This section is co-authored by Director of Economic Justice Ife Finch Floyd and Senior Analyst of Worker Justice and Criminal Legal Systems Ray Khalfani.
The 20-Year View
In 2004 and again in 2022, the most recent year for which data is available, approximately 1 in 5 children lived in poverty. In addition, about 1 in 10 Georgia children experienced even greater hardship as they lived in extreme poverty, half the poverty line. Over the past 20 years, GBPI has worked toward achieving greater economic security for Georgia children. The organization has achieved small wins along the way, such as minor adjustments to programs like Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), which should serve Georgia’s poorest families, but does not reach as many as it could. The state has made few adjustments to TANF that would benefit poor families since the program started in 1997. Thanks in part to the work of GBPI, in 2023, the Georgia legislature ended the family cap, which prevented families from receiving an incremental grant increase if they had another child while receiving TANF. Now these families receive a little bit more in benefits to help pay for diapers and baby supplies.
The Department of Human Services Budget
The Department of Human Services (DHS) oversees various services, including foster care, child welfare, support for low-income individuals, aging services and child support. There are four agencies that are included in the DHS budget for administrative reasons: the Council on Aging, Georgia Vocational Rehabilitation Agency, Family Connect and the Safe Harbor for Sexually Exploited Children Fund Commission. The FY 2025 budget includes about $1 billion for the department, about a 4% increase from FY 2024.
More Than Half of the $43 Million Increase to DHS Would Be for Pay Raises
The FY 2025 DHS budget is $43 million more than FY 2024. The increase includes:
- $15 million for a 4% cost of living adjustment for state employees.
- $7 million for an additional salary increase for caseworkers for child welfare, elderly abuse investigations and prevention, child support and law enforcement officers working with the Georgia Vocational Rehabilitation Agency.
- $4.9 million for the Gwinnett Commercial Sexual Exploitation Recovery Center.
Child welfare, foster care and adoption-related services account for about 63% of the agency’s budget. The next biggest share of spending is federal low-income assistance programs such as Medicaid, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), accounting for 16% of the agency’s budget. The department’s administration and smaller programs such as elder care services, child support services and the attached agencies account for the remaining funds.
Division of Family and Children Services (DFCS) Eligibility Workers are Excluded in the Budget’s Additional Pay Increases for Frontline Workers
The FY 2025 budget creates a disparity among DFCS frontline workers. It includes the statewide 4% COLA and a $3,000 pay increase for caseworkers in child welfare, child support and elderly abuse investigations. In contrast, the budget only includes the 4% COLA for entry-level eligibility workers but does not grant them the $3,000 pay increase. DFCS eligibility workers or Economic Support Specialists (ESS) process Georgians’ applications and ongoing eligibility for SNAP, TANF, Medicaid and other programs for people with low income.
This is not the first time that child welfare workers have gotten a major pay increase while eligibility workers did not. In FY 2018, salaries for entry-level child welfare workers increased by more than $6,000.
Entry-level ESS got a pay raise of about $1,300 in FY 2019. Under the FY 2025 budget, pay for entry-level child welfare workers would have grown by an estimated 26%, adjusted for inflation, since FY 2017, while entry-level eligibility workers would have only seen an estimated 7% growth in their salaries.
ESS staff are essential to some of DFCS’ core operations but struggle with an immense workload. For example, they worked the past year to redetermine 2.8 million Medicaid recipients. Despite hiring efforts, eligibility workers had, on average, 910 cases each in January 2024.[1] Turnover, which has historically been high among these staff, has improved in the past year. The fiscal year turnover rate was 16.5% in March 2024, down from 17.7% a year prior. However, most turnover is among staff who have been with the agency for a year or less.[2]
After Nearly Three Decades, State Lawmakers Finally Repealed the Family Cap in 2023
In 2023, the Governor called for a repeal of the family cap in the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program, which provides small cash payments to families in poverty. GBPI educated lawmakers on why these were important steps to support expecting families and families with infants. The policy passed the legislature with the majority support of both parties.
TANF was built on racist and sexist narratives of single motherhood.[3] Lawmakers, the media, and prominent think tanks propagated a false notion that single mothers living in poverty, especially Black single mothers, were unwilling to work. Moreover, they claimed that these mothers chose to have children to receive a slight increase in their welfare benefits.[4] The latter myth was the basis of the TANF family cap, a policy that denied or limited an incremental increase in monthly benefits if a mother had another child while receiving cash assistance. Georgia incorporated this policy into its TANF program in 1997.
