Analyses and statements by other organizations on welfare reform in general, the history of welfare reform, the 1996 welfare reform law, welfare reform in the states, as well as specific aspects including children, child care, food stamps, and job training

Analyses and statements by other organizations on welfare reform in general, the history of welfare reform, the 1996 welfare reform law, welfare reform in the states, as well as specific aspects including children, child care, food stamps, and job training

Analyses and statements by other organizations on welfare reform in general, the history of welfare reform, the 1996 welfare reform law, welfare reform in the states, as well as specific aspects including children, child care, food stamps, and job training

Analyses and statements by other organizations on welfare reform in general, the history of welfare reform, the 1996 welfare reform law, welfare reform in the states, as well as specific aspects including children, child care, food stamps, and job training

General Welfare Reform

• Welfare Information Clearinghouse (The Welfare Information Network): This site is a clearinghouse for information, policy analysis and technical assistance on welfare reform. The site includes hot topics, a calendar of welfare related meetings and events, welfare related web sites, summaries,and welfare reform related data. It also provides a list of organizations providing welfare reform information or services.
• Welfare Reform Primer (20th Century Fund): This is an excellent overview of the current welfare system presented in an easy-to-read statistical format with charts and tables; it touches on many of the most contentious issues involved in the current welfare reform debate from out-of-wedlock births to squelching the cycle of dependency.
• A Comparison of Selected Key Provisions of the Welfare Reform Reconciliation Act of 1996 with Current Law (Urban Institute): A preliminary summary of the key provisions of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 (H.R. 3734) compared to current law.
• Looking Before We Leap: Social Science and Welfare Reform (The Brookings Institution): This study addresses such issues as the consequences of converting the AFDC program into a block grant, the probable impacts of so-called "conservative mandates" such as family caps and teen mother exclusions, and the potential for moving poor single-parent families from welfare to work. Here you will find the introductory material for this study and information for ordering the report.

Welfare Reform History

• Wide Cast for Safety Net: Over Time, Middle Class as Well as Poor Rely on Entitlement Help (Economic Policy Institute): While there are numerous reports that document the importance of entitlement benefits to low-income families, this study examines both short-term and long-term receipt of such income -- and finds the middle-class, over time, also receives substantial help from these programs.
• Welfare Reform: An Analysis of the Issues (Urban Institute): This article reviews some of the most prominent complaints about the current welfare system and provides a brief history of past attempts at welfare reform.

The New Welfare Law

• The New Welfare Law - Summary (Center on Budget and Policy Priorities): This is a summary of the new welfare law.
• The Timeline For Implementing The New Welfare Law (Center on Budget and Policy Priorities): This article reviews the dates by which the major changes in welfare, Medicaid and the food stamp program must be implemented, or could be implemented at state option.
• Potential Effects of Congressional Welfare Reform Legislation on Family Incomes (The Urban Institute): This excellent report focuses on the impact of the welfare reform package on the money income of families and children. This is the report that predicts 1.1 million children will end up below the poverty line as a result of Congress's welfare reform.
• The Temporary Assistance for Needy Families Block Grant (Center for Law and Social Policy): Under the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) Block Grant, each state must begin operating a program of assistance to needy families no later than July 1, 1997. The legislation that enacted TANF repeals the AFDC, JOBS and Emergency Assistance Programs.

