The Impact of Welfare Reform on Black Families.

The Impact of Welfare Reform on Black Families

• Blacks are morely likely than whites to leave welfare because of sanctions( failure to comply)

• Black mothers are often terminated as welfare recipients because of failure to attend drug treatment programs.

Impact on Mothers

Blacks have been shown not only to be less likely than whites to leave welfare but also tobe more likely than whites to return to the rolls due to job instability

Research Findings

1.What impact did PRWORA have on

black mothers?

2.What impact did PRWORA have

on black fathers?

3.What impact did PRWORA have on

black children?

4.What impact did PRWORA have on

black grandparents?

Impact on Fathers

Most child support laws require low-income fathers to pay higher proportions of their income for support than middle and upper income fathers pay

Impact on Mothers

Impact on Children

The 1996 welfare reforem legislation had disproportionate adverse effects on black children.

......Children in welfare families experienced more severe economic hardships after their families left the rolls than when they were on welfare

Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 signed by

President Bill Clinton

Impact on Children

....children may be cared for in their own homes or in the homes of relatives

....end dependence and promoting job preparation, work, and marriage

...reduce the incidence of out of wedlock pregnancies and establish overall numerical goals

...encourage two parent families

Family Caps:

....which did not provide any additional welfare support for children who were born out wedlock

Impact on Grandmothers

....black grandparents and their dependent kin are required to bear a disparate share of social and economic deprivation as a result of insensitive welfare policies

Impact on Mothers

Conclusions

1. Blacks were much less likely than whites to leave

• the welfare rolls, due to their lower educational
• attainment.

2. 41% of blacks were expected to remain on

• welfare for 60months, compared with only 27%
• of whiltes

3. Lack of affordable chid care. 35% of black missed

• work because of child care problem, compared to
• white.

Overriding achievement of PRWORA

....the reduction in the welfare rolls.

welfare dependency dropped by 60% from 12.6 million in June 2003, while the number of families on welfare fell from 4.6 million to 2.0 million.

Impact on Fathers

Arguments

PRWORA requires welfare recipients____as a condition of eligibility to assign their child support rights to the state and to cooperate in identifying paternity

Highest Recipients of welfare

Black American as the poster child of welfare reform.

40%

*Analysts attribute most of the decline in the rolls

to a prosperous economy during a decade with

no recessions.

*PRWORA fail to significantly reduce the number

of families in poverty.

*the impact of welfare reform on people of color has

yet to be adequately assessed.