Effects of Welfare and Anti-Poverty Policies on Adult Economic and Middle-Childhood Outcomes Differ for the “Hardest to Employ”

The welfare reform legislation of 1996 transformed many welfare benefits into a temporary safety net available to recipients who made a demonstrated effort to work. The new approach, however, raised concern that the “hard-to-employ” — especially parents with low rates of steady employment, and higher-thanaverage levels of barriers to employment — would be less likely to successfully achieve economic selfsufficiency.