Prospects for low-income mothers' economic survival under welfare reform

Publius: The Journal of Federalism

Volumn 28, Issue 3, 1998, Pages 175-193

  Gault, Barbara ^a   Hartmann, Heidi ^a   Yi, Hsiao Ye ^a  

^a NONE

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 0041181130     PISSN: 00485950     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1093/oxfordjournals.pubjof.a029978     Document Type: Article

References (44)

1. Krista Olson and LaDonna Pavetti, Personal and Family Challenges to the Successful Transition from Welfare to Work (Washington, D.C.: The Urban Institute, 1996).
2. Jared Bernstein, "Low-Wage Labor Market Indicators by City and State: The Constraints Facing Welfare Reform," Working Paper 118 (Washington, D.C.: Economic Policy Institute, October 1997).
3. Paul Kleppner and Nikolas Theodore, Work After Welfare: Is Indiana's Booming Economy Creating Enough Jobs? (DeKalb, IL: Office for Social Policy Research, Northern Illinois University, 1997).
4. Olson and Pavetti, Personal and Family Challenges to the Successful Transition from Welfare to Work.
5. Berstein, "Low-Wage Labor Market Indicators by City and State."
6. Center on Hunger and Poverty, Are States Improving the Lives of Poor Families? A Scale Measure of State Welfare Policies (Medford, MA: Center on Hunger and Poverty, Tufts University, 1998).
7. Ibid.
8. U.S. General Accounting Office, Welfare Reform: Early Fiscal Effects of the TANF Block Grant (Washington, D.C.: GAO, August 1998).
9. The Institute for Women's Policy Research, "Education and Job Training Under Welfare Reform," Welfare Reform Network News, Working Paper 9/10 (Washington, D.C.: Institute for Women's Policy Research, 1997).
10. Ibid.
11. Robert E. Pierre "Trading Textbooks for jobs; Welfare Changes Force Many to Leave College," Washington Post, 29 December 1997, p. A1.
12. Roberta Spalter-Roth and Heidi Hartman, Increasing Working Mothers' Earnings (Washington, D.C.: Institute for Women's Policy Research, 1991).
13. JaCk Tweedie and Dana Reichert, Tracking Recipients After They Leave Welfare: Summaries of State Followup Studies (Washington, D.C.: National Conference of State Legislatures, 1998).
14. Roberta Spalter-Roth, Beverly Burr, Heidi Hartmann, and Lois Shaw, "Report to the Ford Foundation," Welfare that Works: The Working Lives of AFDC Recipients (Washington, D.C.: Institute for Women's Policy Research, 1995).
15. Each year, a new panel of the SIPP, usually consisting of about 15,000 households, goes into the field. IWPR staff study the population of low-income families and welfare recipients as each new SIPP panel becomes available.
16. The sample size for this study was 1,181 single mothers who received welfare for at least two months of the 24-month study period. They represented about 2.8 million women in the United States population, or 80 percent of all adult AFDC recipients. See Spalter-Roth, Burr, Hartmann, and Shaw, Welfare That Works.
17. The percentages of women identified as working or receiving help in the IWPR study are higher than those so identified in administrative data. The administrative data are generally crosssectional and refer to a given point in time; for example, a single month. Although in any one month, the average percentage receiving income from other family members may be small, the proportion receiving substantial family help over the 24-month study period will be much larger.
18. Contrary to stereotypes, average state benefit levels, the mother's age, and the mother's welfare history were insignificant in distinguishing between those mothers who engage in paid employment and those who do not. Being African American also had no significant value in predicting whether an AFDC recipient engages in paid work.
19. Marilyn Gittell, Margaret Schehl, and Camille Fareri, From Welfare to Independence: The College Option, A Report to the Ford Foundation (New York: Ford Foundation, 1990).
20. The data for these comparisons are drawn from an IWPR study of the 1986 through 1990 SIPP panels, which includes analysis of all low-income families with minor children at home. Brief results of these data are presented in Institute for Women's Policy Research, Single Mothers, Jobs and Welfare: What the Data Tell Us, Research in Brief (Washington, D.C.: Institute for Women's Policy Research, 1997).
21. Kathryn J. Edin and Laura Lein, Making Ends Meet: How Single Mothers Survive Welfare and Low-Wage Work (New York, NY: Russell Sage Foundation, 1997).
22. Tweedie and Reichert, "Tracking Recipients after They Leave Welfare: Summaries of State Followup Studies."
23. These data are from a recent analysis of SIPP data from the 1990 and 1991 panels (containing data through 1992); Institute for Women's Policy Research, Single Mothers, Jobs and Welfare: What the Data Tell Us.
24. Roberta Spalter-Roth, Heidi Hartmann, and Beverly Burr, Income Insecurity: The Failure of Unemployment Insurance to Reach Working AFDC Mothers (Washington, D.C.: The Institute for Women's Policy Research, 1994).
25. U.S. General Accounting Office, Welfare to Work: Child Care Assistance Limited: Welfare Reform May Expand Needs (Washington, D.C.: GAO, September 1995); Marcia K. Meyers and Theresa Heintze, The Child Care Subsidy Shortfall: Is the Subsidy System Working for Those Working their Way Off Welfare? (Berkeley, CA: UC Data, 1997).
26. U.S. General Accounting Office, Welfare to Work: Child Care Assistance Limited: Welfare Reform May Expand Needs (Washington, D.C.: GAO, September 1995); Marcia K. Meyers and Theresa Heintze, The Child Care Subsidy Shortfall: Is the Subsidy System Working for Those Working their Way Off Welfare? (Berkeley, CA: UC Data, 1997).
