Welfare benefits in California could be cut to levels of seven or eight years ago, under at least one state budget proposal.

Agencies that serve some of society's most vulnerable people are slashing staff and canceling services in anticipation of state budget cuts to welfare programs.

"It's like we're turning back the clock on 10 years of effective social policy," said Cathy Senderling, senior legislative advocate for the California Welfare Directors Association.

In the face of a woeful economy, soaring caseloads and state budget cuts that could total billions of dollars, administrators of programs that include CalWORKs, Medi-Cal and food stamps are on the verge of panic.

"Everyone is extremely concerned," said Bruce Wagstaff, director of the Department of Human Assistance in Sacramento County. "At the same time we're talking about these cuts, we're seeing a huge demand. It's going up every day. So any further cuts are going to seriously affect our ability to help these people. The prospect is pretty disturbing."

If the proposed cuts pass, welfare recipients could see their benefits drop by 10 percent. A family of three would see their monthly check reduced to about $620 – as much as they would have received in 2000 or 2001 – plus about $250 in food stamps. Social Security benefits for needy elderly and disabled people would be cut. Benefits would be cut to virtually all other welfare programs, as well.

Perhaps the most tangible effect of the cuts would be staffing reductions that could erode the ability to help welfare recipients find jobs and delay applications being processed for food stamps and other aid, officials said.

"We're not talking about paper clips and furniture," said Wagstaff. "We're talking about the ability to respond to clients who are in crisis."

The fallout already has begun.

In Yolo County, for example, new welfare recipients no longer are getting bus passes to help them get to work or job interviews.

Sacramento County has started canceling contracts to provide jobless residents with vocational education and other services to help them be successful.

Statewide, said Senderling, county social service agencies have eliminated nearly 500 jobs in the past month, and 1,000 positions that had been held open are being eliminated. Hiring and wage freezes are common.

The vise is about to get even tighter, as legislators work to reduce the state's roughly $40 billion deficit between now and 2010.

Even as they prepare for significant cuts, welfare directors are seeing enrollment in various programs increase steadily across the state. In Sacramento County, nearly 20 percent more people have been getting food stamps in the past year. Placer County has seen a 35 percent increase in that category, said Bob Dunstan, director of administration for the Department of Health and Human Services. Between September and October, 4,751 more people requested services from Yolo County's Department of Employment and Social Services, said chief deputy director Diana Williams.

"Things are pretty awful out there, and people are desperate," Williams said. The state budget cuts will force welfare agencies to cut muscle from their programs, including job training, child care and transportation for unemployed people looking for work, she said.

"We're reverting back to a time when we just handed people welfare checks," said Senderling. "We're losing the ability to put people into training programs, substance abuse treatment, mental health care, or even just help them polish their résumé. A lot of these services are being hammered."

At a recent meeting of county welfare workers, the mood was decidedly gloomy, Wagstaff said.

"This is a group of people that are very forward-thinking, and I've never seen them so sour," he said. "I have never felt such a depressing mood in the room. The feeling was, 'What are we going to do now?' Our options are very limited."

In the darkest of times for welfare directors and their clients, the only ray of light, said Dunstan, is that the economy surely will recover in time.

"We're in a terrible economic cycle," he said, "But eventually we'll come out of it. That's the only positive thing about the situation that we're in."

Call The Bee's Cynthia Hubert, (916) 321-1082.