Workfare Programs

Abstract

Workfare initially originated as an approach to guide welfare recipients towards self-sufficiency. Today, the same strategy is being utilized as a desperate means by the States to move welfare recipients into the workforce in order not to suffer further cuts in federal assistance.

This paper reviews many of the common barriers which participants experience as they attempt to move from being welfare recipients to employees. In addition, it presents effective workfare programs, identifies critically needed support services for workfare participants, and suggests policy recommendations for the future.     

WELFARE AND CITIZENSHIP: The Effects of Government Assistance on Young Adults' Civic Participation

Recent scholarship and public discourse highlight an apparent waning of civic engagement in the United States. Although the welfare state is generally thought to support democracy by reducing economic inequality, it may paradoxically contribute to political disempowerment of some groups. We examine the effects of state interventions on civic participation among young adults, hypothesizing that involvement with stigmatizing social programs, such as welfare, reduces political engagement, while receipt of nonstigmatizing government assistance does not dampen civic involvement. Using official voting records and survey data from the Youth Development Study (YDS), a longitudinal community sample of young adults, a series of regression models suggests that welfare recipients are less likely to vote than nonrecipients, whereas recipients of non-means-tested government assistance participate similarly to young adults who do not receive government help. These effects hold even when background factors, self-efficacy, and prior voting behavior are controlled. Welfare receipt is not associated, however, with suppressed participation in nonstate arenas such as volunteer work. Intensive interviews with YDS welfare recipients are used to illustrate and develop the analysis.     

Does media coverage influence public attitudes towards welfare recipients? The impact of the 2011 English riots

Following the shooting of Mark Duggan by police on 4 August 2011, there were riots in many large cities in the UK. As the rioting was widely perceived to be perpetrated by the urban poor, links were quickly made with Britain's welfare policies. In this paper, we examine whether the riots, and the subsequent media coverage, influenced attitudes toward welfare recipients. Using the British Social Attitudes survey, we use multivariate difference‐in‐differences regression models to compare attitudes toward welfare recipients among those interviewed before (pre‐intervention: i.e. prior to 6 August) and after (post‐intervention: 10 August–10 September) the riots occurred (N = 3,311). We use variation in exposure to the media coverage to test theories of media persuasion in the context of attitudes toward welfare recipients. Before the riots, there were no significant differences between newspaper readers and non‐readers in their attitudes towards welfare recipients. However, after the riots, attitudes diverged. Newspaper readers became more likely than non‐readers to believe that those on welfare did not really deserve help, that the unemployed could find a job if they wanted to and that those on the dole were being dishonest in claiming benefits. Although the divergence was clearest between right‐leaning newspaper and non‐newspaper readers, we do not a find statistically significant difference between right‐ and left‐leaning newspapers. These results suggest that media coverage of the riots influenced attitudes towards welfare recipients; specifically, newspaper coverage of the riots increased the likelihood that readers of the print media expressed negative attitudes towards welfare recipients when compared with the rest of the population.     

“A Black Benefit”: Racial Prejudice Among White Welfare Recipients in a Low-Income Neighborhood

Welfare has been stigmatized as a benefit for poor African-Americans, in particular for blacks accused of sexual promiscuity and a weak work ethic. Stigma has been found to demoralize welfare recipients, alienate middle-class voters who resent tax expenditures for public assistance, and fuel conservative support for legislation limiting welfare. This article describes another aspect of the stigmatization of welfare as a “black benefit”—the belief by some poor whites that they have experienced racial discrimination when trying to access cash assistance and other benefits. Drawing on data gathered as part of a larger, 18-month qualitative study, this article examines how impoverished whites in Philadelphia view welfare receipt and race. Ugly racial epithets and stereotypes were typically used when describing frustration over lack of access to welfare and other social services.     

