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In this book, a national expert on welfare and law claims that current welfare reform proposals merely recycle old remedies that have not worked. He argues that national reform efforts should focus less on welfare and blaming the victim and more on solving the problems of work, poverty, and dependency. ... Read more

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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. ... Read more

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Hailed as a great success, welfare reform resulted in a dramatic decline in the welfare rolls--from 4.4 million families in 1996 to 2 million in 2003. But what does this "success" look like to the welfare mothers and welfare caseworkers who experienced it?In Flat Broke With Children, Sharon Hays tells us the story of welfare reform from inside the welfare office and inside the lives of welfare mothers, describing the challenges that welfare recipients face in managing their work, their families, and the rules and regulations of welfare reform. Welfare reform, experienced on the ground, is not a rosy picture. The majority of adult welfare clients are mothers--over 90 percent--and the time limits imposed by welfare reform throw millions of these mostly unmarried, desperate women into the labor market, where they must accept low wages, the most menial work, the poorest hours, with no benefits, and little flexibility. Hays provides a vivid portrait of their lives--debunking many of the stereotypes we have of welfare recipients--but she also steps back to explore what welfare reform reveals about the meaning of work and family life in our society.In particular, she argues that an inherent contradiction lies at the heart of welfare policy, which emphasizes traditional family values even as its ethic of "personal responsibility" requires women to work and leave their children in childcare or at home alone all day long.Hays devoted three years to visiting welfare clients and two welfare offices, one in a medium-sized town in the Southeast, another in a large, metropolitan area in the West. Drawing on this hands-on research, Flat Broke With Children is the first book to explore the impact of welfare reform on motherhood, marriage, and work in women's lives, and the first book to offer us a portrait of how welfare reform plays out in thousands of local welfare offices and in millions of homes across the nation. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (12)

poor
I don't beleive I would ever purchase a book in less than good condition. This book and many notes and highlighted parts and the cover was in rough shape. It should have been labeled poor condition, which I wouldn't have purchased. Shipping was not as speedy as many of my other purchases from amazon. Not impressed by seller.

Very pleased!
Book arrived in a timely fashion, just as described.Very happy with the condition of the book and how smoothly the transaction went.

Welfare as it is and the values behind "reform"
This is a very well written study of the realities of welfare in the United States that thoughtfully considers the values behind our policies and approaches to the poor, specifically welfare mothers, whose first-hand accounts, along with those of welfare case workers, feature prominently in her study without making it anecdotal like Nickel and Dimed.

Hays convincingly shows that welfare reform of 1996 was wrongheaded and generally ineffective because it was aimed "correcting" the poor in various capacities without adequately engaging the underlying causes of their poverty, namely a shortage of stable jobs accessible to the poor that pay well enough to help pull them out of poverty.

Unexpected Bias
This book is extremely informative in the area of welfare reform. I learned a great deal about the current state of the welfare system in the United States. Hays backs up her information with citations and examples, and the book contains many helpful personal anecdotes from welfare recipients themselves. I can't help but notice, however, that the author seems to look unfavorably upon welfare reform.

Although I have since returned this book to the library and cannot directly quote from it, I can point out several instances where Hays implies that welfare reform and restrictions are unnecessary and harmful to welfare recipients. She laments the situation of the single mothers who must pay to have their children cared for by professionals instead of looked after by friends or family members. Hays also seems to dislike the practice of requiring welfare recipients (who are not presently caring for an infant under 18 months of age) to work in order to receive welfare benefits. One is required to start actively searching for a job in order to be on welfare. If a job is not found within a month or two, one is given work for the municipal government or the welfare office. Hays seemed most annoyed that, if one must work for the welfare office, one is not paid a salary in addition to one's welfare benefits. I, however, consider the welfare benefits to be payment in exchange for working at the welfare office. The point of welfare reform was, among other things, to prevent people from getting something for nothing.

