A review of the state's welfare program found it still has several challenges to getting its clients on the road to self-sufficiency.

The Legislative Audit Bureau released its evaluation of the Wisconsin Works, or W-2, program Thursday. The program is up for renewal for 2006 and 2007.

"Since W-2 was implemented statewide in September 1997, it has successfully helped some participants obtain unsubsidized employment," the report said. "However, the program has also faced challenges over time."

The program, which has cost the state $1.5 billion, is administered by the Department of Workforce Development through 52 public and private agencies. These providers help people get connected to work places, said Rose Lynch, spokeswoman for the Department of Workforce Development.

The report found that 20 percent of participants earned above the poverty level in the year after leaving the program.

There is a lifetime limit of 60 months for subsidized employment, but the report found that there were more requests for extensions during the first half of 2004 than during all of 2003.

The ultimate goal of the program should be economic self-sufficiency, said Kristin Settle, working families project coordinator for the Institute for Wisconsin's Future, a non-profit, non-partisan policy research center.

Returning participants made up more than half of all subsidized placements in June 2004, according to the report.

A 2001 audit by the Bureau highlighted many of the same problems, Settle said.

"Clearly little has changed since then," Settle said. "The program is still not giving people the training or education they need."

The report also showed the number of new participants who were taking care of infants more than doubled from 1998 to 2004.

Women are leaving work and are using the subsidized payments of W-2 as a kind of maternity leave, according to State Rep. Sue Jeskewitz (R-Menomonee Falls), co-chair of the Joint Legislative Audit Committee.

"It's an unintentional consequence," Jeskewitz said.

The DWD needs to find out what they can do to help the people still in the program, Jeskewitz said.

"These people are facing barriers and that's why they haven't been able to get off of W-2," she said.

The report confirmed that the DWD is already working on the areas where they need improvement, according to Lynch.

"There were no red flags," Lynch said.

The biggest success of the program, Jeskewitz said, was that it started out with 55,000 people and now it is down to around 15,000.

"We have more people working than when we started," Jeskewitz said.

But, according to Settle, the goal of W-2 should be poverty reduction, not a reduction in caseloads.

"It is my hope that DWD will take this seriously and make the necessary changes in the structure," Settle said.

The DWD is putting other programs into effect soon, Lynch said. One of these programs is Trial Jobs Plus, which aims to take individuals from the W-2 program to real work and give their new employers a stipend. This program is in the department's budget proposal, according to Lynch.

The DWD is also seeking an increase in the minimum wage and increased service integration, Lynch said.

The Request for Proposals — required for DWD to continue the W-2 program — is scheduled to come out at the end of April, Jeskewitz said.

This article appeared in The Marquette Tribune on April 12 2005.