Welfare Reform in the States

• Welfare Reform in an Uncertain Environment (Center for Law and Social Policy): This report focuses upon the principal state directions evident from the waiver process and lists a set of issues that all states are likely to face in the next round of welfare reform.
• State Welfare Reform Efforts (Urban Institute): This article identifies state strategies used to increase participation in work-related programs, examining the role of child care and the lessons learned from these state projects.
• Waivers and Block Grant Implementation: Initial Questions (Center for Law and Social Policy): As states plan for implementation of the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) Block Grant, an important threshold question concerns the relation between TANF requirements and current or pending state waiver requests. The attached document discusses the uncertain relationship between waivers and requirements of the new legislation.
• Limits on Limits: State and Federal Policies on Welfare Time Limits (Center for Law and Social Policy): As of June 20, 1996, seventeen states have pending or approved waiver requests to terminate AFDC benefits to a family that reaches a time limit; four additional states have pending or approved requests to reduce a family's cash aid when the family reaches a time limit. This document analyzes the exemption and extension policies of these twenty-one states.
• Wisconsin Works: Significant Experiment, Troubling Features (Center for Law and Social Policy): Wisconsin's recently enacted legislation would initiate a redesigned welfare system that, in significant ways, would differ from any other in the nation. Under the Wisconsin Works (W-2) legislation, instead of offering cash aid, a W-2 agency would offer eligible families a subsidized job or a position in a work program. W-2 would also restructure the state's child care and Medicaid Programs.
• Racing to the Bottom? Recent State Welfare Initiatives Present Cause for Concern (Center for Law and Social Policy): This document reveals that a number of governors have proposed deep, across-the-board cuts or sharp time limits on cash assistance for needy families in anticipation of receiving a block grant for cash aid.

Child Care

• A Summary of Key Child Care Provisions of H.R. 3734 (Center for Law and Social Policy): Describes the key child care provisions of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996. The Act repeals current authority for three child care programs, which are sometimes referred to together as IV-A Child Care. Instead, states will receive federal child care funding under a Child Care and Development Block Grant.
• Child Care and Low-IncomeWorking Mothers (Rockefeller Foundation): This article discusses how with welfare mothers entering JOBS programs, the demand for child care is rising substantially---and the way states organize child care subsidies, quality, accessibility, and flexibility will help determine whether JOBS participants become self-sufficient.
• Framing the Federal Child Care Debate: Realities and Myths by Rebecca Maynard (Milken Institute for Job & Capital Formation) This article discusses how national child care policy has been in a race to keep up with the rise in employment rates of mothers with young children, and with the concurrent change in public attitudes about the rights and obligations of mothers to care full-time for their young children.

Child Poverty

• 28 Million Poor and Lower-Middle Income Children Would Not Qualify for Dole Child Tax Credit (Center on Budget and Policy Priorities): This article is an analysis of Dole's Child Tax Credit based on data from the Congressional Budget Office.
• Potential Effects of Congressional Welfare Reform Legislation on Family Incomes (Urban Institute): This paper presents estimates of how major income security changes would affect family incomes as proposed in recently passed welfare reform bills in the House and Senate.

Child Support

• Child Support in H.R. 3734, Key Features (Center for Law and Social Policy): This two page summary highlights key changes H.R. 3734 makes to the child support enforcement program.
• Improving Child Support Collections: States Establish the Order, While IRS Collects the Support (Center for Law and Social Policy): The current state-based system of child support enforcement is failing children. Moving responsibility for collections to the IRS would solve some of the most serious problems of the current system. It would allow the vast majority of child support to be collected through income withholding, just as taxes are paid. At the same time, it would allow states to focus on getting orders established.
• Pointing the Finger at Moms: Child Support Cooperation Provisions in the Conference Welfare Bill (Center for Law and Social Policy) This essay argues that administrative barriers, rather than noncooperation by AFDC recipients, are the main reason for poor paternity establishment rates, and recommends that states focus on information quality, interagency coordination, and client education when implementing new cooperation requirements.
• Relationship between TANF and Child Support Requirements (Center for Law and Social Policy): This memo contains a preliminary analysis of the family law issues for public assistance recipients under the "Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996" (P.L. 104-193). The new law requires states to reexamine the interface between family law and public benefits in a number of key areas. Depending on how states resolve some of the interface issues, families can be helped or hurt.

Food Stamps

• The Depth of the Food Stamp Cuts in the Welfare Bill (Center on Budget and Policy Priorities): This article discusses who is affected by the $27.7 billion food stamp cuts and includes state by state charts.

