Currently, welfare programs coordinate a range of services to support work among welfare recipients and help them overcome barriers to employment. This paper considers the relationship between spatial proximity to and utilization of support services among welfare recipients. Accessibility of mental health and substance abuse service providers among welfare recipients is examined in the three-co...

Welfare recipients face numerous psychological barriers to employment. However, these barriers are rarely addressed in welfare-to-work programs. This article provides a conceptual model and a description of a psycho-educational group training, based on cognitive behavioral therapy that can be helpful in improving employment outcomes for welfare recipients. Implications for working with welfare ...

Single Mothers Working at Night: Standard Work, Child Care Subsidies, and Implications for Welfare Reform Using a data set from the post welfare reform environment (the 1999 National Survey of America’s Families), this paper investigates the impact of child care subsidies on the standard work (i.e., work performed during the traditional work hours of 8 a.m. and 6 p.m. through Monday and Friday)...

The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 (PRWORA) terminated the welfare program known as Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC). The federal government now provides states with block grants to provide cash assistance under the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program. States have wide discretion to structure TANF eligibility, but federal...

Recent welfare reforms, designed to move adult welfare recipients into employment, promise to add 10 to 15 percent to labor forces in rural and agricultural areas of California with average annual unemployment rates of 12 to 20 percent. This paper develops and estimates a simultaneous-equation model to test the hypothesis that high unemployment and seasonality endemic to rural and agricultural ...

Using data for welfare recipients who left the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program during 1996 in Cuyahoga County (Cleveland), Ohio, the authors compare the determinants of labor market outcomes across three classes of housing assistance: those who receive a certificate or voucher, those who reside in a traditional public housing project, and those who reside in a Section 8 housing ...

Substance use by welfare recipients is frequently mentioned as a barrier to well-being and social performance. This article uses nationally representative cross-sectional data and Michigan-specific panel data to summarize trends in substance use among AFDC/TANF recipients. It also examines the prevalence of substance dependence within the welfare population. Although almost 20 percent of welfar...

In The Netherlands, the average exit rate out of welfare is dramatically low. Most welfare recipients have to comply with guidelines on job search e ort that are imposed by the welfare agency. If they do not, then a sanction in the form of a temporarily bene t reduction can be imposed. This paper investigates the e ect of such sanctions on the transition from welfare to work using a unique set ...

Today’s welfare system does not encourage postsecondary education, focusing instead on services aimed at immediate employment. The loss of postsecondary education as a route out of poverty for welfare recipients may be detrimental to some women. College graduation is associated with lower rates of return to aid and post-welfare poverty than attendance without graduation or no attendance. Howeve...