Welfare

Monday, March 18, 2002

Welfare Reform

There is a common perception that welfare rolls consist of women who have no interest in becoming self-sufficient. Welfare recipients are seen as a drain to the economy of the United States. These women continue to have babies with different fathers and do not take responsibility in raising their children to be come self-sufficient. This causes multi generations to be dependent on welfare; families are stuck in an economic group that is not only losing their buying power, but also have a perception of not having the ability to improve their economic circumstance. In 1996, congress passed the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconcilliation Act of 1996, or more commonly referred to as the Welfare Reform Act of 1996. This legislation, for the first time, put a limit to how long recipients can receive assistance. Citizens of the United States are no longer guaranteed a safety net provided by the taxpayers of the United States. After being dependent on welfare for their survival welfare recipients are learning they cannot only become self-sufficient, but after putting some effort, they can create a better life for themselves.

Welfare reform became a prominent political issue in the early 1990s because there was and still is a prevalent perception that recipients are not interested in becoming productive citizens in our society; there are a small number of recipients who were raised and are raising their children on welfare. Pressure was mounting for the government to make changes in the welfare program. Congress and President Clinton were determined to change the welfare from an entitlement, where recipients were not required to take proactive steps to get off welfare, to a program that provides a safety net for a limited period of time. The political view is that in order to balance the federal budget, entitlement programs must be cut.

During the debate to create welfare reform several prominent issues were debated. One of the prominent issues debated was limiting the time a recipient could receive benefits with out taking actions to learn self-sufficiency. Another was the requirement for recipients to find work on their own or performing community service; recipients were no longer going to be able to just sit back and collect their entitlement. Childcare is the biggest hurdle for most recipients; all states are now required to supplement childcare expenses for those who find work or further their education. There are some recipients who have several barriers to overcome in order to successfully become self-sufficient; some of these are the aforementioned childcare, a few others are transportation problems, little or no work experience and perceptions of discrimination. Community colleges have taken this opportunity to create more programs, which train welfare recipients for the work force.

During the great depression in the United States, many families were left without the ability to support themselves after their place of employment either closed or cut back on the number of employees. These people lost their homes, the ability to secure enough food to feed their families and became nomads. In major cities, shantytowns were popping up. These shelters were, for the most part, not safe for habitation or provided adequate shelter from the elements. Lack of sanitation became a health concern to more than just the inhabitants of these shantytowns; disease spread into the general population. President Franklin D. Roosevelt and the Congress of the United States passed legislation called the Emergency Relief Act of 1932. Before this legislation, funding for relief was provided by local and state efforts, which became severely strained during the first years of the depression. The majority of women who were receiving welfare were widows; during this period of time women were not a major part of the national workforce, therefore the country as a whole did not feel that these women should be required to work. Now women make up a bigger percentage of the workforce, therefore the feeling is that all women should be responsible for supporting themselves and their families. The first legislation that provided assistance to welfare recipients to move towards self-sufficiency was passed in 1988. This legislation did not provide requirements for recipients to seek work or job training, but it began the process of changing welfare from an entitlement to a short-term safety net.

The Welfare Reform Act of 1996 limits all recipients to five years of benefits in their lifetime; enrollment for assistance after twenty-four consecutive months would not be continued with out, a break. During the time of enrollment recipients are required to either be working, providing community service, seeking education or attending job-training for twenty hours a week; in 2000 the required hours were increased to thirty. Families, which have two adults, the requirement is extended to thirty-five hours a week; these hours can be completed by one of the adults or combining the time of both adults. Exemptions are allowed for those who have valid reasons; these exemptions range from being pregnant, having a newborn, debilitating disabilities and unemployment rates which are fifty percent higher than the national average within the individual states. (Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Education 2-4)

Childcare has been a barrier for most recipients to obtain jobs or training; this act provides subsidized childcare as long as the recipient can locate a provider who is willing to accept the amount each state pays. The most common jobs obtained by former welfare recipients have low wages for compensation. Without this assistance, there would not be enough monetary resources to provide childcare while maintaining a household. Childcare needs are the most common barriers when welfare recipients were questioned. By providing childcare subsidizes and childcare referrals most recipients are enthusiastic about getting jobs or pursuing other out of the house productive activities like job training or furthering their education (Nightingale 121)

