Welfare research paper

This paper will take an in-depth look at the institution of welfare in the united states. Proceeding from a brief history of modern welfare programs, this essay will then review many of the issues that have arisen concerning this form of public policy as well as the ongoing attempts in congress to correct these ds aid for families with dependent children (afdc); cash transfer; personal responsibility & work opportunity reconciliation act (prwora); welfare dependency; welfare 1977, the budget director for the state of new york, peter goldmark, offered his thoughts regarding social welfare programs. Welfare," he said, "is hated by those who administer it, mistrusted by those who pay for it and held in contempt by those who receive it. In the latter twentieth century, this controversy became even more heated in light of two recessions, unpredictable economic development and subsequent budget paper will take an in-depth look at the institution of welfare in the united states. Proceeding from a brief history of modern welfare programs, this essay will then review many of the issues that have arisen concerning this form of public policy as well as the ongoing attempts in congress to correct these issues. Brief history of welfare in the united e, a public policy concept in which government programs are introduced to help a society’s poor or disabled population reenter the workforce and care for themselves, is by no means a new idea. Of the longest-lasting aspects of roosevelt's "welfare state" (a system in which the government assumes responsibility over the health, education, employment and social security of the people) was that of social security, which is used to help the handicapped and elderly remain free from want. This paper will next look at the controversy over the modern welfare responsibility or budget drain? Alternatively, "welfare" more often than not evokes more attention from both advocates and critics alike, in large part because of the stigma that remains attached to the nation's poor. Welfare policy is important for two main , these policies are important to those people who could benefit from them and could help our country by helping them. This is because different countries have different welfare systems that attempt to help the poor (and even those who are not poor) in... Ing class: e capital & entrepreneurial n the world and search returned over 400 essays for "welfare". The welfare system in the united states performs a wide variety of functions to assist people who have fallen onto hard times. Welfare programs are an evolution of the british poor laws whose roots lie in basic charity and the human ideology that one should aid those less fortunate. Today’s welfare system , being controlled by the state and federal governments are by no means perfect, but they do provide a more stable form of assistance so that the people of the united states know that if they fall into dire times, there is a safety net.... My speech is about the welfare system, how it works, why people go on it and why some adjustments need to be made. The welfare program is for anyone who needs help with money or is low on money. Introduction spratt and daveney (2009) carried out a research for contribution to how welfare agencies define and provide services to families with multiple problems. This review seeks to establish the relevance of this research to this social problem and its contribution to the study. Literature review to establish the relevance of this research, spratt and daveney carried out a literature review which identified child welfare systems in australia, usa and united kingdom as not designed to define families with multiple problems within context.... The new welfare policy, named the temporary assistance to needy families (tanf), replaced the aid to family and dependent children (afdc) program; they have five known differences that only affect the ones who need the assistance. Linda burnham, author of “welfare reform, family hardship & woman of color,” asserts that “welfare reform has increased the hardship faced by many women leaving welfare for work and their movement into low-wage jobs, exposes them to higher level of housing insecurities, homele... Title welfare fraud: betting against the odds introduction the issue that i have decided to address is welfare abuse. I propose that due to the government’s lack of foresight, welfare recipients have been cashing ebt benefits at atm machines in california casino’s. Research question: can something be done to ensure that welfare benefits will be used as intended by the recipients. Readers: mainly californian tax payers, but in a broader sense it could be anyone who is concerned about the welfare system, including recipients.... Is welfare a permanent solution or a temporary fix to a monumental epidemic in society today. However, one thing is extremely clear; welfare is not working and desperately needs to change. The current welfare system is unfair to the taxpayers who are paying for failed programs, and the poor who remain trapped in a system that takes away their self-reliance and hope for their children.... The current welfare reform is failing due to political indulgence in statistics, focusing on the percentage of individuals attaining employment instead of the quality of employee and employment. In order to be successful welfare reform must contain vocational education with proper job placement and fair sanctions on recipients.... Welfare is intended for families or individuals that are in need of assistance with no or little income. For those who do not know, welfare funds come from hard working individuals that are required to pay taxes.

