Andrea Manganello, 34, answers phones, greets patients, and files paperwork at Patricia Lifrak’s busy psychiatric practice in a strip shopping center in Delaware.
Lifrak doesn’t pay a dime for Manganello’s services, although Manganello gets a regular paycheck.
That’s because the federal government has picked up the tab as part of the American Resource and Recovery Act, the $787 billion federal stimulus act that is now a year old.
“This helps a person get a leg up,” said Manganello, who had searched for a job for a year before turning to welfare.
The same stimulus money that pays Manganello totals $5 billion nationally and is funneled through public-assistance block grants under the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program.
Pennsylvania and New Jersey are eligible to draw hundreds of millions of dollars to underwrite jobs. But so far, in this region, only Delaware has done so. Pennsylvania and New Jersey officials say plans are in the works.
FULL STORY: http://www.philly.com/philly/business/20100222_Delaware_uses_stimulus_to_give_jobless__a_leg_up_.html
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