Over the last 30 years, the tenet of promoting self-sufficiency through work has become one of the primary objectives of many social welfare policies in the United States. Using the Panel Study of Income Dynamics, the author asks if a mother's work hours influence her daughter's teenage fertility. The findings suggest a negative relationship, with…

This report examines alternatives to state-sponsored child care disregards, which allow working low-income families to offset child care expenses against earned income, thereby receiving higher Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) payments than they might otherwise obtain. It explains the need for continuous, stable child care for…

Connecticut's Jobs First program was subjected to a rigorous, large-scale evaluation. During the evaluation, nearly 5,000 single-parent welfare applicants and recipients in 2 cities were randomly assigned to Jobs First or to the Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) group. Each group's progress was compared over a 4-year period. The…

This book traces the development of public assistance programs in the United States from the 1930s to the present. Throughout the book, the differences between workfare and fair work programs and the role of workfare programs in the growing impoverishment of women are emphasized. The following topics are examined: women, welfare, and government…

Five years after the massive overhaul of the nation's welfare system, 21 Maine families receiving public assistance spoke about their lives during welfare reform. The following were among the key themes that emerged throughout the conversations: (1) those leaving Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) often remain poor or very nearly poor;…