There are suggestion that welfare recipients need to be drug tested, to make sure that taxpayers are not paying for their drug habits. Last year, utah republicans passed and enacted a law that mandated drug testing for welfare recipients. Many people argue that “forcing the welfare recipient to concede to waive their rights to random drug testing is unconstitutional and could be considered, blackmail. Taxpayer dollars into welfare but, ironically, the poverty rate is higher than when they started (tanner, welfare reform). The original intent of current welfare benefits has failed; therefore the national welfare system must be reformed. To fully understand how to reform the welfare system americans must know what the history of welfare is, illegitimate births’ obvious connection to crime and welfare, how welfare has failed to keep the poverty rate down, the great problem of dependency, and finally what reforms must be made.... Welfare definition: health, happiness, and good fortune; well being - this is what the constitution means by "the general welfare," and this is the sense in which governments have established "welfare" programs. A word originally used to advertise them has itself become negatively charged; consider the changed meaning of "welfare state" and the coinage of "corporate welfare. The public welfare foundation is a non-governmental grant-making organization dedicated to supporting organizations that provide services to disadvantaged populations and work for lasting improvements in the delivery of ser... Since the enactment of the welfare reform act in 1996; the new changes have been instrumental in decreasing the number of welfare caseloads and unemployment rates. Many would argue that the reforms for welfare have not been active in requiring that welfare recipients improve their education, skills and job market ability. The temporary assistance for needy families (tanf) program requires welfare recipients to search for a job first in exchange for cash assistance and other welfare benefits. It is also recommended that those who have not earned their high school diploma or equivalent return to school or training program to complete their diplomas while collecting welfare benefits.... According to the national association of social workers (nasw), “social welfare generally denotes the full range of organized activities of voluntary and governmental agencies that seek to prevent, alleviate, or contribute to the solution of recognized social problems, or to improve the well-being of individuals, groups, or communities. At times, social welfare is used to refer to aspects of wellbeing material, like basic access to economic resources.... Today our welfare programs give out too much money and the systems need to be reformed again. In 1996 the welfare reform act was enacted and it changed the entire program for the better. Welfare dependency has increased dramatically since the mid 1960's, with a growing trend of more claimants and fewer payers. Saunders believes the welfare system is revealing serious flaws which are encouraging welfare dependency mainly due to a system which does not encourage self-reliance and work ethic for the majority of recipients. Saunders addresses the issue of poverty amongst welfare dependent households, arguing that current benefits sit above the poverty line and that increased benefits will not necessarily solve poverty, alternatively increasing dependency beyond current levels.... This early form of welfare was available to those who could demonstrate a need and the ability to maintain minimal assets of their own. Some people believe that welfare should have restrictions, while others believe it should not have restrictions. What somewhat drives this controversy is whether welfare is effective, considering it is prone to be exploited. I chose welfare for my topic because it is an issue with a lot of depth and varying viewpoints. I also chose welfare because it is a severe problem in our society as well.... The process of drug testing individuals who are applying or receiving welfare benefits has recently become the focus of a widely spread controversy. On the basis of these two principles, he deduced three different types of welfare state regime types. In words, this would come down to that the social-democratic welfare state type is based on the principle of universalism.... The number of americans taking part in the welfare system today has hit 12 million, an all-time high, proving its significance in government. Americans not on welfare complain about the unfairness it causes, but have yet to propose a better plan. Stereotyping and the welfare family        there were times when i would pick up my little brother when he was covered in dirt from playing, laugh at his smudged little face and say, "you look like a little welfare baby. This was funny to me, it was easy to make light of the welfare system. Much of the research on the topic of aboriginal colonization and policy focuses around child welfare programs.

It has been noted that there are disproportionate rates of children in the welfare system and out-of-home care in canada, which is seen as “perpetuating a historical pattern of removing aboriginal children from their homes that started with the residential school system of the past” (sinha and kozlowski, 2013: 1). Canada has decentralized child welfare systems to the provincial level and has focused on fostering the aboriginal culture, customs and spirituality.... The main concept of welfare in the united states has been around since the 1800’s, for that very reason, to assist the needy. During the past five years, many have recognized a trend in welfare recipients and they want answers. Legislation has been submitted left and right regarding the issue of whether or not individuals receiving welfare should be drug tested in order to receive benefits from welfare assistance programs.... Welfare reform - welfare recipients must take personal responsibility      public welfare is an important support system of the united states government. Instead of abolishing welfare as critics of the system suggest, reforms can be made to correct the problems while government, either on the state or federal level, can continue to assist the impoverished. The term welfare is used to describe a variety of programs that provide income support and create a safety net for poor individuals and families.... Welfare has been a safety net for many americans, when the alternative for them is going without food and shelter. During the twentieth century the united states federal government established a more substantial welfare system to help americans when they most needed it.... Should united states citizens who are capable of work and do not have a disability, be able to collect welfare for the rest of their lives. Many americans were unhappy with the welfare system, claiming that individuals were abusing the welfare program by not applying for jobs, having more children just to get more aid, and staying unmarried so as to qualify for greater benefits. Social welfare past and present social welfare is an expansive system proposed to maintain the well being of individuals within a society. This paper will explain the progression from the feudal system and church provisions for the poor before the elizabethan poor law to the gradual assumption of the responsibility for the poor by the government. Welfare - greedy mothers and lazy families      millions of americans are signed up for welfare; the program designed to aid poor and needy families. Many argue that welfare is not destroying our culture and creating a dependent people who have learned to abuse certain privileges that come with living in america, but history has proven that this is not true. When president clinton signed the welfare reform bill, he said "today, we are taking a historic chance to make welfare what it was meant to be: a second chance, not a way of life. Welfare was designed to give a boost to the poor-to help struggling families make it through t... Gendering