Lifetime limits on public assistance were introduced by the United States federal government in 1996 as part of the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program. Many former recipients are no longer eligible for benefits having reached their lifetime limit. Local and national studies of post-welfare reform TANF leavers describe their circumstances.
This study compared exits between citizen and noncitizen heads of household from the Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) program. With longitudinal monthly administrative data and a Cox proportional hazard model, the study examined how the economy and recipients’ personal characteristics affected their exits. The sample consisted of 28,308 families headed by citizens and 2,547 families headed by a noncitizen on TANF. Key findings reveal that families on TANF exit the rolls primarily during the first 8 months after entrance.
In this study the authors explore racial disparities in the uses of sanctions and the different impact of sanctions on the economic well-being of African American and White TANF leavers. The study analyzed 907 African American and 1,336 White welfare leavers from the 1999 and 2002 data of the NSAF. Chi-square results show that sanctions are more significantly imposed to African Americans than Whites. On the other hand, regression results show that the impact of sanctions on the employment and family income of African Americans and Whites are comparable.
This study investigates a random sample of people who left welfare and a similar sample who returned to welfare in a mid-Atlantic state in 2002. Findings show that child-care difficulties are important barriers to employment and that they are bound together with other conditions of poverty such as adverse neighborhood conditions and other deprivations. Child care provision becomes difficult when neighborhoods are infested with drugs or guns or when caregivers must spend too much time finding the means to pay bills or rent and put food on the table.
The costs for rent and utilities account for the largest share of living expenses, yet these two critical dimensions of material hardship have seldom been examined concurrently in population based studies. This paper employs multivariate statistical analysis using American Community Survey data to demonstrate the relative risk ratio of low-income renter-occupied households with children experiencing “rent burden,” “energy insecurity,” or a “double burden” as opposed to no burden.
This mixed-methods study explored the circumstances and coping strategies of households at risk of food insecurity among children. Quantitative analyses guided the selection of two samples of households: (1) at risk for food insecure children, yet children were food secure (n = 19) and (2) with food insecure children (n = 54). Qualitative interviews with parents revealed that households with food insecure children were complex and fluctuating in composition and had unpredictable earnings.
This study examines the residential spatial patterns of Housing Choice Voucher holders in Western New York in 2004 and 2008 (n = 4,600 and n = 4,759, respectively). It seeks to answer two questions: Has the concentration of voucher holders in impoverished and same race neighborhoods diminished overtime; and are voucher holders, particularly African Americans, relocating in patterns that would lead to reghettoization or the reconcentration of race and poverty?
Recipients of temporary assistance for needy families (TANF) encounter a variety of expectations and sanctions. Recipients face work requirements, limited resources, and barriers to employability, including the barrier of substance use. This article addresses the sanctions that are applied to clients who do not meet expectations of the policy, barriers to employability, disparities in resources, and factors influencing referrals for substance abuse treatment for TANF clients. (Author abstract)
Economic self-sufficiency has emerged as a policy goal of antipoverty programs in many nations. Although the policy direction of these programs is clear, the definition and measurement of economic self-sufficiency is not. This study revisits a scale that was designed in 1993 and has experienced a growth in use after two decades of little attention. Using exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis and bivariate correlations, the scale's validity was tested with a sample of low-income survivors of intimate partner violence.
This article examines the risks of poverty among elderly Asians living in the United States. Using data from the 2000 US Census, the analysis examines differences in poverty status by marital status, household structure and nativity. The article, addressing the "model minority" thesis among Asian Americans, shows how it fails to control for heterogeneity within this population.