By Robin Riscica

A state court judge ruled in April that welfare officials must individually assess public assistance recipients before placing them in Workfare assignments.

This ruling could affect 200,000 single parents who are required to participate in the Workfare program.

This ruling by Justice Richard Braun was the result of a class action brought on by public assistance recipients against the Department of Social Services. These recipients were also students being forced to drop out of school because of conflicting Workfare duties. The department was requiring them to accept 20 hours of Workfare per week without evaluation of their needs, goals, abilities, educational or personal schedules, the judge ruled.

Welfare recipients challenged Jason Turner, commissioner of the department, saying that his office was illegally assigning them to Workfare assignments that they could not perform. In addition, his office was withholding benefits from recipients who did not participate in the Workfare assignments, and reducing benefits from those who participated in education-based assignments, such as internships, instead of those issued by his office.

Braun referred to Turner's policy as "misguided" and ordered the department to cease its implementation on the grounds that it did not comply with the social services law.

However Debra Sproles, a spokesperson for the department, denied that any laws were being broken and claimed that nothing would change because of the judge's ruling because recipients were already being assessed properly.

"We believe in education in conjunction with work, not instead of work. This ruling hasn't changed anything for us," she said.