Report California’s Welfare Recipients: Family Circumstances, Income, and Time on Aid among CalWORKs Families By Caroline Danielson May 8, 2012 What does a typical CalWORKs family look like? This report provides key details on some of the state’s most vulnerable residents.
Report Does California’s Welfare Policy Explain the Slower Decline of Its Caseload? By Thomas E. MaCurdy, Margaret O’Brien-Strain, David C. Mancuso Jan 1, 2002 Since Congress enacted welfare reform in 1996, states have had more flexibility in designing their own welfare programs. With this flexibility has come an increased interest in accountability at the state level. Although California’s caseload rate fell 43 percent between 1996 and 2000, that decline lags the national average. This report examines the variation in recipiency rates among the five largest states both before and after the welfare reforms of 1996. Its authors find that between 1989 and 1996, economic and demographic factors accounted for most of the variation in welfare recipiency rates; after 1996, however, policy decisions at the state level were the most important factor in explaining caseload variations.
Report The Rise and Fall of California’s Welfare Caseload: Types and Regions, 1980-1999 By Thomas E. MaCurdy, Margaret O’Brien-Strain, David C. Mancuso Jun 1, 2000 In the years following welfare reform, caseloads have declined considerably both in California and in the rest of the nation. Nationally, welfare participation has fallen 47 percent from its 1994 peak, yielding the lowest recipiency rate since 1970. However, participation has fallen by only 30 percent in California, placing it eighth from the bottom among U.S. states. This smaller decline results primarily from California's much higher participation rates before 1994. In this volume, the authors focus on four key factors (the economy, immigration, demographics, and welfare reform) and their influence over time on the three types of welfare cases: one-parent, two-parent, and child-only. The authors also identify important issues for consideration in the state's evolving welfare policies, including the ongoing economic challenges facing rural areas, the side effects of CalWORKs sanctions, and the effects of undocumented immigration.
Report Who Will Be Affected by Welfare Reform in California? By Thomas E. MaCurdy, Margaret O’Brien-Strain Feb 1, 1997 This volume provides a comprehensive profile of welfare use in California. The authors examine the changes imposed by the 1996 federal reform legislation, identify and describe those who receive public assistance in California and the extent to which they rely on such assistance, and explore how those who will be most seriously affected by the reforms differ from other welfare recipients and the working poor. This is the first time this type of analysis has been undertaken for California. It has two unique features. First, it uses families and family income to develop a picture that more truly reflects the economic situation of welfare recipients. Second, it considers the total income a family may be receiving from different welfare programs and in periods on and off welfare.
Report Reform Reversed? The Restoration of Welfare Benefits to Immigrants in California By Thomas E. MaCurdy, Margaret O’Brien-Strain Dec 1, 1998 The 1996 federal welfare reform legislation called for many substantial changes in the welfare system. However, some of these changes were not carefully considered, and subsequent legislation has already modified or reversed several of the original reforms. In this report, the authors examine one such instance—the denial and reinstatement of benefits to noncitizen immigrants under the federal Supplemental Security Income (SSI) and Food Stamps programs. The authors argue that the lack of thoughtful program design was the most disturbing feature in both the denial and restoration of benefits to immigrants. If legislators are to accomplish the stated goals of welfare reform, they must develop their strategies more carefully as other opportunities for rethinking and revising the welfare system arise in the future.
Report Welfare Reform: A Primer in 12 Questions By Eugene Smolensky, Eric Evenhouse, Siobhan Reilly May 1, 1997 Creating an effective welfare system is a daunting challenge. The primary goals of welfare—providing adequate support, modifying the behavior of recipients, and limiting program costs—are linked in a relationship that David Stockman (President Reagan’s budget director) christened the iron triangle: We cannot change one element of the relationship without affecting the other two. The authors examine the conflicts that exist among the goals of welfare and discuss the compromises and tradeoffs those conflicts require in the reform process. Although the analysis focuses on welfare reform in California, the implications are relevant to welfare design in other states as well.
Report Sanctions and Time Limits in California’s Welfare Program By Deborah Reed, Caroline Danielson Apr 6, 2009 In an effort to boost the share of adults on welfare who work, the state has considered proposals to further reduce or eliminate payments to those receiving aid through CalWORKs—the state's welfare program for needy families—who don't work or seek work. This report examines possible effects of these stricter sanctions. The findings suggest that in general, the state's work participation rate could rise, the welfare caseload could shrink, and the poverty rate among children would not be greatly affected if stricter sanctions were adopted.
Report Federal Formula Grants: TANF and Welfare Programs By Tim Ransdell, Shervin Boloorian Dec 15, 2002 This report reviews the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program, pending reauthorization issues, and a number of formula-related aspects of federal welfare laws, with a specific focus on California outcomes.