Interpreting the needs of lone mothers

This article focuses on the relationship between welfare services in some districts of the municipality of Venice and their lone-mother clients. First, it outlines briefly the panorama of Italian support policies. As there is no national law on social assistance, but a variety of fragmentary and complex local systems of rights, the social rights of lone mothers have to be examined at the local level. The article then attempts to reconstruct the de factopolicies for lone mothers in a welfare system that has no provisions specifically for lone mothers. It interprets discursive and ideological dimensions of social policies from the social workers' viewpoint, highlighting the mechanisms by which the welfare programmes and practices define the needs of lone mothers. It outlines the dynamics of negotiation in the welfare services, which try to reconcile the legislative and administrative norms with the social workers' professional practices and the perceived claims of lone mothers. Despite the Veneto region's universal law on social assistance, access to economic support tends to be determined selectively on the basis of a 'qualifying need'. Interpreting lone mothers' claims to qualifying needs along psycho-social and educational dimensions serves to transform their expressed claims into needs that can be dealt with institutionally. Social workers' image of the two subculturesof lone mothers influences their attitudes and the strategies they set in motion for lone mothers. Lone mothers are provided with a broader range of discretionary support than other users of welfare services, as social workers perceive their problems as more complex and pressing. Social workers' discretion in supporting lone mothers in maternity and in accommodating paid employment and family responsibilities compensates for the gaps left by national and local welfare policies.     

Social assistance in Austria: regulating the poor as in-between

Not only the concept of social inclusion is widely recognized as an important basis today for making social policy, but it also provides a platform for the policing of the poor. Thinking uncritically about social inclusion prevents us from seeing how it operates to re-inscribe subordination even as we help the poor overcome their marginalization. With an awareness of the paradox of inclusion, it is possible to examine how welfare policy today operates to discipline the poor as people who must accept their plight at the bottom of the socioeconomic order. While formal policy may not make this paradox apparent, the disciplinary effects of an inclusionary social assistance policy are starkly visible when we examine its implementation, where we can see how the excluded become included in ways that perpetuate their subordination. Social assistance recipients obtain a benefit, but the way they are treated does not correspond with full social rights, which is reminiscent of Georg Simmel's discussion of the poor. As exemplified by research at one local social assistance office in Austria, welfare recipients are ultimately neither included nor excluded. Welfare, as administered today, upholds the system of social stratification by perpetuating an ‘in-between’ status for the claimants of social assistance benefits at the frontline.     

Welfare and women in poor urban neighborhoods: The effect of dependency on attitudinal indicators

This study examines the relationship between welfare dependency and the attitudes of female residents in poor urban neighborhoods. The analysis focuses on their attitudes about relationships, children, home ownership, and welfare, and how these attitudes are affected by race/ethnicity, neighborhood poverty, religion, close friendship ties with welfare recipients, and kin networks. Using the Urban Poverty & Family Life Survey and multiple and logistic regression analysis, the findings show that welfare dependency has a negative impact on attitudes but is diminished by a variety of cultural and social indicators. Results further illustrate that, for some residents in severely impoverished areas, consistent welfare receipt may counteract negative effects on attitudes experienced by their counterparts who do not receive welfare.     

Single Mothers and Family Values

SUMMARY

In recent years the federal government has made marriage promotion a central part of its welfare reform initiatives. These promotion efforts are based on the assumption that poor women, particularly women of color, have family attitudes that differ from those of other women. This article tests that assumption using the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study, a nationally representative sample of births to single mothers in urban areas. Results show significant differences in family attitudes between married and unmarried White women, but few differences for women of color. In fact, unmarried women of color tend to be more traditional than White women. In addition, welfare recipients are similar to non-recipients in gender traditionalism and attitudes towards marriage, and low-income women often express the most support for traditional gender roles. Implications for marriage promotion policies are discussed.     

Professionals without a profession? Redesigning case management in Dutch local welfare agencies

This article explores the new roles of frontline workers in Dutch local welfare agencies against the background of recent active welfare state reforms, with a specific focus on frontline workers involved in activating social assistance recipients. The results presented in the article come from case studies in four local welfare agencies. The article investigates how active welfare state reforms have influenced the room for discretion of frontline workers, how discretion is managed in local welfare agencies, and how frontline workers cope with discretion. The article argues that the discretion of activation by frontline workers has increased significantly. The research results show a clear though not unambiguous shift from a bureaucratic towards a more professional treatment of frontline workers, combined with attempts to introduce a more performance oriented style of management. However, given the low level of institutionalisation of the profession of activation work, activation frontline workers still seem to be professionals without a profession. This not only makes activation work a rather individual project, it also entails risks for clients for whom activation services may become unpredictable and lacking in transparency.     