the welfare state the impetus for the creation of welfare in the united states was children . A program designed to help recipients find their cheques) the workfare topic was a huge issue to voters, and will effect not only the thousands of ontario welfare recipients but every ontarioan in one way or another.... Instead the federal government gives block grants to assist poor families with the emphasis on moving them from welfare to work or deterring them from applying for welfare in the first place.... Volunteering and attitudes toward social welfare spending despite extensive research having been done on explaining why some individuals are more likely to support spending on social welfare than others, to this date, no one has examined the effect that a person’s level of volunteerism has on support for spending. However, the level of community involvement is worthy of consideration as an explanation for support for social welfare spending because, as has been reported by previous research, volunteers often find that structural problems exist that can only be remedied by government intervention.... Innocent: confessions of a welfare mother is a memoir that defies the stigma that comes along with welfare and poverty. Forced to make pivotal decisions and keep the best interest of her family in mind, she must take welfare handouts to get through her financial struggles. Welfare reform welfare is a public assistance program that provides at least a minimum amount of economic security to people whose incomes are insufficient to maintain an adequate standard of living. When president clinton signed the personal responsible & work opportunity reconciliation act in august of 1996, it ended welfare as we know it. Under this reform, wages and earnings replaced welfare, but many critics felt only problems arose from this program. Welfare to work forces poor and single parents into jobs that do not supply sufficient living wages (albelda 1). The typical progression a child makes through a state welfare system the paper and diagram below describe the typical progression a child makes through a state welfare system. Each figure in the diagram below links to a specific decision point described in the paper, which begins immediately after the diagram. Social welfare is the promotion and distribution of material and physical aid by the government for citizens in need. Many people think just because you are on welfare that you are automatically living off the government or that you’re too lazy to get a job, which in some cases may be true, but not in all cases they’re not.

My grandmother was on welfare for a long time while me and my little cousin was living with her. According to statisticbrain “the total number of americans on welfare [is] 12,800,000” and out of that number “the total number of u. States where welfare pays more than an $8 per hour job [is] 39, the total number of u. States where welfare pays more than a $12 per hour job [is] 6” also, according to the same source the “average time [people are] on afcd (aid to families with dependent children for over 5 years [is] 19. The welfare system, its overall perceptions, and is it really helping everyone that really needs it, and are there those that are abusing it. Who decides who gets coverage, what type of assistance, should there be some sort of drug screening policy, how would we get rid of the welfare abusers, and should we continue to provide aide outside the us, while our citizens are barely getting by. There are upwards of eighty (80) federal welfare type programs available to american citizens and illegal aliens in the united states.... Many people in the united states depend on the help of welfare and forget about finding a job and earning an honest living for them selves. At its most basal form, the concept of welfare is the idea that a central governing body or state will provide a basic level of support for its poorest members or citizens through programs at the expense of society at large. Examples of welfare can be traced all the way back to the ancient roman empire, where measures of grain were provided to citizens who could not afford to purchase any for themselves. However, the roots of modern welfare in the united states can be traced back to legislation regarding mothers’ pensions, first enacted in 1911.... The goal of welfare is to help individuals afford the basic necessities of life, however, it has become apparent that throughout the generations people have become too comfortable and secure being on welfare and thus are not striving for self-sufficiency. As with all government run programs there is a budget for welfare services, and with more and more people applying for welfare and fewer returning to self-sufficiency there is simply not enough money to go around.... Ap language and composition the welfare system arose in the united states during the great depression, by the social security act in the 1930s, providing medical and monetary aid to minorities such as women and their children, the elderly and later, entire families. Like many of the relief programs that were put into effect welfare became a reform program, and remained permanent. Congress kicked off welfare reform nationwide last october with the personal responsibility and work opportunity reconciliation act of 1996, heralding a new era in which welfare recipients are required to look for work as a condition of benefits. Originally, the welfare system was created to help poor men, women, and children who are in need of financial and medical assistance. Over the years, welfare has become a way of life for its recipients and has created a culture of dependency.... However, after looking further into the concept behind it all, welfare isn’t always such a bad thing. In general, welfare provides financial stability for those who are otherwise unable to do so. Welfare can be very beneficial to a multitude of people with many different ways to make life easier. Welfare in the united states refers to a federal welfare program that has been put into place to benefit unemployed people or just your average lower class person.... Introduction merriam webster defines ‘welfare system’ as, ” a social system in which a government is responsible for the economic and social welfare of its citizens and has policies to provide free health care, money for people without jobs, etc. Webster, 1964) started after the industrial revolution, the notion of a welfare state is of providing its citizens with economic and social-wellbeing; the state safeguards the basic necessities such as health, education and human rights.... This includes help with people in need of medical, financial, and organized educational needs (“social welfare”). Welfare can be traced back to the sixteenth- century when the british poor laws were created. In the beginning, welfare was designed mainly for single mothers who need assistance with supporting her family.... Change in the welfare system is a must now more than ever because the government is in such a bad economic state, and it must and should be ensured that the tax payers know exactly where their money is going once those welfare checks are administered. Drug testing is a top priority in welfare reform and it should be; tax payers’ money should not be used for the purchase of illegal substances. The state of texas and the united states face problems with misuse of welfare funds and there must be a change in the system in order to combat this.... The idea that globalization and the welfare states can conflict comes from the fact that: while globalization is based on profit maximization, the welfare states main goal is to reduce, if not eliminate inequality, insecurity and poverty through proper redistribution of wealth mechanisms. The welfare state has to enhance “people’s adaptability, so that they, whatever their skills, can turn themselves from losers into winners through their own efforts” (dennis j. Social welfare dates back almost 50 years, but through those years the real question is, what is social welfare.

