Report: Missouri program helped no one in 5 years

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- A new report shows that withheld funding and lack of follow-through effectively killed a program aimed at allowing Missouri residents receiving child support to accept wage hikes without losing state assistance.

The Hand-up Program was approved in 2012 to help lessen the so-called cliff effect of when the state cuts child-care assistance funding when a person's income exceeds a certain threshold, the Springfield News-Leader (http://sgfnow.co/2nsclAS ) reported.

The program was supposed to help people receiving child-care benefits transition off the state allocations through a pilot program run by two organizations: Operation Breakthrough and Community Day School in Cape Girardeau.

But a report compiled by the Missouri Department of Social Services says no one enrolled, due in part to former Gov. Jay Nixon's budget restrictions that delayed the program from starting until January 2014 and cut it off midway through 2016.

Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/news/business/national-international/article139659888.html