Criticism lobbied at caseload-management company hired by Franklin County Job and Family Services

Threatened with the loss of millions of dollars in federal money because not enough of its welfare recipients were working, Franklin County did what many other counties across the state did: It kicked people off welfare.

Instead of helping more of Franklin County’s poorest residents find jobs in the years following the Great Recession, the county slashed the unemployed from its welfare caseload. That raised the percentage of the remaining participants who were working.

And that’s the only benchmark the federal government requires counties to meet to keep getting money.

Read more in the Columbus Dispatch.