The interesting part of social welfare is that one persons definition or belief may be different from another’s belief. The truth is, not one person is right about the definition or ideology of social welfare. Social welfare programs have grown, shrunk, stabilized, and declined over the years, and today many believe that we are in a period of decline. The text “ideology and social welfare” states that there are four different views to social welfare, all having their unique attributes.... Welfare can be defined as health, happiness, and good fortune; well-being; prosperity; and financial or other aid provided, especially by the government, to people in need (merriam-webster, 2014). Tim prenzler stated that, “welfare systems are often seen as providing a ‘safety net’ that prevents citizens falling below a minimum standard of living (2012, p2). People have successfully used welfare to get out of their slum, and started to support themselves.... For years, the welfare topic has been debated, and throughout history, both failed and thriving solutions have been seen to this dispute. The settlement of the matter of welfare came from independently sponsored programs only to be replaced by government funded organizations and devices to benefit the less fortunate using taxes, aids, and deductions. With the only hope to overcome the grief stricken state our country has been in over the centuries of seeing the destruction of nations over the word that stirs up a variety of emotions, welfare, to be the decreased amount and time government support should be offered.... The essay will look at the aims of the welfare state from conception and how it has changed to present times. It will discuss the nature of the social democratic welfare state and liberal criticisms of the problems this type of state brings. The recent changes to the welfare state will be reviewed and what the consequences of the changes may be.... A practical approach to solving welfare all across america people have opted for an “easier” approach to living. This parasitic approach is more commonly referred to as welfare or in other words, receiving something for nothing. One solution to this burden on society is through the introduction of workfare (work + welfare). Many citizens may not understand the reciprocating process of workfare; which may be humiliating for some to work in an environment that ignores abilities; even so, workfare should be required among able-bodied recipients of welfare for two reasons: workfare protects the taxpayers against deceitful welfare recipients, and society benefits by the process of allowing... Aquinas’s view of charity indicates that charity cannot be legislated, however the use of welfare in the modern society would seem to be a legislative action that provides charity to those in need. It would seem then, that charity as legislated through welfare is improper according to aquinas’s view on law. I assert, however that legislating charity through the modern welfare system as it appears in the united states is proper because the purpose of welfare is not charity as such and it does not fall within the definition of charity as provided by aquinas, and therefore it does not conflict with aquinas’s view of charity in relationship to law as outlined in the treatise on law.... The general concept of the welfare state is rather simplistic; create more economic equality within the citizens of the state. The harmful effects of welfare americans are living in a decade plagued by inflation, declining stocks, and reduced job opportunities and as a result, making a living has become increasingly difficult for many americans. Those who are unable to obtain a job are often left to depend on the government to support them and their families through a program known as welfare.... The federal social welfare policy has gone through many amendment and revisions between the early 1930’s to present date. In 1996 social welfare went thru another large revision under president clinton administration, the focus was on getting low income americans working. Clinton signed into law personal responsibility and work opportunity reconciliation act, changing the focus of welfare in america to getting americans working and decreasing the dependency on the system federal soc... Teen pregnancy and the welfare system in 2011, a total of 329,797 babies were born to women aged 15–19 years (centers for disease control and prevention). In the united states welfare system or social programs are a broad collection of many programs with corresponding mandates and complicated, and poorly managed rules about eligibility, benefit level and subject to fraud and abuse. The most appealing way to reduce the welfare misuse, and exploitation, while increasing the productivity of the programs, government should not loosen the restrictions on the welfare but furthermore strict it in more effective strategy, for the purpose of weeding out those who abuse social programs, particularly the cash assistance, food stamps, housing assistance and medicaid.... Lisa, after having been informed by her welfare worker that she would have to pay back her welfare for the period she was in school, be cut off of welfare, and faced charges of fraud, decided this was unreasonable and questioned the legality of her circumstances. This debt is only made worse by welfare recipients who abuse the welfare benefits to purchase illegal drugs that hurts the economy and is a danger to society. Before government assistance (what we to as welfare) ever came available to help families in need, people were forced to go without, inevitably affecting their state of health. Introduction chapter 1 is an introductory chapter administers an outline of the study context and clarifies related research problems.

