Thomas McLaughlin interviewed for WCSH6 series on Maine's welfare system

51品茶Professor of Social Work Thomas Chalmers McLaughlin, Ph.D. was interviewed for the first of a two-part series by WCSH6 TV news on Gov. Paul LePage's call for reforming Maine's welfare system. The first part of the series that ran Feb. 24, 2011 focused on the issue of whether Maine's welfare system is a magnet for people from out of state who come here because of its reputation for generous benefits. McLaughlin, who has been compiling statistics on Maine's welfare system for six years, said that the facts do not support that reputation. His research finds that there are two to three times more people on welfare who move out of Maine than those who come to Maine and apply for welfare. People from out of state come to Maine looking for jobs, he said, and many are seasonal workers who travel back and forth between Maine and Florida.

McLaughlin is one of the authors of a new study of Maine's Temporary Assistance to Needy Families Program, known as TANF, which was released in January 2011.

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