Studies show that where full child care subsidies are available, there is a dramatic increase in labor force participation among the poor. However, child care across the country is scarce, considering the demand. In some states, low-income working mothers have waited as long as two years to receive a child care subsidy for a toddler, and as long as one year for an infant. In Massachusetts it took Susan from September 1998 to January 1999 to get child care. She has to travel, without a car, to a community 10 miles away to renew her voucher periodically.
Life is a struggle for kids and their working mothers.
An Urban Institute Study found that more than a quarter of former recipients are working, mostly night hours, with most of those surveyed giving the need to juggle child care arrangements as the reason. And just because women are no longer receiving assistance, this does not mean they have found work and can provide for themselves. According to the Urban Institute Study, about a quarter of the women who left the rolls were not working, and had no partner working. We're told that the economy has never been so good. Tell that to the third of families who are now off welfare, but who have been forced, according to the Urban Institute Study, to cut the size of meals or skip meals in the last year because there wasn't enough money for food.