It provides an outlook of the research objectives to be achieved, questions to be answered and significance of the study. Background of study the welfare of employees is in the best interest of communities and organisations. In this book, with a historical comparative approach, she tries to explain how “both religious practice and religious conflict are key in the formation of the welfare state”. Welfare can be defined as “systems by which government agencies provide economic assistance, goods, and services to persons who are unable to care for themselves” (issitt). The united states welfare system is an extremely complex and unique entity that encompasses ideas and concepts from an abundance of different places. Many people believe the current system is an excellent resource for the population, while others believe the current welfare system requires reform and budget cuts to become effective.... There is no system of unemployment or welfare benefits” it is an undeniable fact that the philippines compared to its richer counterparts (a comparison that explicitly shows our country’s long journey to prosperity) lacks a system of social benefits, even though its people deserve one.... Religious studies was a new area for my research w/ this e de dissertation philo terminale high school rhetorical analysis essay for letter from birmingham jail : november 6, 2017my food writer friend @jrfull wrote this powerful essay on chef charlie trotter, whose funeral is today. Ch papers on educational data mining requirements types of essay writing in english bulldog : november 6, 2017now tracking: pdf #globalwarming essay reference …. 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Welfare reform research ations for tanf reauthorization and state tanf paper summarizes some of the key research findings from recent welfare reform research — primarily research released in the last year — and discusses the policy implications of these findings. When the senate takes up tanf reauthorization, it should take these recent research findings into account and ensure that states have the resources and flexibility to address these es that left welfare recently are less likely to have jobs than prior tanf “leavers”. Studies of families who left welfare in the 1990s found that a majority of welfare leavers found jobs. More recent research shows a decline in the share of welfare leavers with jobs and an increase in “disconnected” leavers who do not have income from work or studies show that families that left welfare recently (2000 or later) are less likely to be working than families that left welfare in the 1990s. A recent urban institute report shows that the proportion of families that leave welfare and are not employed rose from 50 percent in 1999 to 58 percent in 2002 (loprest, 2003). Similarly, a recent study of welfare leavers in cuyahoga county, ohio (cleveland) found that employment rates for families leaving welfare were relatively constant between 1998 and 2000 but have fallen steadily since 2001 (colton, bania, martin, and lalich, 2003). In new york city, the job placement rate of public assistance recipients has declined markedly between 2000 and 2003, even though the city continues to engage a very high percentage of welfare recipients in welfare-to-work activities (new york city human resources administration, 2004). Share of families that leave welfare and are not working and do not have another stable source of support has increased. Trends in child poverty and severe poverty — income below 50 percent of the poverty line — are particularly relevant to welfare reform policy. Rates among families that leave tanf are very high and remain high over s conducted in the 1990s found high poverty rates among welfare leavers — most studies have found that between 50 to 75 percent of welfare leavers remain poor two to three years after leaving welfare (blank, 2002). For example, one of the few studies using national data to track leavers for more than two to three years found that 42 percent of welfare leavers remain poor five years after leaving welfare compared to a 55 percent poverty rate in the first year after leaving welfare (cancian, haveman, kaplan, meyer, and wolfe, 1999). Most welfare leavers with incomes above the poverty line still have very low incomes — state-level leaver studies have found that about 90 percent of leavers have income below 185 percent of the poverty level (acs and loprest, 1999). Research continues to show high poverty rates and very modest growth in income for families that leave welfare. The researchers defined “good jobs” as full-time jobs that pay at least $7 per hour and offer health insurance, or full-time jobs that do not offer health insurance but pay at least $8. The researchers also found that the recent economic downturn substantially reduced mothers' probability of getting a "good job" (johnson and cochrane, 2003). These findings are similar to estimates in earlier research that only about one-quarter of young women who ever use welfare would work primarily in a “good job” by their late 20s (pavetti and acs, 2001). Longitudinal study of welfare recipients in philadelphia found that the share of women who worked full time in jobs that paid at least $7. Californiastudy found that half of welfare leavers saw no growth in income in the year after they left welfare. The hhs-supported study surveyed welfare leavers in the late 1990s at two points in time: five to 10 months after leaving welfare and 11 to 16 months after they left welfare. Although their income growth is modest, it should be noted that poverty rates for welfare leavers in california are significantly lower on average than the poverty rates found in other national and state studies. Hhs-funded study of welfare reform in wisconsin — a state often cited as having a particularly innovative welfare reform program — found that the net income of welfare leavers in the year after they exited welfare is lower than their income prior to leaving (cancian, et al.

