Code of Maine Rules › 10 - DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES › 144 - DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES - GENERAL › Chapter 311 - WORK INCENTIVE (WIN) PROGRAM MANUAL › Chapter I - INTRODUCTION AND PHILOSOPHY › Section 144-311-I-III - History of the WIN Program

Current through 2024-29, July 17, 2024
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:
1.
				  unemployed fathers
2. mothers who
				  volunteered
3. other mothers and
				  pregnant women under age 19
4.
				  dependent children and relatives who had attained age 16 and who were not in
				  school or engaged in work or manpower training
5. all others certified to WIN