The Performance of the Child‐Care Subsidy System

Child Care Subsidies and the Employment of Welfare Recipients

“…Hofferth (1995), for example, found that only 18 percent of employed child care users with incomes at or below poverty, and only 12 percent of those with near-poor incomes, received some form of direct financial assistance to offset their child care costs. Other estimates of subsidy receipt rates were similarly low, even when assessed only among those eligible for particular programs (Meyers and Heintze 1999;Kimmel 1998;Long and Clark 1997;U.S. General Accounting Office 1997).…”

“…Even when resources have been expanded, however, recipiency rates have remained surprisingly low. Although the reasons for nonparticipation remain poorly understood, they appear to include the unwillingness of state governments to spend available funds, widespread lack of information among potentially eligible recipients, and the disincentive effects of high co-payments (Meyers and Heintze 1999;Office of Inspector General 1998).…”

Cause and effects of female labour force participation in local welfare systems

“…For instance, it is widely assumed that the coverage of publicly funded childcare institutions structure the integration of women (mothers) into paid employment (Meyers and Heintze 1999;Siim 2000;Plantenga and Remery 2009). This argument disregards the oft-existing discrepancy between policy outputs and outcomes.…”

Child Care “Packaging” Among TANF Recipients: Implications for Social Work

“…Though formal day care centers across the country report waiting lists for TANF clients, states are increasingly using PRWOA funds to subsidize informal care by relatives and friends (Bruner, 2004;Kaufman, 2004), and many social workers have become caught in controversies over the value of formal versus informal care for low-income children (Adams et al, 2002b;Anderson & Grylak, 2002;Bridgeport Child Advocacy Coalition, 2003;Kaufman, 2004). Recent studies have explored factors that impact child care subsidy utilization (Huston, Chang, & Gennetian, 2002;Meyers & Heintze, 1999;Shlay, Weinraub, Harmon, & Tran, 2003), but many questions remain regarding how and why TANF users assemble certain child care arrangements, particularly those involving informal providers consisting of relatives and friends.…”

“…Despite this attention and funding, individual participation rates for the subsidy program are low, in large part because the funds available are not sufficient to cover all eligible families (Adams et al, 2002a;Meyers & Heintze, 1999). A study prepared for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services reported that only 12% of the 15 million children eligible for child care assistance under federal guidelines in 1999 received subsidies (Collins, Layzan, Kreader, Werner, & Glantz, 2000).…”