The researchers found that recipients who left wisconsin’s tanf program (w-2) experienced significant increases in earned income, but on average their benefits declined by more than their earned income es that lose assistance because of sanctions or time limits are more likely to experience hardship than other welfare state-level studies provide new evidence on the extent to which families that lose tanf cash assistance due to sanctions or time limits face serious material hardships, including problems securing housing and affording food. Early research conducted in a few states, tended to show that time-limit leavers struggled financially but that they didn’t necessarily experience more material hardship than other tanf leavers (bloom, farrell, and fink, 2002). More recent time limit research, however, finds that time limit-leavers have lower employment rates, higher poverty rates, and higher levels of material hardship than other tanf leavers. Study conducted by minnesota’s department of human services found that families that lost welfare due to the 60-month time limit were more likely to be poor than families leaving welfare for other reasons. Study of families leaving welfare in cuyahoga county (cleveland) found that families that left due to time limits had much higher poverty rates, lower employment rates, and more housing-related hardships than families that left for other reasons (colton, et al. Many welfare recipients confused pennsylvania’s 60-month time with the state’s requirement that recipients engage in work activities after receiving benefits for 24 months. Research has generally shown that large shares of families that have been sanctioned face significant barriers to employment — such as health problems, children with health problems, low basic skill levels, and substance abuse problems. National survey of mothers interviewed when their child reached age one found that mothers who left welfare after being sanctioned were more than three times as likely to have experienced material hardship — homelessness or eviction, hunger, or moving in with others — as mothers of infants who stayed on welfare. These results held even after the researchers controlled for a range of demographic and other variables, including the level of material hardship the mother experienced around the time the child was born. When the researchers looked at the relationship between hunger and sanctioning, they found that sanctioned mothers were more than six times as likely as mothers staying on welfare or leaving welfare without being sanctioned to have experienced hunger. Major study conducted in three large cities — boston, chicago, and san antonio — found that children in current and former welfare families that had been sanctioned generally had higher rates of serious behavioral and emotional problems than children in other tanf families . One of the more notable findings was that 56 percent of preschoolers with mothers who had been sanctioned and left welfare scored in the “range of concern” for serious behavioral and emotional problems (chase-lansdale, coley, lohman, and pittman, 2002). Together, these new studies and previous research provide unassailable evidence that sanction and time limit policies are leading to real hardship for a substantial number of poor research continues to show that families with health problems often have great difficulty moving from welfare to work. Considerable body of research has examined the prevalence of health problems among tanf participants and leavers, and the correlation between health problems and employment and sanction rates (see butler, 2002; goldberg, 2002). Recent research in this area continues to find a strong relationship between health and employment (zedlewski, 2003). This research builds on earlier research by examining the prevalence of health problems — and their impacts on employment outcomes — among tanf recipients in part of michigan over a multi-year period, rather than simply measuring the proportion of recipients at any point in time that have health problems. The researchers found that physical and mental health problems and child health problems each are related to lower employment durations over a nearly five-year period, even after controlling for a range of factors that effect employability including job skills, prior work experience, and access to transportation (corcoran, danziger, and tolman, 2003). Research conducted using pre-welfare reform data has fairly consistently found that poor child health has a negative impact on mother’s employment. Recent research conducted using post-reform data also finds that poor child health limits mother’s employment (corman, reichman, and noonan, 2003; bednarek and hudson, 2003). State officials and welfare-to-work providers have reported that the share of tanf recipients with substantial work limitations or barriers have increased over time as tanf caseloads declined. Research conducted on this question in the late 1990s generally did not find an increase, although typically the number of work limitations examined was limited. Some recent research, however, suggests that the share of tanf recipients with health problems may be increasing. The same researcher found that returns to welfare among leavers without work-limiting conditions declined after 1996, but remained stable for leavers with work-limiting conditions. Poverty also declined, but at a much slower rate than the declines in welfare caseloads. Using data from the initial years of welfare reform (1996 and 1998) suggests that at least 500,000 to 1 million single-parent families that were eligible for tanf, but not participating, could have received important assistance and supports if they had participated in the program. Mothers who were potentially eligible for welfare were much less likely to enter the tanf system after enactment of the 1996 welfare law than in the first half of the 1990s. Overall, the researchers found that families with greater need were more likely to obtain assistance, but that the targeting of diversion often was problematic. For example, black families were more often discouraged from applying than other families, and families who were diverted from welfare did not have higher income levels over time than families who were not diverted. Care assistance programs increase full-time work among low-income mainstream welfare analysts and researchers agree that the large increase in single parents’ labor force participation and the steep declines in welfare caseloads in the 1990s were due to a combination of factors, including a strong economy, strengthened supports for working families, and an increased emphasis on work within state tanf programs. Based on a review of research in this area, one conservative analyst, doug besharov of the american enterprise institute and the university of maryland, recently estimated that the economy accounted for 35 to 45 percent of the decline in the welfare caseloads, increased aid to the working poor accounted for 20 to 30 percent, increases in the minimum wage for 0 to 5 percent, welfare reform for 25 to 35 percent, and erosion of the value of cash benefits for 5 to 10 percent (besharov and germanis, 2003). The role of the expansion of child care subsidies to low-income parents in the 1990s in increasing employment rates and hours worked has just begun to receive significant research attention. 4] (there are several studies from 1990s that examine the impact of child care costs on employment, but they use pre-welfare reform data and generally do not estimate the impact of providing child care assistance on employment. 5] more recent child care research has focused on the impact of care on the well-being of children (fuller, kagan, caspary, and gauthier, 2002)).

