Finishing the Welfare Revolution

1
Finishing the Welfare Revolution

• Progressive Policy Institute
• March 10, 2002

2
Perceptions of WelfareThen and Now

• The Bad Old DaysKaiser Family Foundation Poll,
  1995
• 47 of respondents said most welfare recipients
  do not really want to work
• 46 said most people who receive money from
  welfare could get along without it if they tried
• 56 thought welfare does more harm than good
• 64 said the govt spends too much on welfare

• TodayKaiser Family Foundation Poll, 2000
• 94 of Americans want expanded job-training
• 80 would increase tax credits for low-wage
  workers
• 85 would spend more on child care
• 75 would spend more on subsidized housing
• 56 would pay more taxes for worker supports
• 61 like welfare reform

3
Preserving the success of welfare reform requires
resources AND results

• Require work
• Support work
• Make work pay

4
Work first works

• National work participation rate for recipients
• 2000 34
• 1992 7
• States with work rates higher than 40 19
• Percentage of recipients without work experience
  in preceding three years
• 1999 27
• 1997 42

5
Work first works

• Earnings wages for the bottom 25 of single moms
  have grown 17 since 1996
• For single moms with incomes between 13K and
  21K
• Earnings rose from 4,900 in 1993 to 11,700 in
  2000.
• Total incomes for this group rose by 4,000.

6
TANF reauthorization Work should still be first

• Increase work participation rates to 70 by 2007
• Eliminate the caseload reduction credit
• Create an employment credit and a credit for
  improvements in child support enforcement
• Maintain current time limits and exemptions

7
After welfare goals of reauthorization

• Ensure that no family with a full-time worker
  lives in poverty
• Create a seamless and comprehensive system of
  work supports

8
Finishing the job of reform Increase resources

• Maintain the basic block grant and MOE
  requirements
• Increase money for child care
• Fund transitional jobs and other services for
  hard-to-serve clients
• Fund training and education for working
  recipients and leavers

9
Finishing the job of reform Increase resources

• Fund job services for non-custodial dads
• Promote effective teen pregnancy prevention and
  responsible fatherhood programs
• Expand the EITC
• Put more money into housing, transportation and
  health insurance for the working poor
• Restore benefits to legal immigrants

10
Finishing the job of reform Put dads to work

• Offer TANF-funded job services to poor dads
• Include NCPs participating in TANF job programs
  in work participation rates
• Eliminate separate work requirements for
  two-parent families

11
Finishing the job of reform Put dads to work

• Fund child support pass-through
• Encourage efforts to coordinate child support
  enforcement and employment programs
• Fund effective responsible fatherhood programs

12
Finishing the job of reform Prevent teen
pregnancy

• Forget about marriage promotion
• Fund second-chance homes and effective teen
  pregnancy prevention programs
• Encourage efforts to change cultural attitudes
  toward unwed childbearing

13
Finishing the job of reform Break down
bureaucratic barriers

• Give states flexibility to combine funding
  streams, coordinate related programs and escape
  the regulatory jungle
• Create interagency performance measures that
  focus on results
• Modernize food stamps

14
Problems with Bushs proposal

• Its stingy.
• Its unfair to legal immigrants.
• It encourages workfare.
• It ignores men.
• It wastes time and money on marriage promotion.

15
Welfare reforms greatest success

• Renewed public support for the working poor

16
For more information

• Finishing the Welfare Revolution, by Will
  Marshall and Anne Kim, Progressive Policy
  Institute, February 2002
• After Dependence, by Will Marshall, Blueprint,
  January/February 2002
• Finish the Job, by Anne Kim, Blueprint,
  January/February 2002
• Marriage as Public Policy, by Daniel T.
  Lichter, Progressive Policy Institute, September
  2001
• Go to www.ppionline.org