The Welfare Reform Act

The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA) enacted in 1996 came up with three basic legislative goals, to reduce dependency, child poverty, illegitimacy, and strengthen marriage. The reform has been effective in meeting each of these goals. After implementing the welfare reform, the AFDC/TANF caseloads have dropped by nearly 50%. Some argue that this decline in welfare dependency is do to a stronger economy; but with no previous economic boom, this decline has never resulted in a decline in the AFDC caseloads, let alone a 50 percent drop. It is welfare reform, not economic conditions that has produced the drastic decline in dependency in the 1990s. The fifty states vary dramatically in their states rate of caseloads that have declined, but these rates of decline are uncorrelated to differences in underlying state economic factors such as job growth rates or unemployment. States with better economies have not had greater drops in caseload. By contrast, declines in dependence are directly and strongly linked to the austerity of state workfare policies (TANF, 1936-1999).
The persons against the reformation of the welfare have said that the reform will throw millions of children into poverty but in all reality child poverty has decreased because the reform was enacted, from approximately 20.8% in 1996 to 16.9% in 1999. The Black children and the families with single mother’s poverty levels have decreased as well. States with strong workforce systems have tended to have a more rapid decline in child poverty than have the states with a more lenient workforce requirement. Since the mid-1960 the out-of-wedlock birth rate began a rapid and relentless climb. This increase has continued without a slow down for a little over three decades. Then our former President Bill Clinton gave a series of speeches on the harm of illegitimate children on society and he was also the first president to address this topic in close to three decades. Former President Clinton had also proposed that welfare only be used for up to two years, which also would in theory help those who needed help but also put a cap on the length of services to be provided. Then in 1994 the Republicans gained control of both sides of Congress for the first time in over 50 years. This event would in fact, be time limited and would place a much heavier emphasis on independence of the people using the welfare system. Both parties now publicly announced that illegitimacy was harmful to children and society. The Speaker of the House had implied that children born out-of-wedlock may be placed in foster care. They had also said that out-of-wedlock childbearing and single parenthood are the main causes of child poverty and welfare dependency in the United States. Also implied was that children rose in single parent families are more likely to experience behavioral, emotional issues and do poorly in school. Boys raised in single parent households are more likely to engage in crime and girls are more likely to become pregnant before marriage. They believe that these effects are the lack of marriage and not because of poverty. Also stated was that a poor child living with a mother and father united in marriage will do better than a similar poor child living in a single parent home (Teles, 1998).
I am a single mother, my son was not born out of wed-lock but my husband and I are now separated and neither of us is on any sort of state assistance or Medicaid, so it bothers me that it is implied that single parents abuse the system. A child being born out of wed-lock is no different than a child born into a married family, that statement above is absurd and I do not agree with, I just simply felt the need to put it into my report.
Welfare reform has been successful but has been limited by several factors. The welfare reform act in 1996 only addressed one of many programs the AFDC. Also, the federal work requirements that pushed the states to promote work and reduce welfare dependence have been too lenient, which results in poor state work programs. Lastly, while the law set clear goals to reduce out-of-wedlock childbearing and strengthen marriages, nearly all states' bureaucracies simply ignored these goals (Weaver, 2000).

References:

TANF 1936–1999 Statistics. www.acf.dhhs.gov/news/stats/3697.htm (Accessed July 29, 2010).
Weaver, R. Kent. 2000. Ending Welfare as We Know It. Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institution Press. (Accessed July 29, 2010)
Teles, Steven M. 1998. Who’s Welfare? AFDC and Elite Politics. Lawrence, Kans.: University Press of Kansas. (Accessed July 29, 2010)