Overcoming the barrier of accessible good childcare does not eliminate all real and perceivable barriers to becoming self-sufficient. In the Sandra Danziger study fourteen different barriers are identified. These range from lack of high school and post high school education to perceived discrimination to physical and mental health disorders. (Danziger 10) This study has found that those with two or less barriers were easily able to receive assistance to overcome these barriers and obtain jobs that led to self-sufficiency. When the barriers numbered more than seven only five percent were able to fulfill the work requirement. (Danzinger 27) Critical intervention is needed when the adult welfare recipient is addicted to drugs or has a severe mental disorder. These recipients are exempt from all work requirements and time limits as long as they are seeking or receiving treatment, for those who treatment is not a viable option the long-term solution is to move them into the Social Security programs. Each state is limited to exempting up to twenty percent of their total caseload at any one time; any state that exceeds this limit is subject to having the money they receive from the federal government decreased. (Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Education 6)

When analyzing the reasons for welfare recipients leaving the welfare rolls the economic growth for the last half of the 1990s is a contributor. Now that the United States is in recession, there are quite a few economists who are questioning the ability to continue the same performance of welfare reform or will this be a period where the welfare rolls will start growing again. Before the reform act was passed there were some states that had already seen significant declines in welfare recipients, so of these states had already implemented work for welfare requirements. In four states, those who have left welfare and are were still employed ranged between sixty-eight percent and eighty-eight percent. (Brauner 5) Employment rates for those who left welfare because of sanctions in three different states ranged from thirty-nine percent to fifty-three percent. (Brauner 5) Over half of the former recipients that were surveyed were working thirty or more hours For recipients with two dependent children to rise above the 1997 poverty line an hourly wage of $7.39 per hour for thirty-five hours a week which equals $12,932.50 when working every week through out the year. The federal minimum wage is $5.15 per hour; this has not changed since October 1997. (Brauner 6) This figure does not represent all financial resources for this family; with an earned income of $8,755.00, when the adult works thirty-fours a week for fifty weeks, and the addition from the earned income tax credit and child support should easily raise the total income and the family above the poverty line. While all resources from welfare benefits are quite a bit lower than the federal poverty line. (Brauner 6)

The majority of former welfare recipients obtain jobs that are in the service sector, these jobs are usually low-wage jobs and no added employee benefits. For those leaving welfare with little or no work experience these jobs are the easiest to obtain because they require less previous work experience and education. These jobs seldom, if ever, provide health insurance coverage to new employees. Under the WFA of 1988 Medicaid coverage is extended to all former recipients for a period of twelve months after leaving welfare. (Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Education 8) It is hoped that recipients will receive health insurance benefits from their employers after this period of time; this is not always the case.

If recipients spent their twenty-four months seeking education from community colleges, they become eligible for other federal money through grants in addition to their welfare benefits to pay for the expense of this education. Several community colleges have worked within their community employers to create programs to train potential employees with the skills and knowledge needed to fill specific jobs. In July 2000, congress passed the Workforce Investment Act. This program is a large and comprehensive policy to encourage job training and workforce development. (Bragg 93) The main goal of this program is to provide training for viable careers instead of dead-end jobs; therefore this program provides a bright future in the new global economy to the welfare recipient. (Bragg 98)

In October 2003 the Welfare Reform Act of 1996 expires. President George W. Bush has proposed increasing the number of hours a welfare recipient is required to work, look for work, train for work or finish her high school diploma to forty hours per week. He is also proposing to allow faith-based charities to be able to compete with the state for federal money to provide social services. Charities that are not faith bases have been allowed access to this money since the act was passed.  President Bush also wants to include requirements for people seeking marriage licenses to receive counseling in order to strengthen their marriage commitment to each other. (Office of the Press Secretary)

With the strong economy of the past few years, it would be very easy to say these programs are a huge success. The real test will be when the numbers from the current period, where a recession has hit the country, are analyzed to see if there is a continual drop in the number of recipients. When recipients are truly self-sufficient they will no longer have a need to fall back on welfare as a safety net except in times of extreme hardships such as being laid off from a job and not being able to locate a new job before their unemployment benefits run out. That is the situation the current economy is presenting; I will be very interesting in see the number of welfare recipients who returned because of this problem.

