Rebecca Blank explores a weakness of the welfare reforms of the mid-1990s--the failure of the Temporary Assistance to Needy Families program to address the plight of so-called "hard to employ" single mothers and their children. TANF has moved many women on the welfare caseload into work, but the services it provides are not intensive or flexible…

Describes Massachusetts' Employment and Training Choices Program that seeks to move people from welfare dependency to economic self-sufficiency. Program components are career assessment and planning, training and job placement, educational services, and support services. (JOW)

Uses a Granger-Sims statistical causality test applied to survey and social security data from 1955 to 1980 to examine the attractiveness of welfare as an inducement for Black women to stay single. Refutes this economic motivation theory and suggests a decline in available Black males as a determinant. (JAC)

Examines the issues surrounding the controversial Workfare program, which establishes work effort as a requirement for receipt of welfare benefits. (SK)

This paper presents the results of an experiment in which private employment agencies were used to place public assistance clients in jobs. Contains brief descriptions of the experiment and the AFDC clients who participated in it. Key experimental findings are outlined and policy implications are discussed. (CT)

Uses data concerning recipients' employment, receipt of aid, and poverty status to develop a typology of adaptations by welfare recipients. Results show that welfare reforms launched in 1996 moved dependent recipients out of welfare but had no effect on working recipients' chances of leaving welfare. Discusses factors that promoted a change in…

Compares drug-positive rates between welfare-receiving arrestees, non-welfare receiving arrestees living below the poverty level, and non-welfare arrestees living above the poverty level. Welfare-receiving arrestees were more likely to be female, older, less educated, and to test positive for opiates and benzodiazepines than the other subgroups.…

Used administrative (for 20,237 adults) and survey data (from about 200 leavers per month) from Georgia to examine risk factors for recidivism among welfare leavers and the relationship between recidivism and leavers' ability to find sustained employment. Results show a threshold of earnings that welfare leavers need to survive at the poverty…

Used cluster analysis of survey data for 506 respondents to create a taxonomy of welfare leavers in Illinois based on their self-reported well-being after leaving welfare. Used classification tree analysis to identify factors associated with different types of leavers. Findings highlight the existence of many marginally successful leavers who…

Used survey data (response rate of 75% for sample of 1,200), administrative data, and a database of the use of emergency assistance provided by community-based organizations to examine the economic status of former welfare recipients in Missouri and their use of government supports and community-based emergency assistance. (SLD)

North Carolina attempted to reform its welfare system to remove disincentives to work and encourage intact families and savings. Issues raised were funding incentives dramatically increase short-term program spending; amount and kinds of jobs available for welfare recipients are uncertain; and limits on long-term support beg the question of what…

Evaluation of Washington's Family Independence Program (1988-1993), designed to increase self-sufficiency of welfare recipients, shows that employment was lower and welfare participation higher than under Aid to Families with Dependent Children and there was little increase in education and training participation. The program apparently made…

Examined the experience of unemployment and helping or hindering factors for social assistance recipients. Found total of 516 critical incidents identified from transcripts of taped interviews with 20 social assistance recipients. Majority of incidents were negative; most frequently occurring category was stress over lack of money. (Author/NB)

Drawing on Durkheim's theory of social integration, an analysis of states' spending for public welfare and their divorce rates for 1960, 1970, 1980, and 1985 showed that the welfare state is not a destabilizing influence on family life as critics have charged. Past divorce rates were shown to have the most significant influence on current divorce…

Notes that, although early approach to welfare encouraged women to remain at home and raise their children, emphasis is now on moving adult welfare recipients into labor market. Provides brief historical development of Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC), along with specific policy recommendations that address the child care needs of…