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Findings Available
Interim Impact Findings
Interim Descriptive/Analytical Findings
Findings
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07/01/01:
Gaining Ground? Measuring the Impact of America's Welfare Revolution: Measuring the Impact of Welfare Reform on Welfare and Work
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Interim Impact Findings:
- The number of families on welfare declined by 50 percent between the passage of welfare reform legislation in August 1996 and September 2000.
- A majority of the women heading these families have gone to work, contrary to the of fears many welfare reform critics. The proportion of single mothers who work has increased dramatically since welfare reform, nearly matching the proportion leaving welfare.
- Regression results indicate that TANF accounts for more than half of the decline in welfare participation and more than 60 percent of the rise in employment among single mothers.
- Although the booming economy of the later 1990s contributed both to the decline in welfare and to the rise in work participation among single mothers, that contribution was relatively minor compared to the contribution of TANF, accounting for less than 20 percent of either change.
- The decline in welfare participation was largest for groups of single mothers with children under seven years of age, high school dropouts, black and Hispanic single mothers, and those who have never been married.
- Employment gains have also been the largest among disadvantaged single mothers: mothers who have never been married, mothers between the ages of 18 and 29, mothers with children under seven years of age, high school dropouts, and black and Hispanic mothers.
- TANF’s beneficial effects extend even to the most disadvantaged portions of the welfare-eligible population. TANF accounts for 40 percent of the increase in work participation among single mothers who are high school dropouts; 71 percent of the increase in work participation among 18-29 year old single mothers; and 83 of the increase in work participation among black single mothers.
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03/01/03:
Gaining Ground? Measuring the Impact of America's Welfare Revolution: Gaining Ground, Moving Up: The Change in the Economic Status of Single Mothers Under Welfare Reform
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Interim Descriptive/Analytical Findings
- Between the passage of welfare reform (1996) and 2001 - a recession year- the poverty rate of single-mother families declined by about 20%, from 41.9% in 1996 to 33.6%, slightly above the record low for single mothers attained in 2000.
- The reduction in poverty was particularly large among those groups of single mothers who have always had the highest levels of poverty and welfare participation- blacks and Hispanic women, never married mothers and high school dropouts.
- The proportion of single mothers who worked at all during the year increased rapidly, from 76% in 1996 to 82% in 2001.
- Welfare reform was the largest single factor responsible for the rise in single mothers' work participation, accounting for more than 40% of the increase between mid-1996 and the end of 2001.
- Single mothers' own cash incomes rose 21% between 1995 and 2000, even after averaging in those reported zero cash income.
- Total household income (including non-cash benefits) increased significantly among those mothers who left welfare since 1996.
- Single mothers, on average, earned $11.60 per hour in 2001, considerably more than the minimum wage.
- Poverty drops steadily for women who leave welfare and the poverty decline grows with years since leaving.
- In addition, among single mothers who left welfare after 1994, each additional year worked between 1994 and 1998 was associated with an increase in hourly pay of about 2% and each additional year with the same employer increased pay by another 1%.
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