child care - Digital Library Collections

FAMILY
INCOME
lent of the minimum wage and must be protected
against unsafe or discrimina~ory practices. Congressional
efforts to deny these protections to
TANF workers were unsuccessful in 1997, although
they may resurface in 1998. If single-parent
families do not receive enough in TANF (plus food
stamps, at state option) to equal 30 hours at the
minimum wage, states must either pay them more
or reduce the number of hours they are required to
work. If states reduce the required hours, these
families will not count toward the federal work
participation rates.
The Effects of Welfare Changes:
Putting More Children at Risk
How has life changed for the millions ofchildren
affected by the 1996 welfare law? It is still too
early to tell precisely, but the new rules for
welfare recipients, immigrants, and children with
disabilities put needy children in a more precarious
position than ever.
The plight of families pushed off welfare. Placing
work requirements on families without offering
them the services they need to comply will force
them off the caseload, imposing far greater hardship
on children and families. As the most employable
parents fmd jobs, those remaining in TANF
are even more likely to suffer from debilitating
problems.
Oregon, with a caseload drop of 54 percent
between 1993 and 1997, now fmds that a majority
of families remaining in its TANF program are
seriously troubled. Oregon estimates that 75 percent
of its parents on welfare have mental health
problems, 50 percent have substance abuse problems,
and 50 percent are subject to violence. The
state has been willing to provide appropriate services,
and it counts mental health counseling, for
example, as an allowable activity on the path to job
readiness. Utah has taken a similar approach, conducting
individualized assessments and creating
self-sufficiency plans with parents. These plans
may include activities such as literacy training, substance
abuse treatment, or getting a driver's license
if they are seen as moving the individual toward
successful job placement.
Parents who do fmd jobs are in most cases
unable to secure incomes above the poverty level.
Of the fust 40 Virginia families hitting their twoyear
time limit on the receipt ofcash assistance, 35
had jobs, but only eight were Living above the poverty
level. Nationwide about half the parents on
welfare lack high school diplomas, and their income
potential is not good. Two-thirds (64 percent)
of all single mothers who have not fmished
high school live with their children below the poverty
Line, according to the Census Bureau. The
future holds little promise of rising wages for parents
leaving welfare. Brookings Institution economist
Gary Burtless reports that young women who
began the 1980s on welfare and later worked received
real pay raises averaging only 6 cents per
hour per year by 1990.
Comparing women of similar backgrounds
over a lo-year period reveals some significant differences
between those who receive welfare at
some point and those who don't. In 1997 the Urban
Institute analyzed data on women ages 18-27
from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth
and found that 45 percent of the welfare participants
had not completed high school, compared
with only 10 percent of women not on welfare.
One-third of mothers who had received welfare had
basic skills at the third-grade level; only 6 percent
of nonrecipients had comparably low skills. Most
significantly, only 24 percent of mothers who had
received welfare at some point found jobs paying
$8 an hour or more.
Difficulty in securing well-paying work is not
the only problem facing families leaving welfare.
The GAO study mentioned earlier found that those
who lost cash aid tended also to lose food stamps
and Medicaid, even though the great majority of
families remained eligible for this support. In Wisconsin
84 percent ofthe families had received food
stamps before termination; afterward only 56 percent
continued to do so. Similarly, 100 percent of
these Wisconsin families had received Medicaid
before losing their cash aid; afterward that number
fell to 53 percent.
CHILDREN'S DEFE SE FUND 11