Welfare reform's ineligible immigrant parents: Program reach and enrollment barriers

Since the implementation of the 1996 welfare reform act, the child-only Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) caseload has increased dramatically. Perhaps the least understood child-only population is that of ineligible immigrant parents (IIPs), who are ineligible for TANF because of their citizenship or immigration status. Using data collected through in-depth interviews and focus groups in Stanislaus County, California, this study examines how well California's TANF program serves this at-risk group. We analyze the factors that lead IIPs to seek aid for their children, the enrollment obstacles they face, and TANF's ability to meet their needs. Our results demonstrate that immigration-related fears as well as concerns about caseworkers, stigma, and future government sanctions heighten these parents' reluctance to seek aid. They also create multiple and often population-specific barriers to TANF enrollment. We close with research and policy recommendations for serving this vulnerable population.     

Young children's internalizing and externalizing behaviors after mothers exit welfare: Comparisons with children of non-welfare mothers

Although not part of its stated aims, current welfare legislation is assumed to benefit children through increased parental employment and self-sufficiency. Research findings on the extent to which parental welfare participation improves child well-being are inconclusive. This study investigates the behavioral outcomes of young children whose mothers have received TANF using data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study (N = 2169). Controlling for maternal demographic characteristics, current financial status, and health risks, we found that the difference between children's externalizing behaviors in families of former TANF recipients relative to children of mothers who had never been on welfare decreased the longer mothers had been off welfare. However, overall, externalizing behaviors were significantly higher among children of former TANF recipients relative to children whose mothers had never received welfare. The findings suggest that ensuring healthy development for children requires long-term supports to help mothers as they transition off welfare.     

State TANF Time Limit and Work Sanction Stringencies and Long-Term Trajectories of Welfare Use,Labor Supply,and Income

While the 1996 welfare reform increased employment and reduced the participation of the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program immediately after its inception, little is known about the extent to which the reform and stringencies of time limit and work sanction policy features have impacted individuals in the long term. This study used the Survey of Income and Program Participation 1996, 2001, and 2004 panels (1996–2007) and a difference-in-difference-in-difference design to follow low-skilled single mothers’ trajectories of welfare use, labor supply, and income for 10 years after the welfare reform and compare how these trajectories differ by stringencies of state work sanction and time limit policies. The findings indicate that welfare reform had sustained impacts on reducing welfare use (TANF and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program [SNAP] program) and increasing employment. Stringent work sanction and time limit policies were associated with lower TANF participation rates in the long term, but only short time limit policies were associated with reduced SNAP participation. Neither stringent policy feature increased employment nor income. The differential effects by race were also examined and discussed.

     

TANF’s 15th Anniversary and the Great Recession: are Low‐Income Mothers Celebrating Upward Economic Mobility?

This article examines the impact of welfare reform for the upward economic mobility of low‐income families at the fifteenth anniversary of the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program. The reformed policy was based on assumptions about participating families’ morality and encouraged states to move families off welfare through work and marriage without considering whether they were still poor. TANF was also implemented during an economic boom. Today, the US economy is suffering from the effects of the Great Recession, with many fearing a double dip recession. Poverty rates rose during the last 3 years and are currently above 15 percent. For the first time since 1996, the welfare rolls are increasing in many states. Welfare reform’s ‘work first’ approach did not create lasting upward economic mobility for low‐income families. As an alternative, I explore how higher education for welfare mothers will create opportunities for lasting upward mobility, even in times of recession.     

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.     

Effects of Work Incentive Policies and Determinants of the Socioeconomic Status of Welfare Leavers in an Economically Disadvantaged Area

Abstract

This study explores how work incentive policies influence the socioeconomic status of welfare leavers. Logistic and ordinal regression methods were used to analyze 1999 statewide survey data on West Virginia WORKS leavers. This study found that people who had more months of eligibility remaining for TANF were more likely to have jobs than those with fewer months of eligibility. People who had been sanctioned for noncompliance with work requirementswere less likely to have jobs than those who had not been sanctioned. However, childcare assistance had a significant influence on the employment of welfare leavers. EITC was significantly associated with the expectation of high economic status. Policy implications are discussed.     

Impacts of welfare reform on California grandparents raising grandchildren: reflections from the field.

Debate over the potential impacts of welfare reform largely has ignored the implications of these changes for the growing number of grandparents who are raising their grandchildren. Results of a qualitative study involving 36 key informants who were intimately involved in the crafting and/or implementation of California's welfare reform plan are presented. Particular attention is focused on time limits on aid, work requirements, and sanctions regarding teenage parenthood as these may impact on grandparent caregivers and their families. Cross-cutting themes also are presented. A case is made for greatly stepping up data collection and evaluative research that may help in determining the actual impacts of the legislation on intergenerational households headed by grandparents.     