Flat Broke with children
I am very disappointed to find out that this site was trying to sell an item that was not in stock. Even thought i got the reimbursement from Amazon.com, i wasted many days waiting for the book. Some of my assignments were not done because i trusted this site. ... Read more

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Professor Spulber traces the role of the state in the West and East for more than two centuries along parallel lines--first from the creation of the Welfare State in the West, and the Party-State in the East, to reform of the Western Welfare State by means of privatization and entitlement changes, to transmutations in the East through large scale privatizations and the creation of the "nomenklatura capitalism."He establishes an original connection between dismantlingstate enterprises and limitation of government functions at all levels in the West, and the collapse and then restructuring of the state on new foundations in the East. ... Read more

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The United States continues to be a nation of immigrants. This is the first book length treatment of the impact of the 1996 welfare reform act on a wide range of immigrant groups in North America. Contributors to the book draw on ethnographic fieldwork, government data, and original survey research to show how welfare reform has reinforced socio-economic hardships for working poor immigrants. As the essays reveal, reform laws have increased the social isolation of poor immigrant households and discouraged large numbers of qualified immigrants from applying for health and welfare services. All of the articles highlight the importance of examining federal policy guidelines in conjunction with local enforcement policies, labor market dynamics, and immigrant attitudes toward government agencies. ... Read more

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During the 1990s the United States undertook the greatest social policy reform since the Social Security Act of 1935. In Welfare Reform: Effects of a Decade of Change, Jeffrey Grogger and Lynn Karoly assemble evidence from numerous studies, including nearly three dozen social experiments, to assess how welfare reform has affected behavior. To broaden our understanding of this wide-ranging policy reform, the authors evaluate the evidence in relation to an economic model of behavior. The evidence they collect reveals the trade-offs that policymakers face in achieving the conflicting goals of promoting work, reducing dependency, and alleviating need among the poor. Finally, the authors identify numerous areas where important gaps remain in our understanding of the effects of welfare reform.

The book will be a crucial resource for policy economists, social policy specialists, other professionals concerned with welfare policy, and students.

Customer Reviews (1)

Very dry but thorough review of the literature by econometrics
The 1996 welfare reforms have aroused a large literature of emotional indignation.There are many books which attack the 1996 reforms, passionately, based primarily upon ideological disagreement.This book is the antithesis of those books.It is totally unemotional.It tries to be an objective, dispassionate review of the evidence on the effectivness of the 1996 reforms.The perspective of the authors is that of professioanl econometrics.Their writing style is that of peer-reviewed social science monographs.

So, in other words, not a good read, not a beach book, but contains useful informtion.The technique of the authors, after an introduction setting the stage for the 1996 reforms, is to, first, set forth an analytic model setting forth their econometric expectations for how the policies should affect behavior, and, second, to go, chapter by chapter, through the different issues -- such as effect on number of people on welfare, effect on income and so forth -- which are of concern to welfare policy. In each chapter, they review all of the social scientific articles relevant to the question, critique the methodology of the articles and studies, and then summarize the results of the science thus far.

The conclusions of the book can be quickly summarized, and are not very surprising.First, both the model and the empirical results say thatthe 1996 reforms have reduced welfare, increased work and increased income (although the income increases for former welfare recepients are not huge).Second, it is not clear if the reforms have had any particular impact on marriage rates, child-bearing outside of marriage and family structure.(A major goal of the bill was to incluence these things.)The issue of family structure is unclear, the authors feel, because: (a) they think that the policy changes are too small to have much effect on these issues; and (b) the empirical data thus far only covers a few years, and they think that the results, if any, will only show up long term.

In short, the book basically confirms the common sense view that the 1996 welfare reforms are working, at reducing welfare and increasing work, but, as far as the other goals of the law are concerned, the jury is still out and the law probably is not working. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Indispensible both for political science classes and policymakers
This is a very unusual and valuable book.First, it is a rare example of a legislatively-mandated review of a major policy change.The sponsor of the legislation mandating the review was none other than Barack Obama, then an Illinois State Senator, and the subject was the application in Illinois of federal welfare reform.Second, the studies included in the book reflect a methodological breakthrough by focusing on individuals who were affected by reforms, in addition to statistics that review the experience as a whole.Professor Lewis richly demonstrates that a "person-centered strategy is within reach" for researching the effectiveness of policy initiatives.We come to know certain individuals, but fortunately this is not a string of colorful, unrelated anecdotes.Lewis dares to categorize the individuals surveyed into types and in doing so, draws a common-sense conclusion that had eluded the polemicists of the left and the right, that a reform will have differing impacts on different kinds of people.Summarizing this approach in a brief review such as this may raise the question that the approach is circular, that people are grouped not because of their characteristics, but because of their differing reactions.Read the studies, and you will see that author avoided that trap.Each and every study includes some surprising results, which, I imagine, is exactly why State Senator Obama wanted this work to be done.This book is a ray of hope that in a polarized democracy, dispassionate scholars can shed light on policy initiatives when they focus their attention on real individuals, and not on the cartoon versions that illustrate our political rhetoric. ... Read more

