About
History
The Burlington County Board of Social Services was originally referred to as “welfare” and was established under the National Recovery Act in the 1930’s.
It was initiated to assist older people during the depression.
In the early 1960’s as part of “the war on poverty” welfare programs were expanded to include families with children. Other Benefits were available upon qualifying for welfare assistance such as nutritional support known as food stamps and health insurance known as Medicaid. Nutritional support eventually expanded to include people not eligible for welfare assistance and the working poor. Over the years other programs were initiated to help people such as family preservation with social services for families, Early Periodic Screening and Diagnostic testing for comprehensive medical evaluations for children, homeless prevention, boarding home monitoring, senior services and child support services.
Congress realized that people may be receiving welfare assistance because they didn’t receive their child support. So in 1976 the child support program was initiated. The Board was given the responsibility of locating absent parents, establishing paternity, obtaining court orders, and working with probation departments to increase child support payments by non-custodial parents. The Board’s role in child support has increased again with the responsibility for modifying court orders.
Child Support Services has become the largest program the Board administers and was the beginning of the welfare system being changed to a system of supports for families with children.
When the Personal Responsibility Act was passed in 1996, the welfare program changed from an entitlement program to a temporary assistance program with work requirements. New Jersey responded to the Federal Mandate with Work First New Jersey. Our role is now one of helping people find jobs during the temporary period of assistance. Pre and post employment support services are available such as child care, health insurance and transportation assistance. Services continue to expand with new programs for substance abuse referrals and training to increase wages after being employed and funds for emergency support after employment.
Health and Medical coverage has seen a great deal of recent changes with many programs available to working families.
Medical Coverage is now available for families and pregnant females. For example, a family of four with an annual income up to $34,104 would be eligible for some coverage; a single pregnant female with an income up to $2,020 a month would also be eligible for coverage.
Providing services that will enable both families and individuals to become healthy and productive members of the community in Burlington County continues to be our goal. Further changes are on the horizon that will facilitate our efforts of providing support services to all our customers.