Welfare Reform and Inequality: The TANF and UI Programs

Janice Peterson

23 citations0/0 files storedJournal of Economic Issues

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Gender, Labor, and Family Dynamics Income, Poverty, and Inequality Social Policy and Reform Studies

Abstract

The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 significantly changed the nature of income support for poor families in the United States with the elimination of Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) the cash public assistance designed to serve (primarily) poor, single-mother families-by replacing it with the Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) program. This legislation introduced variety of changes in both the administration and financing of income support for poor families, as well as changes in eligibility and benefits. The law shifted public assistance to poor families from federal entitlement program to of fixed block grants administered by the states, it required that percentage of TANF recipients in each state meet certain work participation requirements after two years, and it established cumulative five year time limit on the receipt of cash assistance (with exemptions possible for up to 20 percent of families). States may choose to implement shorter time limit, and 20 states have done so [Blau, Ferber, and Winkler 1998, 302; Hobbie et al. 1999 21; Gornick 1999, 49]. These policy changes, in conjunction with strong economy, have led to substantial decline in the number of families receiving cash public assistance, and declining caseloads have led politicians at all levels of government to declare welfare reform a success. In April 1999, President Clinton hailed the continuing decline in the number of welfare recipients, which had reached its lowest level in 30 years [Kamen 1999]. He continued on with his praise to note that 'April 15th may not be the most favorite day for Americans, but for these people' some of them paying taxes for 'the very first time in their lives,' the income tax

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1994The Undeserving Poor: From the War on Poverty to the War on Welfare.1987The Economics of Women, Men, and Work.1995Pitied but not Entitled: Single Mothers and the History of Welfare 1991Women, the state, and welfare 1989Regulating the lives of women, social welfare policy from colonial times to the present 1999The Initial Impacts of Welfare Reform on the Incomes of Single-Mother Families.1998Economic Well-Being Following an Exit from Aid to Families with Dependent Children 1985Toil and Trouble: Women Workers and Unemployment Compensation

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