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The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA) of 1996 fundamentally changed the nation's social welfare system, replacing a federal entitlement program for low-income families, called Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC), with state-administered block grants, the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program. PRWORA furthered a trend started earlier in the decade under so called "waiver" programs-state experiments with different types of AFDC rules-toward devolution of design and control of social welfare programs from the federal government to the states. The legislation imposed several new, major requirements on state use of federal welfare funds but otherwise freed states to reconfigure their programs as they want. The underlying goal of the legislation is to decrease dependence on welfare and increase the self-sufficiency of poor families in the United States. In summer 1998, the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE) of the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) asked the Committee on National Statistics of the National Research Council to convene a Panel on Data and Methods for Measuring the Effects of Changes in Social Welfare Programs. The panel's overall charge is to study and make recommendations on the best strategies for evaluating the effects of PRWORA and other welfare reforms and to make recommendations on data needs for conducting useful evaluations. This interim report presents the panel's initial conclusions and recommendations. Given the short length of time the panel has been in existence, this report necessarily treats many issues in much less depth than they will be treated in the final report. The report has an immediate short-run goal of providing DHHS-ASPE with recommendations regarding some of its current projects, particularly those recently funded to study "welfare leavers"-former welfare recipients who have left the welfare rolls as part of the recent decline in welfare caseloads.
Under the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) block grants, states have the authority to make decisions about how to allocate fed. & state funds to assist low-income families. States' increased flexibility under TANF as well as the budgetary stresses they experienced after a recession draw attention to the fiscal partnership between the fed. gov't. & states. This report examines: changes in the overall level of welfare-related spending; changes in spending priorities for welfare-related non-health services; & the contribution of TANF funds to states' spending for welfare-related serv. Reviewed spending in 9 states for FY Ô95, Ô00, & Ô04. Focused on spending for working-age adults & children, excl. the elderly, long-term & institutional care.
Congress must reauthorize the sweeping 1996 welfare reform legislation by October 1, 2002. A number of issues that were prominent in the 1995-96 battle over welfare reform are likely to resurface in the debate over reauthorization. Among those issues are the five-year time limit, provisions to reduce out-of-wedlock births, the adequacy of child care funding, problems with Medicaid and food stamp receipt by working families, and work requirements. Funding levels are also certain to be controversial. Fiscal conservatives will try to lower grant spending levels, while states will seek to maintain them and gain additional discretion in the use of funds. Finally, a movement to encourage states to promote marriage among low-income families is already taking shape. The need for reauthorization presents an opportunity to assess what welfare reform has accomplished and what remains to be done. The New World of Welfare is an attempt to frame the policy debate for reauthorization, and to inform the policy discussion among the states and at the federal level, especially by drawing lessons from research on the effects of welfare reform. In the book, a diverse set of welfare experts—liberal and conservative, academic and nonacademic—engage in rigorous debate on topics ranging from work experience programs, to job availability, to child well-being, to family formation. In order to provide a comprehensive overview of the current state of research on welfare reform, the contributors cover subjects including work and wages, effects of reform on family income and poverty, the politics of conservative welfare reform, sanctions and time limits, financial work incentives for low-wage earners, the use of medicaid and food stamps, welfare-to-work, child support, child care, and welfare reform and immigration. Preparation of the volume was supported by funds from the Annie E. Casey Foundation and the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation.
The 1996 welfare reform bill marked the beginning of a new era in public assistance. Although the new law has reduced welfare rolls, falling caseloads do not necessarily mean a better standard of living for families. In For Better and For Worse, editors Greg J. Duncan and P. Lindsay Chase-Lansdale and a roster of distinguished experts examine the evidence and evaluate whether welfare reform has met one of its chief goals-improving the well-being of the nation's poor children. For Better and For Worse opens with a lively political history of the welfare reform legislation, which demonstrates how conservative politicians capitalize on public concern over such social problems as single parenthood to win support for the radical reforms. Part I reviews how individual states redesigned, implemented, and are managing their welfare systems. These chapters show that most states appear to view maternal employment, rather that income enhancement and marriage, as key to improving child well-being. Part II focuses on national and multistate evaluations of the changes in welfare to examine how families and children are actually faring under the new system. These chapters suggest that work-focused reforms have not hurt children, and that reforms that provide financial support for working families can actually enhance children's development. Part III presents a variety of perspectives on policy options for the future. Remarkable here is the common ground for both liberals and conservatives on the need to support work and at the same time strengthen safety-net programs such as Food Stamps. Although welfare reform-along with the Earned Income Tax Credit and the booming economy of the nineties-has helped bring mothers into the labor force and some children out of poverty, the nation still faces daunting challenges in helping single parents become permanent members of the workforce. For Better and For Worse gathers the most recent data on the effects of welfare reform in one timely volume focused on improving the life chances of poor children.
As a result of federal legislation aimed at welfare reform, states have been transforming welfare in new ways. Critical questions remain, however, and policymakers must continue to develop new ideas and implement programs from other states. This book contributes to the learning process among states by sharing program innovations and analyses to help states realize their goals for a new welfare that helps recipients find and keep jobs that will enable them to support their families without welfare. The first section of the guide provides an overview of meeting the challenges of welfare reform. The second section, "Finding and Creating Jobs for Welfare Recipients," addresses job development, microenterprise programs, targeted state employment, and community service. The third section, "Preparing Recipients for Work," addresses assessment, support services, job readiness, education, vocational training, and work experiences. The fourth section, "Child Care," examines the issues of eligibility, copayment, and reimbursement rates and mechanisms. The fifth section, "Getting to Work: Providing Transportation in a Work-Based System," addresses the transportation dilemma, transit alternatives, and life after welfare. The sixth section, "Ensuring the Well-Being of Children Under Welfare Reform," addresses tracking families that leave welfare, safety net programs, and effects on the child welfare system. The seventh section, "Overseeing Welfare Reform: Accountability, Financing and Devolution," addresses block grants and state spending. (Contains 43 notes.) (SD)
Distributed to some depository libraries in microfiche.
Assessment of the nation's public assistance programs at the federal, state, and local levels with recommendations to make them more effective, accountable, and economical.
Under the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) block grant created as part of the 1996 welfare reforms, states have the authority to make key decisions about how to allocate federal and state funds to assist low-income families. States also make key decisions, through their budget processes, about federal and state funds associated with other programs providing assistance for the low-income population. States' increased flexibility under TANF as well as the budgetary stresses they experienced after a recession draw attention to the fiscal partnership between the federal government and states. To update GAO's previous work, this report examines (1) changes in the overall level of welfare-related spending; (2) changes in spending priorities for welfare-related nonhealth services; and (3) the contribution of TANF funds to states' spending for welfare-related services. GAO reviewed spending in nine states for state fiscal years 1995, 2000, and 2004 and focused on spending for working-age adults and children, excluding the elderly, long-term and institutional care.