Sacramento Head Start Alumni Association

WEAKNESS IN WELFARE REFORM

Nov 13, 2002

Poor Children in Single-Parent Families Have Fewer Supports After Welfare Reform
Child poverty rates have dropped, but for those still living in poverty, this is little consolation, as the amount of public assistance for very low-income families with young children has declined as well. Since welfare reform, the most disadvantaged of impoverished children have slipped deeper into poverty compared to pre-welfare reform, according to this IWPR Research-in-Brief. The report argues that the poorest children are suffering the most from the caseload reduction focus of the 1996 welfare reform legislation. Poor children living in single-parent families-both those who were quite poor and extremely poor-were less likely to receive Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), Medicaid, and food stamps in 2000 than in 1996.

The situation for the youngest children, who are most likely to be extremely poor, worsened after welfare reform. Prior to welfare reform, children younger than six were more likely to receive cash assistance than their school-aged counterparts. In 2000, however, children younger than six were the least likely to be covered by TANF. The share of young children in extreme poverty in families receiving TANF dropped by nearly three-fifths (from 61 percent to 26 percent). Among older children in extreme poverty, coverage fell by two-fifths (from 57 percent to 33 percent).
http://www.iwpr.org/pdf/d451.pdf

**Welfare Caseloads Continue to Decline
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has announced that the number of families receiving assistance under the TANF program declined 3.6 percent between December 2001 and June 2002, to roughly 2 million families or 5 million people.
http://www.hhs.gov/news/press/2002pres/20021101.html

**States Spending More on TANF
States have used reserve funds to supplement their annual federal TANF block grants to help low-income parents find jobs and provide child care assistance and other work supports, according to this Center on Budget and Policy Priorities analysis of Treasury data. In fiscal year 2002, states spent $18.7 billion in federal TANF funds, $2.2 billion more than they received from the basic block grant and $1.6 billion more than their total TANF funding. Reserves of unspent funds have now dwindled, however, and many states will not be able to maintain their current TANF spending levels over the next couple of years. Some states already have made cuts in TANF-funded programs.
http://www.cbpp.org/10-30-02wel.htm

**Mothers' Beliefs About Welfare Rules
Only one in three mothers using welfare know that two-parent families are eligible for public assistance, but there is no correlation between their understanding of the rules regarding marriage and their decisions about marriage or cohabitation, reports this Fragile Families Research Brief.
http://crcw.princeton.edu