How do economic downturns affect welfare leavers? A comparison of two cohorts

Early welfare reform research showed high rates of employment for TANF leavers. However, work-focused welfare may not be effective during an economic downturn. We investigate the employment of Wisconsin TANF leavers, contrasting outcomes among early leavers (1998) with those who left during the 2001 recession. We use data from administrative records on about 6000 welfare leavers, tracking quarterly employment for 3 years after they left benefits. Separate panel data analyses of those exiting in two different time periods show that individual leavers are less likely to be employed when their local unemployment rate is high in the later cohort; no relationship is found for the early cohort. In a panel analysis in which the cohorts are combined, we find that leavers in the later cohort, who experienced the recession early in their post-welfare career, are less likely to be employed, a result that holds controlling for observed and unobserved characteristics. These findings raise questions about how well single-parent families and their children will fare during difficult economic times now that welfare reform has such a strong emphasis on work.     

State Welfare Rules,TANF Exits,and Geographic Context: Does Place Matter?*

Abstract This research compares the likelihood of exiting TANF with and without employment and the effects of important state TANF rules on welfare exits in more disadvantaged (large Rustbelt cities and poor southern nonmetro) and less disadvantaged (other metro and other nonmetro) areas during the 1996–2003 post‐welfare reform period. Hierarchical competing risk models using individual‐level data from the 1996–99 and 2001–03 Panels of the Survey of Income and Program Participation merged with state‐level data from various sources show that female TANF participants in poor southern nonmetro areas are the least likely to exit TANF with work, and participants in large Rustbelt cities are less likely to exit TANF with work than those in other metro areas. Non‐work TANF exits are more likely to occur in other nonmetro areas than in other metro areas. Importantly, the effects of state welfare rules on TANF exits differ across places of residence. For example, stringent time limit policies promote work exits in large Rustbelt cities but promote non‐work exits in poor southern nonmetro areas. More lenient earned income disregards are significantly related to remaining on TANF in poor southern nonmetro areas but promote work exits in all other places. Findings from this paper imply that states should not take a “one‐size‐fits‐all approach” to reduce welfare caseloads.     

Reaching Temporary Time Limits

Abstract

Concerns about long-term welfare dependency provided the primary reason for the nation's time-limited welfare benefits. This study compares the likelihood of reaching temporary time limits between families who repeatedly attempted to leave Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) and those who remained on the rolls continuously. Using logit analysis, we find that relatively few families reach the 24 month time limits in Nevada because most families left on their own for employment, marriage or for other reasons. This finding raises the question of whether time limits are even necessary. Government needs to further explore the service needs of families who are about to reach their time limits.     

Impacts of Welfare Reform on California Grandparents Raising Grandchildren

ABSTRACT

Debate over the potential impacts of welfare reform largely has ignored the implications of these changes for the growing number of grandparents who are raising their grandchildren. Results of a qualitative study involving 36 key informants who were intimately involved in the crafting and/or implementation of California's welfare reform plan are presented. Particular attention is focused on time limits on aid, work requirements, and sanctions regarding teenage parenthood as these may impact on grandparent caregivers and their families. Cross-cutting themes also are presented. A case is made for greatly stepping up data collection and evaluative research that may help in determining the actual impacts of the legislation on intergenerational households headed by grandparents.     

Immigrants’ TANF Eligibility, 1996–2003: What Explains the New Across‐State Inequalities?1

Why did some states adopt stringent TANF‐eligibility policies toward immigrants, while others implemented more lenient rules throughout the post‐1996 welfare reform period? We use immigrant‐specific welfare rule measures to examine predominant theoretical frameworks for understanding state stringency in welfare policy. Analysis, utilizing a simultaneous equations modeling (SEM) strategy, uses annual data for all states. Results show consistent support for the median voter (primarily, the percent of liberal voters) theoretical explanation for less stringent state welfare eligibility rules regarding immigrants. While the size of the Social‐Security‐recipient population (tax capacity indicator) and perhaps unacceptable reproductive behavior (teen birth rate) relate to more stringent rules, key state economic and fiscal characteristics (i.e., per capita welfare expenditures, per capita personal income) explain less stringent TANF eligibility rules. Importantly, recent immigrant population concentration patterns (in new and traditional destination states) add to the theoretical explanation of less stringent state TANF immigrant eligibility policies.     

TANF child-only cases in California: Barriers to self-sufficiency and well-being

Since the United States implemented Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF), or ‘welfare reform,’ the number of assistance cases without an adult receiving aid has risen dramatically. In states like California, these child-only cases now constitute the majority of all TANF cases. Despite this increase, existing research sheds little light on the composition of child-only caseloads and the status of the adults and children in such cases. Drawing on county administrative data and interviews with 143 parents associated with child-only cases in five California counties, this paper identifies both the demographics of the child-only caseload in these sites and the major barriers to employment that parents in sanctioned and timed-out child-only cases face. These include human capital, health, and family issues, in addition to other obstacles. The data suggest that, despite functioning as one administrative entity, CalWORKs, California's TANF program, has transformed into two separate programs: a welfare-to-work program and a subsistence-level cash assistance program for some members of child-only families. Given this transformation, the paper closes by suggesting a research agenda for future child-only scholarship and argues for policy innovations to meet the needs of the expanding child-only caseload.     