Immigration

• Q & A on Immigrants and Welfare Reform (NCSL): In this piece the Immigrant Policy Project provides answers to questions that have arisen concerning changes to immigrant services following passage of the welfare reform bill.
• Hispanic poverty and immigration (Rockefeller Foundation): This article discusses how poverty among Hispanics and other disadvantaged Americans should not be blamed on immigration, and how immigration policies should not detract from the broader issue of Hispanic poverty in America.

Homelessness

• Homeless Families: Yesterday, Today and Tommorow (Homes for the Homeless): As we near the turn of the century, homelessness will undergo a marked transformation and enter a new stage of unprecedented growth. After shifting from an emergency housing problem in the early 1980s to one of severe, sustained poverty in the 1990s, homelessness is now on the verge of taking yet another radical turn. Proposed cuts in federal and state assistance to the poor will destabilize millions of families and, ultimately, force tens of thousands more into homelessness.
• Welfare Repeal: The Impact of H.R. 3734 on Homelessness in America (The National Coalition for the Homeless): This report assesses the provisions of the new welfare legislation that will have the most significant impact on homelessness. It also provides a list of recommendations for action at the state and local level to mitigate the negative effects of the law.
• The Age of Confusion - Why so many teens are getting pregnant, turning to welfare and ending up homeless (Homes for the Homesless): This study documents a history of unintended pregnancy, premature motherhood and failure to plan for the future. What becomes evident is that, for many young women, these factors are a clear formula for long-term welfare dependence and homelessness.

Employment and Job Training

• Devolution, Workforce Development, and Welfare Reform (Center for Law and Social Policy): This document describes the conflicting themes and provisions of welfare legislation passed by Congress (and vetoed by the President) and the job training consolidation bills passed by the House and the Senate. A number of key issues are identified and discussed concerning the likely impact of these bills on access to education and training for individuals who receive cash assistance.
• The JOBS Evaluation: Early Findings on Program Impacts in Three Sites (The Manpower Demonstration Research Corporation): This is the first report presenting impact results from the evaluation of the Job Opportunities and Basic Skills Training (JOBS) Program, a study conducted by the Manpower Demonstration Research Corporation (MDRC) under contract to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Workfare

• Increasing the Employment and Earnings of Welfare Recipients (Urban Institute): This article discusses how programs that emphasize job search and work are more cost-effective reform tools than programs that rely primarily on financial incentives or training and education.
• Trends in the Low-Wage Labor Market and Welfare Reform - The Constraints on Making Work Pay (Economic Policy Institute): This article discusses how for the "make work pay" component of welfare reform to be successful, the portion of the labor market accessible to young, non-college educated persons needs to be generating jobs that pay wages that at least keep pace with inflation. Unless economic policies to ameliorate these trends are pursued, forcing welfare recipients into the labor market in this climate will further lower wages and increase unemployment.
• Five Years After: The Long-Term Effects of Welfare-to-Work Programs (Russell Sage Foundation): This is a summary of the new book by Daniel Friedlander and Gary Burtless. The book tells the story of what happened to the welfare recipients who participated in the influential welfare-to-work experiments conducted by several states in the mid-1980s.

Tables and Charts

• Table/Chart: Distribution of Aggregate Family Income
• Table/Chart: Percent of People in Poverty
• Table/Chart: Unemployment and Employment Rates
• Table/ ----- : Population, Labor Force, and Participation by Gender
• Table/Chart: Men's and Women's Labor Force Participation Rate Changes
• Table/Chart: Age Distribution of Labor Force
• Table/Chart: Percentage of Population by Age Group
• Table/Chart: Employment by Sector
• Table/Chart: Percentage of Population Engaged in Service Sector Industries
• Table/ ----- : Trends in Service Sector Employment

Poverty Statistics

• The Social Statitstics Briefing Room
• Census Bureau Poverty Data

Organizational Links

• Brookings Institution
• Center for Law and Social Policy
• Center on Budget and Policy Priorities
• Economic Policy Institute
• Handsnet
• Homes for the Homeless
• Milken Institute for Job & Capital Formation
• National Coalition for the Homeless
• Rockefeller Foundation
• Russell Sage Foundation
• Twentieth Century Fund
• Urban Institute