The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 purports to reform welfare policy and encourage parents to achieve self-sufficiency, but the legislation raises many problems for children and their families. This guide is designed to highlight an array of decisions regarding the most important welfare and child care…

This issue of WIN (Welfare Information Network) Issue Notes focuses on helping low-income mothers with criminal records achieve self-sufficiency. Section 1 offers background. Section 2 answers these policy questions: why states might want to focus on serving low-income mothers with criminal records; how states can encourage employers to hire…

The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 replaced Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) with block grants to states, called Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF). Consistent with TANF's philosophy and goals, Los Angeles Jobs-First GAIN (Greater Avenues for Independence) emphasized job search…

A study focused on results from seven of the earliest state welfare reform initiatives with some form of welfare time limit. Four programs--Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, and Wisconsin--- included benefit-termination time limits triggering cancellation of a family's entire welfare grant. Arizona and Indiana imposed benefit-reduction time limits,…

This fantasy looks back from 1999 to chronicle the imagined scenario of welfare reform in the presidency of Forrest Gump (and the vice-presidency of William Bennett). The decline in government assistance is matched by an increase in private sources of aid and a heightened sense of personal responsibility among Americans. (SLD)

The argument presented is that although work is one path toward improved well-being for poor families, a successful and humane social welfare policy must recognize and respond to its limitations. This article reviews specific propositions of prowork rhetoric and concludes that former welfare participants require a broad range of supports to move…

The Subcommittee on Human Resources of the House Committee on Ways and Means asked the General Accounting Office for information on who is currently receiving Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) and whether the characteristics of this population have changed in recent years. This report presents information from 1976 to 1992 about women…

A project operated a model, adaptable family literacy program in a housing authority that served 35 residents. Its objectives were to improve parents' basic skills and help them improve their ability to assist their children, to assist parents in learning appropriate expectations for their children and understanding individual differences, and to…

Many proposals for welfare reform center on the issue of marriage-based families versus single-parent families and oversimplify the relationship between single-parenting and poverty. Research done in upstate rural New York among low-income families showed that personal and economic characteristics of married and single mothers were similar as to…

Under Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), states face steadily increasing work participation requirements. The TANF structure presents one new option: the ability to use TANF funds for community service employment in wage-paying, publicly funded jobs designed to provide work for individuals and to address unmet community needs. A…

The first phase of a study of state welfare-to work programs in 1988 consisted of a survey mailed to the states. Results provide practical information on the operational experience of state welfare-to-work programs, and at the national level, enhance both policy development and implementation activities, especially in conjunction with the Job…

Second in a series of studies examining the patterns of poverty in the South, this report analyses the level of government benefits available to the southern poor from 1980 through 1984. The examination is restricted to four programs: Aid to Families With Dependent Children, Medicaid, Food Stamps, and Supplemental Security Income. The states…

A survey conducted at University of Wisconsin System institutions was designed to help decision makers determine how many women students were on welfare and to find out the interaction between welfare and student financial aid in relation to expenses incurred in higher education. Women students vary in financial, marital, and parental status, and…

This hearing reviews testimony concerning H.R. 2246, the Jobs for Employable Dependent Individuals Act (JEDI). JEDI is a voluntary program whereby states receive additional funds to fight the problem of chronic welfare dependency and poverty. The bill would require the existing Job Training Partnership Act (JTPA) to target job training efforts at…

The Stewart B. McKinney Homeless Assistance Act, passed in July 1987, authorized over $400 million for fiscal year 1987 in homeless assistance for several federal programs, including the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). This report examines how funds appropriated to HUD and FEMA…