The Temporary Assistance for Needy Families Program: Time for Improvements

2019 ◽  
Vol 686 (1) ◽  
pp. 286-309
Author(s):  
Ron Haskins ◽  
Matt Weidinger
Keyword(s):  
Welfare Reform ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Women's Employment ◽  
Women’S Employment ◽  
Working Families ◽  
Low Income Women ◽  
The Right ◽  
Temporary Assistance ◽  
Welfare Reforms ◽  
Welfare Caseload

The 1996 welfare reforms imposed major changes on the nation’s means-tested benefits, including a requirement that states place at least half of their cash welfare caseload in work or related activities. Congress also increased both cash and in-kind subsidies for low-income working families. Between the mid-1990s and 2000, work and wages among low-income women increased and poverty declined. The recessions of 2001 and 2007–2009 caused rising employment to falter, but after 2014, women’s employment rose again, and poverty declined. The impacts of welfare reform on these outcomes have been disputed, with many on the Left charging that states have used welfare funds inappropriately and many on the Right arguing that welfare reform played a major role in the improvements in work, wages, and poverty. We review reforms that have been proposed by one or both parties in recent years, including focusing spending on benefits and work. We conclude with lessons of these reform experiences for future reforms of entitlement programs.

US Welfare Reform: Rewriting the Social Contract

2009 ◽  
Vol 38 (3) ◽  
pp. 383-399 ◽  
Author(s):  
NEIL GILBERT
Keyword(s):  
Social Contract ◽  
Public Assistance ◽  
Welfare Policy ◽  
Social Forces ◽  
Deficit Reduction ◽  
The Social ◽  
Recent Developments ◽  
The Right ◽  
Temporary Assistance ◽  
Welfare Reforms

AbstractThis paper analyses recent developments in US welfare policy and their implications for future reforms. The analysis begins by examining how the enactment of the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) programme in 1996 changed the essential character of public assistance and the major social forces that accounted for this fundamental shift in US welfare policy. It then shows how the most recent welfare reforms under the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 broadened and intensified the TANF requirements, leaving four avenues along which issues of conditionality and entitlement are likely to be played out in future welfare reforms. Finally, the discussion highlights how a new social contract is being forged through progressive and conservative proposals, which shift the focus of public assistance from the right to financial support to the right to work and earn a living wage.

Welfare and the “Reform” of Women

1993 ◽  
Vol 74 (9) ◽  
pp. 563-572 ◽  
Author(s):  
June M. Axinn ◽  
Amy E. Hirsch
Keyword(s):  
Welfare Reform ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Welfare System ◽  
Fiscal Responsibility ◽  
Low Income Women ◽  
And Control

Low-income women and the welfare system are under attack by liberals and conservatives, academicians and politicians. “Welfare reform” proposals include cutting benefits unless women pay rent, bear no children while receiving benefits, and ensure that their children attend school and receive vaccinations. Although these reforms are couched in the language of fiscal responsibility and control, the authors argue that the underlying purpose behind such policies is reform of women, not reform of welfare.

Prenatal care initiation among very low-income women in the aftermath of welfare reform: does pre-pregnancy Medicaid coverage make a difference?

2006 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 11-17 ◽  
Author(s):  
Deborah Rosenberg ◽  
Arden Handler ◽  
Kristin M. Rankin ◽  
Meagan Zimbeck ◽  
E. Kathleen Adams
Keyword(s):  
Prenatal Care ◽  
Welfare Reform ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Medicaid Coverage ◽  
Low Income Women

For Whose Benefit?

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ruth Patrick
Keyword(s):  
Welfare Reform ◽  
Lived Experiences ◽  
Social Rights ◽  
Policy Problem ◽  
The Social ◽  
Critical Account ◽  
The Uk ◽  
The Right ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Welfare Reforms

How is welfare reform anticipated, experienced and reflected upon by those directly affected? What protection do the social rights of citizenship offer to those in receipt on out-of-work benefits? Is a policy focus on moving people into paid employment the right one? What is the impact of the pervasive stigma of benefits receipt on those on out-of-work benefits? And does mainstream politicians’ and the media’s analysis of the policy ‘problem’ of ‘welfare’ coincide with lived experiences? This book answers these questions in exploring how those at the sharp end of welfare reform experience changes to the benefit system. Drawing upon repeat interviews with single parents, disabled people and young jobseekers in the UK, this book explores how the rights and responsibilities of citizenship are experienced on the ground, and whether the welfare state still offers meaningful protection and security to those who rely upon it for all or most of their income. Further, the extent of the gap between lived experiences of ‘welfare’ and the policy rhetoric is illustrated, with a discussion of the consequences of this for the likely success of the welfare reform programme. This book provides a critical account of the welfare reforms undertaken by David Cameron’s UK Governments between 2010 and 2016, and concludes by suggesting an alternative way forward, one with the scope to deliver meaningful social and citizenship inclusion for all.

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