The New World of Welfare

Book Overview

Congress must reauthorize the sweeping 1996 welfare reform legislation by October 1, 2002. A number of issues that were prominent in the 1995-96 battle over welfare reform are likely to resurface in the debate over reauthorization. Among those issues are the five-year time limit, provisions to reduce out-of-wedlock births, the adequacy of child care funding, problems with Medicaid and food stamp receipt by working families, and work requirements. Funding levels are also certain to be controversial. Fiscal conservatives will try to lower grant spending levels, while states will seek to maintain them and gain additional discretion in the use of funds. Finally, a movement to encourage states to promote marriage among low-income families is already taking shape.
The need for reauthorization presents an opportunity to assess what welfare reform has accomplished and what remains to be done. The New World of Welfare is an attempt to frame the policy debate for reauthorization, and to inform the policy discussion among the states and at the federal level, especially by drawing lessons from research on the effects of welfare reform. In the book, a diverse set of welfare experts--liberal and conservative, academic and nonacademic--engage in rigorous debate on topics ranging from work experience programs, to job availability, to child well-being, to family formation. In order to provide a comprehensive overview of the current state of research on welfare reform, the contributors cover subjects including work and wages, effects of reform on family income and poverty, the politics of conservative welfare reform, sanctions and time limits, financial work incentives for low-wage earners, the use of medicaid and food stamps, welfare-to-work, child support, child care, and welfare reform and immigration.
Preparation of the volume was supported by funds from the Annie E. Casey Foundation and the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0815710119
• ISBN13: 9780815710110
• Release Date: September 2001
• Publisher: Brookings Institution Press
• Length: 532 Pages
• Weight: 1.60 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 6.8" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

A comprehensive analysis of welfare reform

The New World of Welfare, edited by Rebecca Blank and Ron Haskins, is an intense and thorough examination of all facets of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act, signed by President Bill Clinton in 1996. This bipartisan act was the most sweeping welfare reform ever. It was also widely criticized and clouded with controversy. Among the many items stirring debate was the five-year time limit imposed on the benefits, the level of funding devoted to child care, and the requirements meant to reduce out-of-wedlock births. The New World of Welfare is a comprehensive and in-depth analysis of these and other contentious points of the 1996 bill. The editors have assembled a varied group of welfare experts to pick apart the act and explain where it has worked, and where it has not. These experts are split evenly between liberal and conservative views, creating a forum that attempts to promote further reflection rather than a particular ideology. Each chapter alternates between a conservative or a liberal viewpoint, and every once in awhile, there will be a rebuttal at the end of the chapter where the opposing side can chime in with their counterpoint. The scope and depth of this book can make it a daunting to read. At times, the sheer amount of information - facts, figures, charts, and graphs - seem overwhelming. That this information is often times called into question by the opposing side puts that much more of a burden on the reader. This is a book that needs to be read actively, with notes and a highlighter, so that you can return to crucial bits of information.The book begins with an outline of the 1996 Act. This chapter offers helpful analysis of how the bill has worked for the past six years, as well as providing an overview for the reauthorization debate that has already begun in Congress. From there, a bevy of experts, both academic and non-academic, take turns covering such issues as welfare-to-work programs, Medicaid and food stamps, and child support. Some of the most effective chapters deal with the different welfare-to-work systems put in place by each state. These systems take on new importance with because of the 5-year limit on benefits. With the onus on recipients to find work, states have been struggling to find the best way to move people into the workforce. Minnesota, for example, has higher-than-average earnings disregards, which means that a poor person receiving a pay check will not lose out on needed welfare supplements. Later in the book, there are also several interesting chapters that deal with the most controversial aspect of the 1996 Act: the money provided to reduce out-of-wedlock births. The debate in this section centers around the effectiveness of this provision. Though out-of-wedlock births have decreased, there has been no definite causal relationship between that and the welfare reform bill.Overall, despite the challenging nature of this book, it is more than worthwhile. It provides no answ

An invaluable and much appreciated contribution

In The New World Of Welfare, Rebecca Blank (dean of the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy, University of Michigan) and Ron Haskins (senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and a senior consultant at the Annie E. Casey Foundation) effectively collaborate to compile and present an anthology of commentaries by a diverse group of welfare experts, both library and conservative, academic and nonacademic, to examine the political, cultural, and social issues arising from governmental approaches to contemporary welfare reform. The New World Of Welfare is an invaluable and much appreciated contribution to the on-going municipal, state and national debates on efforts to redesign and implement effective welfare and "workfare" programs.