Welfare reform is still a work in progress, there are still some barriers for the individual welfare recipient to overcome, but there are some shining examples of former welfare recipients who have achieved self-sufficiency. While some are not better off financially immediately after leaving welfare, their self-esteem and their potential for economic growth is substantially better as a whole. "Sherrie Jordan, a mother of four children and a former welfare recipient living in Buffalo, New York, described her experience this way: It's overwhelming. I am very happy. There aren't many words to describe it. I am looking forward to being financially independent. I can do it myself now." (Office of the Press Secretary) The future is brighter for those who have go through this struggle for self-sufficiency. With this added self-confidence the chance that a former welfare recipient will return to welfare is diminished.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Bragg, Debra D. ed. The New Vocationalism in Community Colleges. Vol. 115. New York. Jossey-Bass. Fall 2001. Community College's roll and challenges to create education programs that will match job opportunities in the community. How furthering the education of welfare recipients will make them more self-sufficient. Creating educational programs to match the job market, teaching skills that meet the demands of employers.

Brauner, Sarah and Pamela Loprest. "Where Are They Now? What State' Studies of People Who Left Welfare Tell Us." The Urban Institute. 1999. Series A, No. A-32. http://newfederalism.urban.org/html/anf_32.html.
A study, which explores the reasons people, left welfare. This study looks into what are the actual reasons why welfare recipients are leaving. Analyzing whether the drops in cases are because recipients are working or were dropped because of sanctions.

Brenner, Johanna.  Women and the Politics of Class. New York: Monthly Review Press. 2000.
Views about the perception of women in the United States and how they fit into the political policies. How the legislative and executive branches of the government view welfare recipients and how that view is translated into new laws and guidelines.

Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Education. "Comparison of Prior Law and the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act".Department of Health and Human Services USA. http://aspe.os.dhhs.gov/hsp/isp/reform.htm.
This compares welfare law for the period preceding 1996 and the changes after the passage of the 1996 law. I will be using this to compare requirements to work and the added benefits that working recipients are eligible to receive in order to help them to successfully leave the welfare system.

Danziger, Sandra, et all. "Barriers to the Employment of Welfare Recipients." Diss. University of Michigan. 1999. Discussion Paper no. 1193-99.
Research, of sample welfare recipients in Michigan, into the effects of certain barriers to single parent families receiving welfare and their ability to fulfill the requirement to work twenty hours per week. This is a study that directly looks at the effect of the work requirements in the 1996 Welfare Reform Act and the abilities of the welfare recipient to find work to become self-sufficient and their ability to stay off welfare. This study also looks at fourteen barriers that might make it difficult for recipients to obtain and keep jobs.

Lo, Clarence Y. H. and Michael Schwartz ed. Social Policy and the Conservative Agenda. Malden, Massachusetts: Blackwell Publishers Inc.  1998.
A look at the conservative political bias in regards to welfare reform. Including all points of view in my research is vital to making sure I am looking at all the problems with welfare reform.

Nightingale, Dementra Smith and Robert H. Haveman ed. The Work Alternative: Welfare Reform and the Realities of the Job Market. Washington D.C. The Urban Institute Press. 1995.
This book looks at how the job market might look to welfare recipients before the passage of the Welfare Reform Act.  In provides some of the common views of the critics of the Welfare Reform Act. I am going to use this to compare what was predicted to happen and what actually happened with the passage of this act.

Office of the Press Secretary. Press Release. "President to Announce Welfare Reform" Agenda. 26 Feb. 2002. http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2002/02/20020226-11.html.
Information about what President George W. Bush wants to include in the renewal of the Welfare Reform Act 1996, which expires September 30, 2002. When summarizing the effects of the welfare reform act, I plan to include what changes are proposed for the future.

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