Under current state policy, welfare recipients lose their benefits if they fail to meet workfare requirements.

This state service helps train mothers who want jobs even though they are exempt from current "workfare" requirements because their children are under 6.

But he was one of thousands dropped from the rolls when the city instituted a strict workfare requirement in August 1996.

Evening classes in child rearing have been set up for clients who now also have to meet their workfare requirements.

Under the old system, disabled mothers were exempt from workfare requirements unless a city doctor certified that they could work.

"There are a lot of young people who need that," he said of the Mayor's workfare requirements.

The sticking point is a "workfare" requirement for two-parent welfare families.

Thousands of recipients are cut from the rolls each month for failing to meet strict workfare requirements, according to city data.

But with the new workfare requirements, welfare recipients may bump the working poor further down the waiting lists.

The parents are exempt from the "workfare" requirements because of their young children.