New Jersey Audit Faults Counties For Failure To Refer General Assistance Recipients To Mandatory Work Programs

On May 14, 2015, the New Jersey Office of the State Comptroller (OSC) announced that a three-county audit of the counties’ General Assistance (public welfare) programs found that of the cases reviewed, the counties failed to refer more than half of participants to mandatory work programs. Additionally, the counties had failed to ensure eligibility for nearly a quarter of participants and almost half of the participants lacked documentation to prove that they had no disqualifying drug convictions.

New Jersey’s Work First General Assistance program is funded solely through state aid and administered by county welfare agencies (CWAs). The . . .