AUGUSTA — Mainers would have to prove that they have applied for work before they would qualify for cash welfare benefits, under a proposal before the Legislature.

The bill, sponsored by House Minority Leader Kenneth Fredette, R-Newport, has counterparts in states where lawmakers and budget hawks have adopted new — and politically popular — ways to crack down on welfare spending.

In many states, the job search requirement has dramatically reduced caseloads for Temporary Assistance for Needy Families. However, critics of the initiative believe the measures are designed to block welfare applicants from receiving needed benefits by making the process more difficult.

Currently, welfare recipients must show that they’re looking for a job to continue receiving benefits. Fredette’s bill would require applicants to show that they had applied for at least three jobs before even qualifying for cash assistance.

“This is a requirement that’s common in other states, and I think most Mainers would agree that we shouldn’t be giving out welfare to able-bodied people who haven’t even looked for a job yet,” said Fredette in a statement.

LaDonna Pavetti, with the left-leaning Center on Budget and Policy Priorities in Washington, D.C., said such proposals are part of an attack on the poor.

“It assumes that people seeking assistance aren’t looking for work or don’t want to work, and we know that isn’t the case,” said Pavetti, adding that temporary assistance is designed to stabilize poor families so they can find work.

There were 8,400 temporary assistance cases in August, according to the Department of Health and Human Services. Among those cases were 13,338 children. The average benefit for all individuals receiving temporary assistance was approximately $149 a month.

Nineteen states have enacted laws similar to Fredette’s proposal, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Pennsylvania passed such a law in 2012 under the direction of Republican Gov. Tom Corbett. In September, the state’s Department of Public Welfare reported a spike in denials for welfare cash benefits, from a decades-long average of about 50 percent to a high of 81 percent in February. In 2013, eight of 10 applicants were denied benefits, according to a review by the Philadelphia Inquirer.

A similar trend has occurred in other states that adopted upfront job-search laws or tightened the eligibility standards. In 2004, Georgia beefed up its upfront job search requirement. Temporary assistance caseloads plummeted along with a corresponding increase in application denials, according to a 2007 report commissioned by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. In 2000, Georgia’s application approval rate for temporary assistance was 40 percent. By 2011, it was 18.2 percent.

The report found no evidence that those denied benefits in Georgia had found work.

According to the report, “Since the implementation of the initiative there has been no net increase in the number of families meeting the federal work requirements.”

According to federal data, national state agencies approved 54.8 percent of temporary assistance applications in 2000. By 2011, the approval rate declined to 44.1 percent amid the adoption of upfront work search laws.

Pavetti, with the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, said denying benefits upfront also deprived applicants of state-funded evaluations designed to help welfare recipients find work. Currently, adults receiving temporary assistance must participate in job search activities, while also meeting with state officials to assist with job placement.

Fredette’s bill may have little chance of passage in the Democratic-controlled Legislature. House Speaker Mark Eves, D-North Berwick, said in a statement Wednesday that he wouldn’t support Fredette’s bill.

“The reality is that one in five children in Maine live in poverty,” Eves said. “It’s easy for politicians to vilify families like these that are struggling to get on their feet again, simply to score political points. That’s all these bills are and I won’t be supporting them.”

Fredette’s proposal aligns with a Republican push to overhaul the state’s welfare system and furthers a party narrative that has proven popular with a public that remains skeptical about welfare recipients’ efforts to find work.

Fredette echoed that sentiment during prepared remarks made at the State House on Wednesday. He said Mainers are willing to help those in need, but “many people believe that all too often, there are those who treat a helping hand as a way of life, generation after generation, to the point where hard work is discouraged and personal accountability is forgotten.”

He added, “I believe Maine taxpayers are feeling that they are being taken advantage of. You see it when you talk to them on the street, going door to door, and we see it when we gather the results of our constituent surveys.”

Judith Levine, a sociologist professor at Temple University, said upfront work policies are popular because states can trim their welfare rolls, and politically expedient because they “tap into long-held public notions of deservingness” that have existed throughout the domestic welfare policy debate.

“Throughout that history, the idea of the ‘deserving poor’ has been tied largely to being employed,” Levine said. “Pre-approval work search policies create one more hurdle in a series of bureaucratic hurdles that needy families face in trying to obtain TANF benefits.”

Levine noted that the barriers are effective, citing data that showed unemployment had gone up by 88 percent nationally during the recession, but the temporary assistance caseload rose by 16 percent.

This story was updated to correct the number of TANF cases.

Steve Mistler can be contacted at 791-6345 or at: smistler@pressherald.comTwitter: @stevemistler