Release #510-99

Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani and Human Resources Administration (HRA) Commissioner Jason Turner today announced that the City achieved full engagement in work activities for all able-bodied welfare recipients on public assistance. The City reached the goal set by Mayor Giuliani in July 1998 to end welfare dependency by the year 2000 and replace it with work in exchange for earnings.

"Today marks the milestone of replacing the culture of dependency in New York City with the culture of work and employment," Mayor Giuliani said. "Commissioner Turner and his team at HRA have brought about one of the most fundamental and bold changes in New York City by replacing welfare with a system that makes work the first and most important alternative for those able- bodied people seeking financial assistance.

"The attainment of this goal also underscores the vital importance of changing our welfare centers into job centers. This resulted in the record reduction in the number of people on public assistance, which has been reduced by 532,000 people," the Mayor concluded.

Since July of 1998, the overall caseload has dropped by 17 percent to 276,000, while the number of recipients engaged in work activities has risen to 131,542 and the number of recipients unengaged has dropped to zero. During Mayor Giuliani's tenure in office, the number of public assistance cases has dropped by 49 percent from its peak of 562,000 in March 1995. This reduction saves taxpayers more than $1.3 billion per year (all funds) in reduced cash assistance payments when compared to expenditures five years ago.