27. Sandra Hofferth, "Caring for Children at the Poverty Line," Children and Youth Services Review 17 (1995): 61-90; Gina Adams, Karen Schulman and Nancy Ebb, Locked Doors: States Struggling to Meet the Child Care Needs of Low-Income Working Families (Washington, D.C.: Children's Defense Fund, March 1998).
28. Sandra Hofferth, "Caring for Children at the Poverty Line," Children and Youth Services Review 17 (1995): 61-90; Gina Adams, Karen Schulman and Nancy Ebb, Locked Doors: States Struggling to Meet the Child Care Needs of Low-Income Working Families (Washington, D.C.: Children's Defense Fund, March 1998).
29. The 1988 and 1990 SIPP panels were used in this analysis. From Institute for Women's Policy Research, Child Care Usage Among Low-Income and AFDC Families, Research in Brief (Washington, D.C.: Institute for Women's Policy Research, 1996).
30. The proportion of working mothers who paid for child care ranged from 38.6 percent to 40.9 percent; these proportions are lower than those noted above for children under six because children up to age 12 are included in this analysis - it is easier to find unpaid care for older children.
31. Olson and Pavetti, Personal and Family Challenges to the Successful Transition from Welfare to Work.
32. Barbara Vobejda and Judith Haveman, "Sanctions: A Force Behind Falling Welfare Rolls," Washington Post, 23 March 1998, p. A1; Olson and Pavetti, Personal and Family Challenges to the Successful Transition from Welfare to Work.
33. Barbara Vobejda and Judith Haveman, "Sanctions: A Force Behind Falling Welfare Rolls," Washington Post, 23 March 1998, p. A1; Olson and Pavetti, Personal and Family Challenges to the Successful Transition from Welfare to Work.
34. Jody Raphael and Rich Tolman, Trapped by Poverty, Trapped by Abuse (Chicago, IL: The Taylor Institute, 1997).
35. Spalter-Roth, Burr, Hartmann, and Shaw, Welfare that Works.
36. Richard Weatherley and Janice Rabkin, Evaluation of the Learning Disabilities Initiative: The Learning Needs of AFDC and JOBS Program Participants (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 1997).
37. Olson and Pavetti, Personal and Family Challenges to the Successful Transition from Welfare to Work.
38. Legal Action Center, Making Welfare Reform Work: Tools for Confronting Alcohol and Drug Problems among Welfare Recipients (New York, NY: Legal Action Center, 1997).
39. Jodie Levin Epstein, ed., CLASP Update (Washington, D.C.: Center for Law and Social Policy, December 1997)
40. Gregory Acs, "Do Welfare Benefits Promote Out-of-Wedlock Childbearing?" Welfare Reform: An Analysis of the Issues, ed. Isabel V. Sawhill (Washington, D.C.: Urban Institute, 1995); Robert W. Fairlie and Rebecca A. London, "The Effect of Incremental Benefit Levels on Births to AFDC Recipients," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management (Fall 1997): 575-597; Saul D. Huffman and E. Michael Foster, "Could It Be True After All? AFDC Benefits and Non-Marital Births to Young Women," Working Paper 97-09 (Delaware: University of Delaware, October 1997); Mark R. Rank, "Fertility Among Women on Welfare," American Sociological Review 54 (April 1989): 296-304.
41. Gregory Acs, "Do Welfare Benefits Promote Out-of-Wedlock Childbearing?" Welfare Reform: An Analysis of the Issues, ed. Isabel V. Sawhill (Washington, D.C.: Urban Institute, 1995); Robert W. Fairlie and Rebecca A. London, "The Effect of Incremental Benefit Levels on Births to AFDC Recipients," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management (Fall 1997): 575-597; Saul D. Huffman and E. Michael Foster, "Could It Be True After All? AFDC Benefits and Non-Marital Births to Young Women," Working Paper 97-09 (Delaware: University of Delaware, October 1997); Mark R. Rank, "Fertility Among Women on Welfare," American Sociological Review 54 (April 1989): 296-304.
42. Gregory Acs, "Do Welfare Benefits Promote Out-of-Wedlock Childbearing?" Welfare Reform: An Analysis of the Issues, ed. Isabel V. Sawhill (Washington, D.C.: Urban Institute, 1995); Robert W. Fairlie and Rebecca A. London, "The Effect of Incremental Benefit Levels on Births to AFDC Recipients," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management (Fall 1997): 575-597; Saul D. Huffman and E. Michael Foster, "Could It Be True After All? AFDC Benefits and Non-Marital Births to Young Women," Working Paper 97-09 (Delaware: University of Delaware, October 1997); Mark R. Rank, "Fertility Among Women on Welfare," American Sociological Review 54 (April 1989): 296-304.
43. Gregory Acs, "Do Welfare Benefits Promote Out-of-Wedlock Childbearing?" Welfare Reform: An Analysis of the Issues, ed. Isabel V. Sawhill (Washington, D.C.: Urban Institute, 1995); Robert W. Fairlie and Rebecca A. London, "The Effect of Incremental Benefit Levels on Births to AFDC Recipients," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management (Fall 1997): 575-597; Saul D. Huffman and E. Michael Foster, "Could It Be True After All? AFDC Benefits and Non-Marital Births to Young Women," Working Paper 97-09 (Delaware: University of Delaware, October 1997); Mark R. Rank, "Fertility Among Women on Welfare," American Sociological Review 54 (April 1989): 296-304.
44. Jody Heymann and Alison Earle, "The Work-Family Balance: What Hurdles are Parents Leaving Welfare Likely to Confront?" Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, forthcoming.