The Bitter Fruit of Welfare Reform

The economic downturn is stretching the resources of families and individuals across America. Now, more than ever, we need a functioning social safety net -- one that helps families keep food on the table in times of crisis, while providing a toe hold to a more economically secure future.

Unfortunately, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), popularly called "welfare," is failing to reach millions of poor children and families. This program is supposed to act as the last line of defense for mothers and children with nowhere else to turn. Rather than let them fall into an abyss of poverty, homelessness and exploitation, TANF provides modest cash assistance, work training and affordable child care, all of which help parents get back on their feet. Without these humble aids, the outlook for poor families is grim.

Fifteen years after the "end of welfare as we know it," ever increasing numbers of mothers, children, and families are facing exactly that bleak landscape. Welfare reform has been "successful" in reducing the number of people receiving welfare. But this "success" is not because of a corresponding reduction in the number of families who are poor and in desperate need of these benefits and services; not because of a reduction in the number of families who are eligible to receive these benefits; and certainly not because there is an increase in employment for the women who single-handedly head these poor households. At its inception in 1996, TANF served 84 percent of eligible families; now, the program only reaches 40 percent of these very vulnerable women, children and families.

Legal Momentum examines the causes and details of this trend in its latest report The Bitter Fruit of Welfare Reform: A Sharp Drop in the Percentage of Eligible Women and Children Receiving Welfare. The problems with the current system are many: federal block grants to states that incentivize them to cut welfare rolls; state access barriers which make it unnecessarily difficult for poor families to qualify for assistance; misleading information designed to discourage eligible families from even applying; and harsh rules making it easy for program officials to declare children ineligible due to parental non-compliance.

TANF is due for reauthorization by Congress in September 2009. Reauthorization offers an important opportunity to make the program more responsive to the nation's poor children and struggling parents. Given that analysts are predicting a prolonged period of high unemployment, this discussion cannot come soon enough for the millions of American families facing the expiration of TANF or unemployment benefits in climate in which there are no jobs to be had.

Most people would not callously ignore a mother and child in need; we can not let our government continue to turn its back on the estimated 2.2 million women and children who will otherwise live hungry and hopeless in our midst. As a national priority, we must reinvigorate TANF, and ensure that America's poor families have a meaningful safety net and a true stepping stone to economic security.

Follow Irasema Garza on Twitter: www.twitter.com/LegalMomentum

Comments

[DHFabian]

Welfare "reform" was enacted to provide businesses with cheap labor; they complained that people bypassed low-wage jobs, turning to welfare until they could find decent jobs. By stripping out the safety net, people must accept whatever they can get.
TANF created a bottom-wage temp help workforce. While complex, the bottom line is that parents often can't quit TANF. Workfare is often used as cheap replacement labor. With each big layoff, more people end up on workfare, and the ball rolls on. If people can be taught that impoverished families are living in lazy luxury, they'll believe anything. Welfare "reform" has been an invaluable tool to determine how to manage public opinion.
The Climate Bill is a threat to Big Oil, so the war against smokers was relaunched. Under 20% smoke, most are over the age of 50, a fraction will develop a smoking-related disease, and restrictions are so stringent that most of us have no exposure to cigarette smoke. Contrast this to your exposure to the more dangerous traffic smoke. The American Cancer Society lists smoking as a "contributing factor", not the "Leading cause of preventable...". Why is the focus only on smoking? And what does smoking have to do with the Climate Bill? Nothing, and that's my point. Real action on our climate crisis would negatively impact the profits of Big Oil, just as welfare negatively impacted Big Business. Misinformation campaigns work in this country.

[sophizgood]

The TANF does what working women with children desparately need. I'm gonna let John Cornyn know about this. Thanks Huffington post. One more email activism for me to undertake.

[Joni Podschun]

Along with this discussion about the TANF reaching out to the right people, we need to look towards reforming the way in which the program is administered. "Work First" wasn't very effective before, but rising unemployment should force adminstrators to shift the focus on more sustainable, long-term solutions, like hard skills training and education.

http://breadforthecity.blogspot.com/2009/06/growing-unemployment-game-changer-for.html

[iridium53]

The single most invidious problem with have in the U.S. is poverty and hunger.

Our so-called "Christian" treatment of the poor is shameful and cruel.

The members of Congress and Senate who do not vote for significant change in public assistance for the poor and for healthcare for all need to be voted out at the next opportunity.

Those individuals should be marked for their anti-American opinions. They are voting that we Americans cannot do what so many other countries have done - show appropriate compassion and assistance to our poor and sick. They would rather take money from their special interests. They are corrupt.

[FearlessFreep]

The story of welfare "reform" is the story of invisible victims.