A 5-year study of the Saturation Work Initiative Model (2290 participants, 2260 controls), which requires welfare recipients to work, showed that it increased employment and reduced welfare payments. However, income from increased employment did not offset the loss in welfare income. (SK)

Data from the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP) suggest that families who left the rolls due to welfare reform were more prone to economic difficulties than other leavers. However, income improved for most post-reform leavers. (Contains 49 references.) (Author)

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…

Provides an overview of the design of the leavers studies reported in this volume. Reviews major cross-study findings related to employment, program participation, and household income. Illustrates how the combination of administrative and survey data can show how welfare leavers are faring. (SLD)

An important question related to welfare reform is: "What has happened to the earnings and incomes of families who were receiving public assistance when the new policies took effect?" This question is addressed by examining the impacts of early state-level welfare waivers on the earnings and income growth of welfare recipients. Analysis…

This report examines recent trends in the impact of government safety net programs, such as cash assistance, food assistance, and the Earned Income Tax Credit, on poverty among children. The effect on poverty is determined by comparing the number of children who would be poor if government benefits were not counted as part of their family income…

This paper examines the circumstances of the elderly poor and suggests that a separate system of income maintenance and services would be a more efficient policy for meeting their needs than the present system of lumping them together with other welfare recipients. (Author/AM)

The Welfare Indicators Act of 1994 requires the Department of Health and Human Services to prepare annual reports to Congress on indicators and predictors of welfare dependence. This is the second of those annual reports. A family is defined as dependent on welfare if more than 50% of its total income in a 1-year period comes from welfare programs…

Case studies of the shift of social services from federal to state governments have been conducted in 13 states. The focus of this report is on income support and social services in New York in 1996. Basic income support programs, programs designed to lessen the dependence of families on government-funded income support, and the last-resort safety…

A study used data on the characteristics, Job Training Partnership Act (JTPA) program activities, and quarterly earnings of about 6,500 adult female Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) recipients who enrolled in JTPA programs in 11 states during Program Year 1986. The study tracked the experiences of the women in the JTPA programs and…

This paper documents changing rates of poverty, sources of income, and employment among rural female-headed families with children, focusing on the effects of welfare reform. Data from the Current Population Survey show that from 1989 through 1999, especially since passage of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act…

An evaluation of Jobs First (JF) compared the experiences of JF participants who were subject to welfare reform policies with those of Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) participants who were subject to prior welfare rules. It collected information for four years about JF's impacts on participants' children and analyzed its financial…

The characteristics, earnings, employment experiences, and material well-being of California welfare recipients after leaving welfare were examined by comparing the postwelfare experiences of groups who exited welfare before and after institution of California's welfare reform program CalWORKs. The first group (pre-CalWORKs group) exited welfare…

This book contains 10 papers on three key questions regarding the effects of the 1996 Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA), which ended the Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) program: why welfare caseloads are falling; how welfare recipients are faring; and how the states are responding to changing…

Policy options for increasing the earnings of the young welfare recipients were explored by analyzing the incomes of nearly 12,000 young women in Baltimore, Maryland, whose 19th birthday fell between April 1, 1985, and March 31, 1989, and who had at least one spell of welfare dependency between their 19th and 29th birthdays. An analysis of the…