State of the Safety Net in the Post-Welfare Reform Era

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By Marianne Bitler (au); Hilary W. Hoynes (au)
Year: 2010
Pages: 58
Binding Paperback
ISBN 978-1-4578-3427-8

Product Code: 1457834278

Description

The passage of the 1996 welfare reform bill led to sweeping changes to the central U.S. cash safety net program for families with children. Importantly, along with other changes, the reform imposed lifetime time limits for receipt of welfare de facto ending the entitlement nature of cash welfare for poor families with children in the U.S. Despite dire predictions about poverty and deprivation, the previous research shows that caseloads declined and employment increased, with no detectible increase in poverty or worsening of child-well-being. The authors re-evaluate these results in light of the severe recession which began in Dec. 2007. In particular, they examine how the cyclicality of the response of program caseloads and family well-being has been altered by the implementation of welfare reform. They find that use of food stamps and non-cash safety net program participation have become significantly more responsive across economic cycles after welfare reform, going up more after reform when unemployment increases. By contrast, there is no evidence that cash welfare for families with children is more responsive after reform, and some evidence that it might be less so. There is some evidence that poverty increases more with the unemployment rate after reform (and no evidence that poverty increases less with unemployment after reform). The authors find that reform has led to no significant effects on the cyclical responsiveness of food consumption, food insecurity, health insurance, household crowding, or health. Tables and figures. This is a print on demand report.

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