Welfare Feform in the United States
Welfare Feform
Introduction to Welfare Feform
The general public and government representatives at all levels have grown increasingly critical of the U.S. welfare system during the last few decades. President Johnson’s War on Poverty failed to fully live up to its goals of eradicating unemployment and poverty among those who were not sharing in the post-World War II period of prosperity. In the 1970s and 1980s, many poor people became dependent on welfare, particularly on means-tested and targeted programs, such as the Food Stamp program and AFDC.
By the mid-1990s the government had struggled to reform AFDC, in particular, for almost three decades. Most welfare reform efforts have been motivated by public concerns that welfare causes undesirable behaviors. Many citizens and politicians claim that welfare conditions its recipients to have little motivation to work, to avoid or break marriages, and to have children when they are too young and unprepared. Some reformers, on the other hand, argue that existing welfare programs are woefully inadequate and do not raise recipients out of poverty, particularly the children of families receiving benefits.
In 1996 President Bill Clinton signed the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA). PRWORA most directly affected the provisions of AFDC (and JOBS, AFDC’s auxiliary work program), which were both replaced by the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program. PRWORA also affected the Food Stamp program, especially its provisions for assistance to adults with no children.
Before PRWORA, the federal government had established eligibility criteria for AFDC benefits and guidelines for the JOBS program. States determined their own benefit levels, which were applied uniformly to all families in similar circumstances. The federal government matched each state’s funds.
In the reform program, the federal government gives annual block grants, or lump sums, to states. Whereas AFDC was an entitlement for recipients, TANF is not. It is an entitlement only for state governments. States may decide how potential recipients must apply for eligibility, and support to eligible applicants is not guaranteed. In addition, AFDC recipients could receive benefits as long as they met eligibility requirements. Under TANF, federal funds cannot be used to provide benefits to families who have been on assistance for five years, with a few exceptions. Furthermore, states must require TANF recipients to work after two years of assistance or the states will lose some of their federal TANF funding. To meet these requirements, states must continue to fund job training, subsidized employment, and childcare programs.
Overall, TANF removes power from the federal government and gives it to the states, reducing the importance of any national policy on how welfare should be handled. The reform program aims to reduce AFDC-type welfare dependency and encourage parents to shift from welfare to work.
Most authorities agree that TANF has worked better than expected, although areas of criticism remain. The TANF caseload dropped from 5 million cases in 1994 to 2.1 million cases in 2001. Participation in the labor force by single mothers, the group targeted by TANF, jumped from 58 percent in 1993 to 74 percent in 2000. The proportion of TANF participants working at least part-time tripled from 11 percent in 1996 to 33 percent in 1999. At the same time, overall poverty and child poverty decreased. Black child poverty fell to its lowest rate in 2000; and the poverty rate among female-headed families fell from 39 percent in 1994 to 30.4 percent in 2000. Finally, the proportion of births to unmarried mothers leveled off in the late 1990s after almost four decades of continuous increases.
Critics point out, however, that many families have left welfare without adequate incomes. Of those leaving welfare, perhaps as many as 20 percent are not earning money or are living with others who are supporting them. Many of these individuals were forced off welfare for not complying with the rules or for exceeding federal or state time limits. Thus, there is some evidence that the most needy families are not faring well under the new reforms.” (1)
Resources
Notes and References
- Information about Welfare Feform in the Encarta Online Encyclopedia