Personal, Family, and Multiple Barriers of Long-Term Welfare Recipients

The passage of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 (P.L. 104-193) initiated a series of events that resulted in millions of welfare recipients being permanently denied public cash assistance (Duncan, Harris, & Boisjoly, 1997). At the time of the bill's passage, it was asserted that former welfare recipients would be able to find work, maintain employment, and provide financial support for their families. Studies of welfare from a macro perspective, including the views that emphasize labor market and human capital variables (for example, Lerman & Ratcliffe, 2000; Maryland Department of Human Resources, 1998; Rockefeller Institute of Government, 1999), may support the notion that welfare recipients can be trained to work and absorbed into a labor market in which their skills are needed. This approach grossly underestimates the effect of personal and familial barriers for some welfare recipients. Specifically, long-term welfare recipients exhibit complex issues that limit their ability to find and maintain employment. The study discussed in this article explored personal and familial barriers to employment for long-term recipients and the presence of multiple barriers. The study was unique in that the sample included only long-term welfare recipients. Data were collected through interviews with a representative statewide sample of urban and rural long-term recipients, and administrative data were obtained to supplement interviews. It is important for social workers to understand the complexity of employment barriers for welfare recipients for a number of reasons. First, there is a widespread assumption that welfare time limits have been "successful"--that former recipients are finding and maintaining employment (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 1999). This is true only in part. For some former recipients, employment is part-time, short-term, tenuous, and less financially rewarding than receipt of public assistance. Second, collateral agencies such as mental health agencies, child welfare agencies, health clinics, child mental health facilities, schools, and food and clothing banks are likely affected by former welfare recipients whose financial needs are not being met in the labor market (Taylor & Barusch, 2000). Agencies in which social workers are employed are likely to see an increase in the need for services as the support systems for former welfare recipients disintegrate over time. Third, women and children who are poor are a historically vulnerable group served by our profession, and it is this group that is being targeted by current welfare reform policies. Experience with TANF A large percentage of welfare recipients have had difficulty achieving economic independence within the five-year time limit set by the federal government for the Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) program. Testifying before the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Ways and Means, Pavetti (1996) reported that 70 percent of the public assistance caseload had received welfare for more than 24 months and 48 percent had been dependent on public assistance for more than 60 months. A wide range of studies examined factors that influence an individuals duration on welfare. These factors include education and labor market experiences, personal and family characteristics, mental health, substance abuse, and domestic violence. Personal and family characteristics clearly affect the likelihood that a family will remain on public cash assistance. Factors associated with length of time on welfare include age, gender, number of children, marital status, child support, education, and work history (Blank, 1989; National Governor's Association, 1998; Pavetti, 1997; Peterson, 1995; Sherman, Amey, Duffield, Ebb, & Weinstein, 1998; Spalter-Roth, Burr, Hartmann, & Shaw, 1995; Taylor, 1999). Other factors related to decreased likelihood of working include presence of disabilities; job availability; primary responsibility for toddlers or infants; and family supports, for example, child support or earnings from other sources (Pavetti, Olson, Pindus, & Pernas, 1996). …