Nebraska's Employment First (EF) program allows parents who receive TANF cash assistance to pursue education and training that improves their ability to secure employment and long-term economic success. A parent must negotiate and sign an Employment First contract, facilitated by a case worker, between the participating parent and the state of…

This article examines the characteristics and income patterns associated with welfare entry and nonentry in the context of an extended application period for a sample of 1,664 women who applied for Temporary Assistance for Needy Families services in Wisconsin in the fall of 2006. The study uses data derived from the systematic review of caseworker…

SSDI beneficiaries lose their entire cash benefit if they perform work that is substantial gainful activity (SGA) after using Social Security work incentive programs. The complete loss of benefits might be a work disincentive for beneficiaries. We report results from a pilot project that replaces the complete loss of benefits with a gradual…

Background: Social experiments frequently exploit data from administrative records. However, most administrative data systems are designed to track earnings or benefit payments among residents within a single state. When an experimental participant moves across state lines, his entries in the data system of his state of origin consist entirely of…

Current discussions regarding the relationship between welfare governance systems and employment promotion in disability policy appeal to a rejuvenated neo-liberal and paternalistic understanding of welfare governance. At the core of this rationality is the argument that people with disabilities not only have rights, but also duties, in relation…

Drawing upon interviews with key stakeholders including policy makers and providers of the flagship welfare reform programme--the New Deal for Young People, this article contributes to analysis and debate through an exploration of skills investment policy and practice in this key UK "welfare to work" programme. It concludes that the…

Three classification techniques (Chi-square Automatic Interaction Detection [CHAID], Classification and Regression Tree [CART], and discriminant analysis) were tested to determine their accuracy in predicting Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program recipients' future employment. Technique evaluation was based on proportion of correctly…

Differences in administrative (UI) and survey (S) records on employment and earnings have substantial implications for assessing the impact of a variety of public interventions, such as welfare-to-work and employment training programs, and especially the state-oriented welfare reform legislation of 1996. We use data from the 1998 and 1999 waves of…

Current government and business policy has forced regional Australia to adjust to the national deregulation of industries on which regional communities have become highly dependent. Adjustment is proving difficult with many regional communities struggling as the economic, social and educational core of the town and district falters. This paper…

In 1996, the US Congress passed the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act, changing the culture of welfare from a system of dependency to one of personal responsibility and economic self-sufficiency through workplace participation. Through the expert views of case managers and area employers of Wisconsin, this research…

A review of society's efforts to deal with the poor-- always with us''-from the early Poor Laws to the legislation of recent years. (Author)

This article examines the employment and child care responses of families participating in 10 experimental welfare reform programs conducted in the United States between 1989 and 2002. For the programs analyzed, child care use increases by about the same amount as the increase in employment. Most of the increased child care comprises informal care…

During 2002, there were disputes about most aspects of the participation rate structure for Temporary Assistance for Needy Families. The Administration put forward, and the House adopted, a proposal to raise TANF participation rates to 70 percent over 5 years, require families to be in selected activities for 40 hours per week to be fully…

Though New York City's welfare reform act claims to emphasize personal responsibility, its design diminishes the possibility of sustained, meaningful employment or long-term economic stability for substantial numbers of Temporary Assistance for Needy Family recipients. By focusing on gaining employment, the act ignores well-established avenues to…

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…