Hawaii cuts welfare payments for ‘poorest of the poor’
Hawaii’s Department of Human Services began slashing welfare payments to thousands of the state’s most vulnerable this month as emergency reserve funds ran dry amid increasing demand for aid.
The state’s “general assistance” program provides cash assistance to adults with physical or mental disabilities that prevent them from working. Social service agencies say many of the recipients are homeless or on the brink of homelessness and that the modest monthly payments help with their most basic of needs.
Beginning March 1, the state agency reduced the payments by one-third, from $388 a month to $260 a month for the approximately 6,700 claimants.
Gov. David Ige’s administration and state lawmakers are working to fully restore the benefits, but that could take months.
https://www.staradvertiser.com/2021/03/21/hawaii-news/state-cuts-welfare-payments-for-poorest-of-the-poor/