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This text explores the motivations to reform the welfare system during the most prosperous decade in recent American history and the successes and failures thus far. It examines major welfare reform by acknowledging th incipient reform efforts of the late 1980s. ... Read more

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In 1994, welfare caseloads had reached their historic high of 5.1 million families nationally, representing about 15 percent of all American families with children. But in that year, caseloads began a seven-year decline that eventually reduced the national rolls by about 60 percent. Caseloads dropped almost everywhere - in suburbs, rural areas, and even inner cities - with substantial declines for whites, blacks, and Hispanics alike.

Many factors contributed to the caseload decline, and, although there is disagreement about the amount, both left and right agree that the strong economy of the 1990s helped. Thus, many observers expected that the economic slowdown since 2000 would push caseloads up. For example, between December 2000 and July 2003, the unemployment rate for women who maintain families rose by nearly 4 percentage points, from 5.1 percent to 9.0 percent.

And, yet, this increase in unemployment seems to have had a surprisingly small impact on welfare caseloads. The national caseload stopped declining around July of 2001, but it has not risen appreciably since then. Although many single mothers have lost their jobs, a surprisingly large number have not gone on welfare. Compared to 1994, for example, female-headed families in extreme poverty (50 percent of the poverty line) are now 25 percent less likely to be on welfare, going from 77 percent in 1994 to 59 percent in 2001. And yet, as the papers in this volume indicate, there is little evidence that this decline has harmed the well-being of low-income children and families.

Are states wrongfully discouraging single mothers from seeking the benefits to which they are legally entitled? Has welfare been so stigmatized that even the very poor don't want to be on the rolls? Or, are single mothers somehow finding other sources of support not reflected in government statistics? And, since they do not seem to be suffering, does it matter? ... Read more

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The welfare reform debate is not over, despite declarations of success from many politicians and commentators. Welfare Reform: The Next Act draws on six years of in-depth research to explore the implications of1996's welfare reform .The authors examine all facets ofthe new system: its effects on family structure and children, its success in moving welfare recipients to work, its ability to reach hard-to-serve populations, its effects on immigrants, andits disproportionate impacts across racial and ethnic lines.It is the most rigorous and comprehensive analysis available--and an invaluable tool for determining how the new welfare system can meet the needs of vulnerable families through all phases of the economic cycle. ... Read more

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Since the late 1980s welfare policies in France and the United States have increasingly been shaped by a strong emphasis on citizens' obligations to work and be independent, and a weakening of entitlements to income maintenance. Throughout the advanced industrialized nations, welfare reforms incorporatework-oriented measures such as fi nancial incentives, insertion contracts,training, and requirements to search for and accept jobs. The evidence in thisvolume suggests that while the details may vary, welfare reforms in France and the United States have more in common than is often acknowledged.Welfare Reform provides an in-depth analysis of the development and structure of modern welfare programs and how they function. The dynamics of welfare reform are illuminated by focusing on two programs: the Revenu Minimum d'Insertion in France and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families in the United States. Taking various analytic approaches, contributors examine the relations between poverty and work, how U.S. and French models of income support have been transformed in recent times, the relative impacts of economic growth and policy reforms on rates of welfare participation, and what happens to recipients who leave the welfare rolls.Welfare Reform will help researchers and policymakers gain perspective on where they are headed and how best to get there as they journey down the highway of welfare reform. ... Read more