GBPI has long advocated for a stronger cash safety net. In 2020, GBPI urged state leaders to repeal the family cap.[5] Many other states had already ended the policy, noting that research found it was ineffective at reducing babies born to single mothers.[6] GBPI also pulled together research presenting strong evidence that increasing cash support broadly for expecting mothers and birthing people improved short and long-term outcomes for the parent and the baby.[7]
Ultimately, the end of the family cap will help only a few families. Punitive policies like the family cap, harsh work requirements for applicants and clients and extremely low benefits contributed to a TANF caseload decline for over two decades. In 2020, TANF reached about five families for every 100 in poverty, one of the lowest ratios in the country.[8] In FY 2023, Georgia served only 219 families subjected to the family cap.[9]
Georgia’s Department of Labor Budget
The $8.6 million in the FY 2025 budget for the Georgia Department of Labor (DOL) increases spending from FY 2024 levels by over $443,000. This net increase reflects staff cost-of-living adjustments. It also reflects that the state is shifting funds away from typical program uses and redirecting them to the state’s modernization of its customer service platform and Unemployment Insurance (UI) system technology.
Over the last two decades, state investments to maintain DOL’s long-term resiliency have significantly declined, despite DOL’s role in stabilizing the economy and protecting dislocated workers during two of the worst recessions in history, 2009 and 2020. Since FY 2005, state spending on DOL’s UI division has declined by 30%. Also, state lawmakers have withheld portions of “administrative assessment” revenue from DOL for decades,[10] likely totaling hundreds of millions of dollars, despite the boosts that full yearly allocations could provide for DOL.
Implications of Georgia’s Current Underinvestment
A significant share of FY 2025 state spending to support DOL modernization relies on taking $2 million away from DOL programs critical for UI benefit administration and collecting UI Trust Fund revenue from employers. These fiscal actions threaten to spur DOL staff reductions[11] and weaken trust fund revenue. This comes at a critical economic period when trust fund levels should replenish while statewide unemployment claim levels are low. Georgia’s UI Trust Fund is at a disadvantage due to having one of the lowest average employer contribution rates in the country,[12] which is further worsened by routine cuts made by lawmakers.
Endnotes
[1] Georgia Department of Human Services, Division of Family and Children Services. (2024, February 27). Presentation to the DHS & DFCS advisory board.
[2] GBPI open records requests from DFCS’ Office of Family Independence.
[3] Camardelle, A., & Khalfani, R. (2020, October 1). Cash matters: Reimagining anti-racist TANF policies in Georgia. Georgia Budget and Policy Institute. https://gbpi.org/cash-matters-reimagining-anti-racist-tanf-policies-georgia/
[4] Floyd, I., Pavetti, D., Meyer, L., Safawi, A., Schott, L., Bellew, E., & Magnus, A. (2021, August 4). TANF policies reflect racist legacy of cash assistance: Reimagined program should center black mothers. https://www.cbpp.org/research/income-security/tanf-policies-reflect-racist-legacy-of-cash-assistance
[5] Camardelle, A. (2020, February 3). Repeal Georgia’s cap on kids. Georgia Budget and Policy Institute. https://gbpi.org/repeal-georgias-cap-on-kids/
[6] Wiltz, T. (2019, May 3). Family welfare caps lose favor in more states. Stateline. https://stateline.org/2019/05/03/family-welfare-caps-lose-favor-in-more-states/. Donovan, P. (1998, February 1). Does the family cap influence birthrates? Two new studies say ‘no’. The Guttmacher Institute. https://www.guttmacher.org/gpr/1998/02/does-family-cap-influence-birthrates-two-new-studies-say-no.
[7] Finch Floyd, I. (2022, August 29). Cash supports should be integrated into the maternal-infant health policy agenda. Georgia Budget and Policy Institute. https://gbpi.org/cash-supports-should-be-integrated-into-the-maternal-infant-health-policy-agenda/.
[8] Shrivstava, A., & Azito Thompson, G. (2022, February 18). TANF cash assistance should reach millions more families to lessen hardship: Access to TANF hits lowest point amid precarious economic conditions. Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. https://www.cbpp.org/research/family-income-support/cash-assistance-should-reach-millions-more-families
[9] Division of Family and Children Services. (2023). Welfare reform in Georgia 2023: Senate bill 104. Department of Human Services.
[10] GA Department of Audits and Accounts. (2007, October). Special Examination on Administrative Assessments within the DOL.
[11] DOL Commissioner Bruce Thompson testimony in March 6, 2024 Senate Appropriations Subcommittee hearing, starting at 59:35. Found at https://vimeo.com/showcase/9076500?video=913412333.
[12] Georgia had the 48th lowest average employer contribution rate in 2023, per the U.S. Department of Labor’s Employment and Training Administration.
