Most welfare-to-work programs designed to help single mothers leave welfare for employment focus on the challenge of finding a job. This article looks beyond the point of employment to consider the difficulty many former welfare recipients have keeping their jobs. The authors review evidence showing that many families cycle back and forth between welfare and work, losing jobs and returning to public assistance while they seek work again. Factors contributing to high rates of job loss include characteristics of the job and of the worker. Temporary jobs, frequent layoffs, low pay in relation to work expenses, lack of experience meeting employer expectations, and personal or family problems all lead to dismissals and resignations. Drawing from the experience of innovative programs, the authors recommend policy changes and program approaches that can help families overcome setbacks and stabilize their lives as they move from welfare into increasingly stable employment.
This article describes the new welfare reality that has emerged since the passage of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996. The author focuses on four key dimensions of this new system: conditional availability of cash assistance, the promotion of rapid entry into the labor market, an increased emphasis on the provision of work supports, and limited expansion of services for nonworking Temporary Assistance for Needy Family (TANF) recipients. Stringent work mandates reinforced with tough financial penalties for noncompliance and limits on the number of months families can receive assistance have created a cash assistance system that requires significantly more of families than the Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) program. Although it is true that more is expected of families, many states have also substantially increased the support provided to families as they make the transition to paid employment.
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