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The New Labour government has placed great emphasis on service delivery. It has provided performance information in the form of Annual Reports, Public Service Agreements, Performance Assessment Frameworks, and a host of other targets. But has New Labour delivered on its welfare reform? This work examines the New Labour government's welfare policies to the end of its first term. It moves beyond a descriptive account to provide an evaluative perspective on New Labour's welfare reforms. "Evaluating New Labour's Welfare Reforms": provides a detailed and comprehensive examination of the welfare reforms of New Labour's first term; compares achievements with stated aims; examines success in the wider context; and contributes to the debate on the problems of evaluating social policy. It is aimed at academics and students of social policy and pr ovides important information for academics and students in a wide range of areas such as politics, sociology, public policy, public administration and public management interested in welfare reform and policy evaluation. ... Read more

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Although employment rates among welfare recipients have risen substantially since the early 1990s, many questions about welfare-to-work efforts remain. What are the employment prospects of the least skilled and least experienced welfare recipients? What are the chief obstacles to hiring them? How well do they perform? Are their wages and benefits sufficient to achieve financial independence over time? This report draws on employer survey data from four cities (including Los Angeles) to answer these and other questions. In addition to analyzing the survey responses, the authors compare the success these cities have had in moving welfare recipients into the workforce. They also explore the policy implications of their findings. ... Read more

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In the introduction, James S. Denton writes, "The point of all the new programs of the 1960s, Americans were told, was to end poverty, not to underwrite it forever at indefinitely higher levels. Not only has the government failed to eliminate poverty, it has not even made progress towards that goal that can be detected by the most basic measures. The portion of the American population living in poverty remained essentially constant, from twelve to thirteen percent, between 1968 and 1985....This book is offered as a vehicle for hastening the emergence of (a) consensus on the need for comprehensive reform of the welfare system." Contributors to this volume are: Daniel Patrick Moynihan, James S. Denton, Michael Novak, Leslie Lenkowsky, Glenn C. Loury, Carl A. Anderson, Blanche Bernstein, June O'Neill, Robert B. Carleson, William J. Gribbin, Richard Vedder, John C. Weicher, William Orzechowski, Rep. Jim Courter, Rep. Sander Levin and Rep. Robert S. Walker. Will be of great interest to policy makers, social workers and students who need to understand the issue of poverty. Co-published with the National Forum Foundation. ... Read more

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Contains field-tested techniques to enhance the effectiveness of your local social services!

Changing Welfare Services: Case Studies of Local Welfare Reform Programs describes promising programs and practices that have emerged in the United States since the enactment of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996. Using case studies, this reference provides important lessons that will help social service directors and staff to develop strategies that will improve local welfare-to-work services. This casebook focuses on the agencies rather than the welfare population, emphasizing the guiding values of these agencies and the lessons they learned.

Changing Welfare Services explores new approaches to service delivery, with emphasis on removing barriers to work force participation and promoting self-sufficiency through support services. The case studies involve programs focused on working with the community by developing partnerships with local organizations to provide better services. This text emphasizes the organizational changes—such as the development of new training programs, merging employment and social service agencies, and restructuring agency programs to foster collaboration between child welfare services and welfare-to-work programs—that were successful strategies used to implement welfare reform.

In Changing Welfare Services, you will learn about:

the Connections Shuttle and the Guaranteed Ride Home Program—transportation services for welfare-to-work participants
the Exempt Provider Training Program— trains Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) participants and others to launch and improve their own high-quality child care businesses
co-location of support services—situating mental health and substance abuse services near the social services agency so TANF participants can make a single visit for all necessary services
the Family Loan Program—helps low-income families deal with large or unexpected one-time expenses
the JobKeeper Hotline—provides round-the-clock counseling, crisis intervention, and referral services to help participants stay employed
and much more!

Changing Welfare Services shows how these agencies discovered new ways to serve the needs of low-income residents and offers you a variety of inventive techniques for improving your own agency’s support for welfare recipients. Enhanced with tables, figures, and appendixes, this practitioner-oriented casebook is a much-needed complement to the many quantitative studies of the welfare population. This book is a valuable resource for state and local human service administrators and staff, policymakers, and university faculty and students of public policy. ... Read more