To the Editor:

Re “A Promise to End Welfare Faces an Uncertain Future” (news article, March 16):

Conservative efforts to force more work requirements on federal programs that provide health care, housing and food aid to low-income Americans are both cruel and counterproductive.

The large majority of people who rely on these programs are children, adults working in one or more low-wage jobs, older Americans and people with disabilities. Those who are able-bodied adults and who are also temporarily unemployed are mostly actively looking for work.

The conservative proposals wouldn’t fund new efforts to place more people in employment or raise wages. Rather, they would force people to take time off work or from their job search to communicate with government offices about their work status, ironically increasing government paperwork and bureaucracy.

What low-income Americans want and need are more living-wage employment opportunities. If conservatives were serious about enabling more people to work their way out of poverty, they would support minimum-wage increases and programs to actually create new jobs.