 The Temporary Assistance for Needy Families Program: Time for ImprovementsRon Haskins and Matt Weidinger The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 2019, vol. 686, issue 1, 286-309 Abstract: 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. Keywords: Temporary Assistance for Needy Families; work requirements; labor force participation rate; supplemental poverty rate; welfare dependency; Earned Income Tax Credit (search for similar items in EconPapers) Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:anname:v:686:y:2019:i:1:p:286-309 Access Statistics for this article More articles in The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science |
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