Even the underprivileged are rational: The incentive effects of welfare

Tanner and Moore (1995) calculate welfare equivalent wages for the six most common social programs for each of the 50 states and the District of Columbia. They assert that individuals who choose public assistance over work are responding rationally to incentives of the welfare system, but they offer no evidence. I present statistically significant support for Tanner and Moore’s assertion. Among potential welfare recipients, a one dollar increase in the welfare equivalent wage is found to increase the welfare take-up rate by approximately 2.7 percentage points and decrease the labor force participation rate by approximately 2.5 percentage points. I thank John Dawson, Don Nimey, Michelle W. Trawick, and an anonymous referee for helpful comments. The usual caveat applies.     

‘Now I’d like to sleep with Rachael’ – researching sexuality support in a service agency group home

Many intellectually disabled people living in agency services require significant forms of support to live safe and satisfying sexual lives. Research reveals that despite support personnel working in service systems now holding largely positive attitudes towards sexuality assistance, proactive practice is rarely initiated. This article probes what might lie within this attitude/assistance gap. This investigation reveals a complex picture of practices that rely on intellectually disabled people showing conformation to a ‘couple doing normal’ ideal, so as to be judged capable of being supported. It examines how wider social locations of meaning related to ‘intellectual disability’ and ‘sexuality’ might substantiate these judgement calls. The degree to which it can be said that worker’s own attitudes and values underpin their reluctance to provide support is then explored. Finally, why researchers and practitioners might need to reappraise the complex interactions that shape worker’s practice in this area is discussed.     

Organizing local social service measures to counteract long-term social assistance receipt. What works? Experiences from Sweden

Active labour market policies and programs (ALMPs) have over the last decades been established as main instruments to promote the transition from welfare to work. In this article we study strategies employed by Swedish municipalities to help recipients ending spells of social assistance take-up. By using a combination of quantitative and qualitative data we try to identify which approaches stand out as more successful than others with respect to social assistance duration. We have formed pairs of municipalities similar in important respects, but with different social assistance exit rates as predicted by a statistical model. Then we conducted case studies in the selected municipalities’ social assistance units, gathering information on how work is carried out and organized. Information was collected by semi-structured interviews with department managers and front-line social workers. In the interviews we identified various elements of practice that emerged as relevant, suggesting that shorter spells follow from activation with a focus on human resource development, programmes targeted at young adults, well-functioning collaboration, and use of sanctions or an overall approach characterized by systemized efforts.     

The social capital and mental health of long-term social assistance recipients in Norway

Previous findings have generally demonstrated the positive mental health benefits of social capital. However, the mental health benefits of social capital for social assistance recipients have not been fully demonstrated. This study analyses the mental health benefits of individual-level bonding and individual-level bridging social capital for 551 Norwegian longer-term social assistance recipients. The findings demonstrate that bonding social capital, i.e. contacts with friends and access to social resources, are positively associated with mental health. Of the variables in the study that relate to bridging social capital, social trust and trust towards the social worker particularly show significant associations for mental health. Consequently, it is important that the mental health benefits of various forms of bonding and bridging social capital are acknowledged within social work practices and that social work practitioners actively aim to increase social trust in longer-term social assistance recipients.     

A qualitative look at child care selection among rural welfare-to-work participants

The welfare reforms of 1996 changed the administration of public assistance to children and families. One of the key provisions, requiring parents to join the workforce, resulted in an expanded need for child care. Prior research demonstrates that welfare recipients, particularly in rural areas, utilize informal child care arrangements. Further, recipients in rural communities face greater challenges due to a lack of transportation, geographic spread, and less access to services. This qualitative study examined the child care selection experiences of 33 welfare recipients in six rural Northern California counties. More families selected home-based than center-based child care. During their search processes, welfare recipients utilized both formal and informal routes to locate child care providers. Parents took advantage of their connections with the social service system, but also accessed their social networks for recommendations. Rural families also reported that their choices were constrained by the available programs, transportation, and by the quality of the programs they were able to access. Given the high rate of utilization of home-based arrangements among families in welfare-to-work programs, quality of care in such programs should be improved. Recommendations for increasing quality and access, as well as supports for welfare to work participants, are discussed.     

