counterpart agencies to:
A. assist as many clients as possible to obtain employment before they apply for welfare.B. speed up job placement for job-ready registrants.C. increase employment-related services to registrants through immediate labor market exposure and intensive manpower services.D. teach registrants job finding skills.E. facilitate communication and coordination between the Income Maintenance Unit (IMU), the Separate Administrative Unit (SAU) and the WIN sponsor. To accomplish this the following major changes were mandated: 1. transfer registration to WIN Sponsor2. provide labor market exposure at the point of registration3. provide intensive manpower services as an optional component, emphasizing placements, job findings and interviewing skills.4. transfer deregistration to the WIN Sponsor.5. provide Training Related Expenses (TRE) to certified or uncertified registrant recipients seeking employment outside a component.6. abolish the concept of a registrant pool. All registered recipients who are not in a component or working full-time will be in an Unassigned Recipient Status. If certified such recipient become eligible for SAU and Employment Security services.7. limit regular social services to up to 90 days after entering On-the-Job Training (OJT), Public Service Employment (PSE) or unsubsidized employment.8. in special circumstances, provide for up to 30 days of child care to prevent working registrants from losing employment.9. permit the SAU to provide additional services to certified registrants without prior request of the Manpower Agency.10. broaden the definition of appropriate work to include part-time and temporary employment.11. provide up to 60 days counseling to certified registrants prior to deregistration for failure to participate and to limit a certified registrant to one counseling period.12. strengthen the role of the National Coordinating Committee (N.C.C.) by having it appoint the WIN Executive Director and making National Coordinating Committee Issuance binding.10- 144 C.M.R. ch. 311, § I-III