A growing body of new research, however, looks more closely at this area and consistently finds strong linkages between child care and employment ing subsidized child care increases the likelihood that current and former welfare recipients leave welfare and work more than part-time. A study of changes in rhode island’s child care program found that policies that expanded access to child care subsidies significantly increased the probability that parents would leave welfare for work and work more than 20 hours per week (witte and queralt, 2003). That leave welfare and receive child care assistance are less likely to return to the rolls than families that do not receive child care assistance . A national study found that 28 percent of welfare leavers who didn’t receive child care assistance returned to welfare within three months after leaving, compared to only 19. Families face increased hardships because of eligibility 1996 welfare law made many legal immigrants ineligible for tanf, medicaid, food stamps, and ssi. Research conducted over the past several years has found that food insecurity rose significantly among immigrant-headed households most likely to be subject to the restrictions while declining among most other households (this research pre-dates the recent rise in food insecurity among all households), and that the proportion of immigrants who lack health insurance has increased (fremstad 2002). More recent research on the impact of the restrictions on the well-being of immigrant families is consistent with these earlier findings. In addition, while most of the research to date has focused on immigrants’ participation in food stamps and health care programs, a growing body of new research looks at immigrants’ participation in the tanf -income immigrant children are much less likely than citizen children to have health insurance despite recent expansions in children’s health insurance coverage. Policy president’s tanf proposal and both versions of tanf legislation pending in the house and senate on his proposal would impose numerous new restrictions on states — and particularly on state welfare-to-work programs — while providing no new tanf block grant funding. The pending proposals would do little to address the challenges uncovered by recent research, such as the increase in joblessness among welfare leavers, the growing share of very poor children who do not receive help from tanf, the limited income mobility for many low-income families, and the increase in material hardships faced by immigrants. In fact, as most states have made clear, these proposals would make it more difficult for states to provide the assistance and support families need to move to stable employment and advance in their proposals might make sense if states had done little since 1996 to move families from welfare to work. States aggressively implemented a “work first” approach to welfare reform that included strong mandatory work requirements. They used the savings generated by significant declines in the cash assistance caseload to increase access to work supports — particularly child care — for both welfare recipients and low-income families not on welfare. Employment among welfare recipients and single mothers generally reached record high levels and the length of time families spend on welfare declined current proposals seem to assume that the problems states faced in the early 1990s — including increasing caseloads and low employment rates — are the same problems they face today. Of course, as more recent experience and research shows, today’s challenges are vastly different from those of the early 1990s. Welfare caseloads remain low but families who are leaving welfare increasingly do not have stable employment. As three republicans who were leaders in the 1996 welfare reform debate recently wrote: “some poor families are worse off as a result of the reforms . Transitional jobs programs provide paid work experience to welfare recipients with the greatest barriers to employment. Such programs may offer a uniquely effective approach to helping recipients with severe work limitations leave welfare and move into stable employment (hill, kirby, and pavetti, 2002). The opposition to job training and education seems to be driven in part by research from the 1980s and early 1990s showing that welfare-to-work approaches that stressed basic education in classroom settings without strong linkages to employment had modest impacts on employment and earnings. 7] in designing current education and training approaches, states, educational institutions and providers have taken this research into account and developed new approaches increasing welfare recipients’ skills and earnings that are combine education and job skills training, and have strong linkages to employers and employment services. Evidence to date suggests that such “mixed services” approaches are more effective than welfare-to-work programs that focus solely on job search and related activities (martinson and strawn, 2003). As the research discussed in this paper shows, sanctioned families often have significant barriers to employment and face significant hardships as a result of being terminated from tanf programs. A minimum, congress should provide states with the child care funding necessary to pay for the cost of any increased welfare to work mandates imposed by tanf reauthorization legislation and maintain the current number of child care slots. As the research discussed in this paper shows, this likely would result in reduced employment and increased welfare participation by single current-law provisions that prohibit states from providing medicaid or federally funded tanf benefits to most legal immigrants during their first five years in the united states should be lifted. Research has now demonstrated the harm such restrictions have caused to immigrant families, including many citizen children living in these families. Ations for state tanf policies and future research findings detailed here provide important lessons for state-level tanf policymakers. Many of the concerns raised by recent research — including the low levels of participation among eligible families, the struggles of families with barriers to employment, and the high rate of poverty among welfare leavers — can be addressed through changes in state tanf should try to determine whether some of their tanf policies have had the effect of deterring participation by needy families. Such policies may include diversion programs, job search and other requirements that needy parents must participate in before they are approved for tanf, full-family sanction policies, time limit policies, and welfare-to-work programs that do not take the specific needs and capabilities of individual families into they are not already doing so, states should tailor work requirements to the needs of those families with barriers to employment, and review families’ circumstances before imposing sanctions to ensure that families unable to comply due to a health or other barrier are not being rly, states should reexamine their time limit policies and assess whether their exemption or extension policies should be revamped to ensure that very needy families unable to find and retain employment that can support their families are not left without the ability to make ends should consider revamping tanf rules that make working families ineligible for tanf before they reach the poverty line. Nearly all states have eased the financial penalties on work that were part of the afdc program, but only a few states ensure that most families who leave welfare with a job also leave of the research findings discussed in this report make clear that the results of welfare reform research conducted during the strong economic period of the 1990s may differ from results obtained from research during a weak economy. Thus, there is a role for continuing research even on questions that some think may have been answered by earlier research. For example, although several leaver studies provide information on income and hardship levels of families that have left welfare in the 1990s, the results of such studies might be very different if they had been conducted during an economic downturn. In particular, more research is needed on tanf “non-entrants,” the impact of diversion policies, the long-term economic well-being of tanf leavers, and the long-term impact of time acs, katherin ross phillips, and sandi nelson, “the road not taken?