From service to social control: Implications of welfare reform for professional practice in the United States

In response to the explosive growth and the changing demographic composition of public welfare recipients, this program has undergone four major reforms over the last three decades: the 1962 'Service' amendments, the 1967 Work Incentive program (WIN), the Family Support Act of 1988, and the 1996 program of Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF). These reforms have had a profound impact not only on the scope and purpose of public assistance to needy families, but also on the nature of professional social work practice in this area of public social service. An analysis of the major welfare reforms over the last 35 years reveals how the national entitlement to income maintenance and social services has receded, local responsibility and private delivery of service have increased, and emphases on service functions have shifted from rehabilitative social casework/counselling to work-oriented training, job search activities, and local employment. The provision of public assistance has been transformed from a federal entitlement based on needs to a budget-driven-time-limited benefit enveloped by incentives and sanctions, with welfare clients increasingly subject to mandatory participation in work-related activities. This movement from welfare to workfare has infused the professional role of social workers with a steadily expanding function of social control, which is unlikely to encourage professional participation in the public social services.     

Self-Employment as a Social and Economic Development Intervention for Recipients of AFDC

Summary

This paper reports findings from program evaluations of two demonstrations designed to (1) test self-employment as a social and economic development strategy for recipients of AFDC, and (2) identify policy barriers to improving the economic well-being of this population. The authors collected data through interviews with program participants and program operators and used secondary data contained in operators' management information systems and state Department of Human Services electronic files. Program results showed that self-employment is a viable social and economic development strategy for self-selected welfare recipients who receive business training and assistance in locating operating capital. The paper discusses implications for social work practice, education, and research.     

DETERMINANTS OF WELFARE POLICY ATTITUDES: A CONTEXTUAL LEVEL ANALYSIS

Using the 2008 Chicago Area Study, this article tests how residential context plays a role in welfare policy attitudes, controlling for individual level characteristics. The contextual level variables of household public assistance use and minority concentration in respondents' neighborhoods are tested using multinomial logistic regression analysis. When including controls for education, income, political party, age, employment status, gender, and race, respondents residing in neighborhoods with a higher concentration of African Americans are more likely to endorse positive attitudes toward welfare policy. Additionally, an interaction effect is found between individual level income and household public assistance use in the ZIP code when predicting welfare policy attitudes. Lower income respondents residing in neighborhoods with higher household public assistance use are more likely to endorse positive attitudes toward welfare than their higher income neighbors. Given the exploratory nature of this study, the author concludes with implications for such findings and proposes future research.     

Social assistance for poor children in urban China: A qualitative study from the recipients' perspective

In urban China, the recipients' experiences living with social assistance are neglected. This article examines social assistance for poor children in urban China, mainly by interviewing parents and children from urban Dibao households in Tianjin and Chengdu. It finds that the recipients' feelings included gratitude, helplessness, shame and exclusion which reflected limited policy effect on material support and social exclusion prevention. It argues that the recipients are under-served and current social assistance policy for poor children which only includes differentiated aid and education aid is inadequate and should be further improved.     

Common sense: Why jobs and training alone won't end welfare for homeless families

With the advent of welfare reform, its proponents anticipate that millions of Americans chronically dependent on public assistance will be set free. In reality, far too many welfare recipients are trapped in a web of poverty from which they are incapable of escaping. Today, over a third of all welfare recipients are single, poorly-educated mothers with little or no work experience (Pavetti 1995, 3). Worse yet, extreme poverty has forced 600,000 of these families into homelessness. Common sense dictates that unless the states, in their new role as leaders in welfare innovation, immediately forge strategic policy, these women and their children–yet another generation–will sink deeper into poverty and dependence.     

Inheritance of Welfare Recipiency: An Intergenerational Study of Social Assistance Recipiency in Postwar Sweden

Intergenerational transmission of welfare dependency has received increasing attention among social scientists, especially in the United States, as greater availability of longitudinal data has shed new light on this issue. It remains unclear, however, to what extent the intergenerational correlation of welfare recipiency observed in the United States reflects or interacts with unobserved variables, the racial composition of the population, and the institutional structure of social policies. This study focuses on Sweden, a country with an ethnically homogenous population and institutional social policy structures that differ from those in the United States. It utilizes an internationally unique longitudinal data set to test hypotheses on the inheritance of welfare benefit recipiency as indicated by reliance on means‐tested social assistance. A clear intergenerational effect is observed. This effect, however, reflects a combination of social assistance in the family of origin, children's school adjustment, and parental criminality. Children who lack this combination of problems do not show signs of intergenerational welfare dependency.