Therefore, the state is largely to blame for Kayla's death.
During the year 2000, the year of Kayla's death, there were a variety of social programs available to Tamarla Owens, which were designed to assist her with meeting the needs of herself and her family. All of these state programs were implementations of programs instituted at the federal level.
The first program available to Owens was Family Independence Program, or FIP. This was Michigan's version of the federal welfare program, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, or TANF. In 1996, the federal government added an additional component to TANF known as Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996, or PRWORA. Michigan's implementation of this component is known as Work First, although Work First preceded PRWORA by two years. (Urban Institute 2) Under Michigan's FIP/Work First program, Owens would have qualified for $459 per month in benefits assuming she had zero earned income. (5) This benefit is largely intended to meet the recipients housing needs. Under the Work First provisions of the program, as a single parent, Owens would be expected to either work or participate in a combination of job search, job training exercises for a total of 30 hours per week. She would be expected to accept any bona fide job offers up to 40 hours a week. To clarify, under Michigan's Work First program in affect in 2000, Owens would have been expected to participate in work related activities a minimum of 30 hours per week up to a maximum of 40 hours a week. (McHugh 1).
Under Michigan's version of Work First, the first $200 per month that Owens earned would not lower her welfare benefit. For each dollar earned per month in excess of $200, her welfare benefit would be reduced by $.80. In other words, she would continue to receive gradually reduced welfare benefits until her monthly earned income exceeded $773.