Background of Welfare Reform

What is Welfare?  How has it changed since the Welfare reform Act of 1996? 

    Welfare is financial aid provided by the government to people in need.  In 1996, the Clinton Administration changed the face of Welfare through the Personal Responsibility to Work Act.  In this Act, there was a shift  from income support to job placement with programs such as: Directed Job Search, Welfare-to-Work Employment Program (WtW), Welfare-to-Work Non-Custodial Parent Program, Work Activity Expansion Stand Alone Design  The articles in this website are intended to give the reader a perspective on how the 1996 Welfare reform has impacted society differently by Race.

While you peruse these papers, you will run into the following acronyms:

AFDC—Aid to Families with Dependent Children

            This national welfare program was replaced in 1996 by Temporary Aid for Needy Families when Congress passed PRWORA. It provided income to adults with dependent children. AFDC was viewed as an entitlement until 1996.

EITC—Earned Income Tax Credit

            Families with incomes below a certain threshold can receive an Earned Income Tax Credit. This tax credit is often greater than the amount of taxes that the family paid, and it acts as a form of supplemental income for poor families.

TANF—Temporary Aid for Needy Families

“TANF is designed to provide assistance to needy families so that children may be cared for in their own homes or in the homes of relatives; end the dependence of needy parents on government benefits by promoting job preparation, work, and marriage; prevent and reduce the incidence of out-of-wedlock pregnancies and establish annual numerical goals for preventing and reducing the incidence of these pregnancies; and encourage the formation and maintenance of two-parent families (Title 1, Part A, Sec. 401[a]”.

PRWORA—Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996.

            This act was passed by Congress and signed by President Clinton in 1996. Its main effect was to change the way welfare operates by replacing the old AFDC with the new TANF program. Until the 1996 reform bill was passed, welfare was viewed as an entitlement. Families with young children had a right to a certain level of income. Under TANF, welfare is not an entitlement, and families cannot depend on welfare for longer than five years (or less, depending on the state).  TANF offers temporary monetary assistance to families while emphasizing job preparation, work, and marriage as important ways to escape poverty.

Click here for a fact sheet about PRWORA from the US dept of Health and Human Services

Links

    The following links provide general descriptions of welfare reform and its effects.

http://www.acf.hhs.gov/news/facts/tanf.html

http://www.tlsc.org/fwelfleg.html

http://www.childwelfare.com/welfare_reform_myths.htm

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