U.S welfare reform works for sole moms

Community Action, Nov 22, 2004

CAMBRIDGE, MA -- U.S. welfare reform enacted in the summer of 1996 did not cause greater hardship for female-headed families as predicted, but, in fact, was a success with official poverty rates for female-headed families dropping below 40 per cent for the first time since 1959 says an article, "Understanding Welfare Reform": in the Harvard Magazine. (Nov-Dec. 2004). "The 1996 law, broadly understood, was a surprising success, but that outcome does not support the case for further restrictions", authors Scott Winship and Christopher Jencks state that the U.S. Congress is now considering.

By 2002, when the welfare legislation was about to expire, the number of people on welfare in the v.s. was less than half of the number on welfare in 1996, and female-headed families with children were even less likely to be on welfare than at any point in at least 40 years.

"Even more remarkably" Winship and Jencks contend, is that "the official poverty rate among female-headed families with children--based on $14,500 for a woman with two children in 2002--had fallen from 42 per cent to 34 per cent" between 1996 and 2002.

The reasons for the welfare reform success, however, do not wholly stem from the reform itself, but rather result from an "interaction" of factors, including welfare reform, expanded work supports and an economic boom.

Work supports, such as an expanded Earned Income Tax Credit, which effectively increases earnings for minimum wage earners with two children by 40 per cent, and a minimum wage increase, along with other measures contributed to the success of the program.

The other policy initiatives included the State Children's Health Insurance Program, which provides health coverage to children from low-income families who do not qualify for Medicaid, the expansion of Medicaid itself to all families with incomes less than 185 per cent of the poverty line, greater spending on childcare and stricter enforcement of child-support responsibilities.

As well, an economic upswing in the u.s., which created greater demand for lows-killed, minimum wage workers, also helped to seal the program's success.