Welfare Reform

The passage of the Welfare Reform Act, the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA) of 1996, legislated the most sweeping changes to public assistance to poor people. The major focus of the act was to reduce caseloads and spending on public assistance. The most controversial component of the act, Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF), replaced the older Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC). TANF embodied the welfare to work principle with provisions that needy families could only receive assistance for 2 years at a time and a total of 5 years in a lifetime, and that the poor must take personal responsibility to become self-supporting through employment. Welfare reform included changes to Supplemental Security Income (SSI) which make it more difficult for disabled children to qualify for benefits. Reductions in the Food Stamp program were also included in welfare reform. This paper discusses the details of the Welfare Reform Act and calls attention to concerns that reforms may have negative effects on poor people.     

The Effects of Welfare-to-Work Programs on Welfare Recipients’ Employment Outcomes

This study examined the effects of U.S. Welfare-to-Work programs on the employment outcomes of Temporary Assistance to Needy Family (TANF) recipients. Using the Survey of Program Dynamics and the Welfare Rules Database, the present study followed unemployed TANF recipients who participated in Human Capital Development (HCD) and Labor Force Attachment (LFA) programs from 1997 through 2001. The analyses examined how program participation affected recipients’ employment while holding the effects of the state economy and various TANF rules constant. The results showed that, unlike the assumption of the work-first strategy in the welfare reform, participation in HCD programs was associated with a higher probability of obtaining and maintaining employment than participation in LFA programs.     

A Comparison of Sanctions in African American and White TANF Leavers

In this study the authors explore racial disparities in the uses of sanctions and the different impact of sanctions on the economic well-being of African American and White TANF leavers. The study analyzed 907 African American and 1,336 White welfare leavers from the 1999 and 2002 data of the NSAF. Chi-square results show that sanctions are more significantly imposed to African Americans than Whites. On the other hand, regression results show that the impact of sanctions on the employment and family income of African Americans and Whites are comparable. Implications suggest that states need to have an appropriate sanction process, training programs for caseworkers, or other policy changes to reduce the racial disparities.     

Not just maternalism: marriage and fatherhood in American welfare policy

The United States' 1996 welfare reforms are often interpreted as a historical break in transitioning from supporting motherhood to commodifiying women's labor. However, this cannot account for welfare reform's emphasis upon heterosexual marriage and fatherhood promotion. The paper traces continuities and shifts in over a century of familial regulation through American welfare policy, specifying the place of marriage promotion within welfare policy. Up until 1996, families were key sites of intervention through which the American welfare state was erected, especially through single women as mothers - not wives. However, as of the 1960s, concern with African American men's "failed" familial commitments turned policymakers toward concern over marriage promotion for women and men. While marriage "disincentives" for aid recipients were lifted in the 1960s, the 1996 reforms structured a new form of nuclear family governance actively promoting marriage rooted in, but distinct from, the previous. Given the historical absence of welfare policies available to poor men, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families' (TANF) marriage promotion policies have positioned poor women as nodes connecting the state to poor men, simultaneously structuring poor women as breadwinners, mothers, and wives. Recent welfare reform has also started to target poor men directly, especially in fatherhood and marriage promotion initiatives. The article highlights how, in addition to workfare policies, marriage promotion is a neoliberal policy shifting risk to the shoulders of the poor, aiming to produce "strong families" for the purposes of social security.     

The impact of state TANF policy decisions on kinship care providers

Based on a survey of public assistance and child welfare agency staff, this article examines how state Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) policy decisions have affected kinship care providers. Findings indicate that most states have continued using TANF to provide income support to kinship caregivers, and some have used TANF to find related support services. These payments, however, are much lower than rates for licensed providers, and many kinship caregivers are subject to work, training requirements, and time limits.     

Welfare-to-Work Programs and the Dynamics of TANF Use

This study examines the effects of participation in Welfare-to-Work programs on the dynamics of TANF recipients’ welfare use. Using the Survey of Program Dynamics and the Welfare Rules Database, the study analyzes how participation in Human Capital Development and Labor Force Attachment programs affects the probabilities of TANF exit and re-entry, while holding the effects of the state economy and various TANF rules constant. The analyses reveal that LFA programs are not associated with a higher probability of TANF exit than HCD programs. Instead, TANF recipients’ employment status and the local labor market conditions are more important predictors of TANF exit. It also reveals that, for TANF leavers, severe poverty and economic insecurity are significantly related to their welfare recidivism.     

TANF Recipients' Barriers to Employability: Substance Abuse and Domestic Violence

Recipients of temporary assistance for needy families (TANF) encounter a variety of expectations and sanctions. Recipients face work requirements, limited resources, and barriers to employability, including the barrier of substance use. This article addresses the sanctions that are applied to clients who do not meet expectations of the policy, barriers to employability, disparities in resources, and factors influencing referrals for substance abuse treatment for TANF clients.