Changes in welfare entry during the 1990s,” december y acs and pamela loberts with tracy roberts, “final synthesis report of findings from aspe “leavers” grants,” urban institute, november bainbridge, marcia k. 84, december d bavier, “conditions limiting work among tanf entries, stayers, and leavers,” presentation at appam conference, august 26, r bednarek and julie hudson, “child disability and mothers’ labor supply,” presented at american economic association meeting, berlin, “what works in welfare reform: evidence and lessons to guide tanf reauthorization,” mdrc, s j. Besharov and peter germanis, “welfare reform and caseload decline,” in family and child well-being after welfare reform, a m. 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Wolf, “child care subsidies and the employment of welfare recipients,” august s michalopoulos, kathryn edin, barbara fink, mirella landriscina, denise polit, judy polyne, lashawn richburg-hayes, david seith, and nandita verma, welfare reform in philadelphia: implementation, effects, and experiences of poor families and neighborhoods, mdrc, october a miller, “leavers, stayers, and cyclers: analysis of the welfare caseload,” manpower demonstration research corporation, november moffitt, katie winder, linda m. Woodruff, and amy kolak, “a study of tanf non-entrants,” november york city human resources administration, office of program reporting, analysis, and accountability, “job placements (fa & sna): trend; % change from previous month; % change from previous year,” january a pavetti, review of sanction policies and research studies, mathematica policy research, inc. A study of the employment patterns of young women and the implications for welfare mothers,” journal of policy analysis and management, vol. 38:3, rahmanou, elise richer, and mark greenberg, “welfare caseload remains relatively flat in second quarter of 2003,” center for law and social policy, october e. Teitler, irwin garfinkel, and sandra garcia, “variations in maternal and child wellbeing among financially eligible mothers by tanf participation status,” center for research on child wellbeing, working paper #03-13-ff, april e. Curtis, “hardships among sanctioned leavers, non-sanctioned leavers, and tanf stayers,” center for research on child wellbeing, working paper #03-17-ff, december richer, steve savner, and mark greenberg, “frequently asked questions about working welfare leavers,” center on law and social policy, a. Hatcher, and richard wertheimer, “the association of childhood asthma with parental employment and welfare receipt,” journal of the american medical women’s association, vol. 57:1, winter tumlin and wendy zimmermann, “immigrants and tanf: a look at immigrant welfare recipients in three cities,” urban institute, october 2003. General accounting office, “child care: child care subsidies increase likelihood that low-income mothers will work,” weil, “ten things everyone should know about welfare reform,” urban institute, may wemmerus, carole kuhns, and renee loeffler, experiences of virginia time limit families after case closure: 18-month follow-up with cases closed in early 1998, 1999, and 2000, mathematica policy research, inc. 1] this analysis does not provide a comprehensive review of all recent welfare reform research, but instead focuses on research that breaks new ground or is particularly relevant to current federal and state debates over the future of welfare reform. For recent reports that provide broad surveys of research from the 1990s, see blank (2002) and grogger, karoly, and klerman (2002). A short paper by weil (2002) provides an excellent summary of research, primarily conducted by the urban institute, on a broad array of welfare reform issues. 2] one limitation of most studies of welfare leavers’ income is that they generally do not take child care expenses and most other work-related expenses, except for payroll taxes, into account. 3] other recent studies with similar findings (although they do not use post-welfare reform data exclusively) include earle and heymann (2002) who find that health limitations are associated with a significantly increased risk of job loss among welfare leavers even after controlling for other factors, and smith, hatcher, and wertheimer (2002) who find that single parents of young children with asthma are less likely to have full-time work than other single parents of young children.

4] for example, an otherwise excellent 300-page report by grogger, karoly, and klerman (2002) that synthesizes the current state of knowledge from the large body of research literature on the impacts of welfare reform includes no discussion of the impacts of child care assistance on employment and poverty.