Excerpt: Studying the Quagmire of Welfare Reform

Hays, Sharon. [2003] 2005. "Studying the Quagmire of Welfare Reform". Pp. 148-153 in Understanding Society, 2nd ed., edited by Margaret L. Andersen, Kim Logio, and Howard Taylor. Belmont, CA: Thomson Learning, Inc.

The 1996 Personal Responsibility Act effectively cut welfare support for many impoverished Americans. "All that was needed, this law seemed to be saying, was to educate the poor in 'mainstream' American values of work and family life", Hays explains.

The reality was that the law required welfare recipients to enroll in work training courses and seminars, apply for unskilled or low-skilled jobs, and work whatever job at whatever hours for whatever pay they could find to receive their welfare checks. The catch was that "the vast majority of adult welfare recipients—over 90 percent—are mothers. Nearly all are raising their children alone". And with sanctions for failing to meet any welfare requirements, most of these poor single mothers had to spend 30-40 hours a week out of the house, thus having to pay for child care. Welfare reform allowed for some support (but not much) for child care, transportation, health insurance, rent payments, etc.

The response was generally positive: "[welfare mothers] wanted to work, they wanted their children to see them working, they wanted to be free of the welfare office, and they wanted financial independence." In addition, within six years the number of welfare recipients dropped from 12 million to 5 million, and everyone from politicians to the mass media was calling welfare reform a success.

In light of this, Hays reports some scary statistics:

By 2002, nearly half (40 percent) of the women and children who had left the welfare rolls had no discernible source of income—no work, no welfare, nowhere to go. Of the 60 percent of former welfare recipients who were employed, half were still living in poverty... Although the welfare rolls had been cut by more than half, the number of families living in dire (welfare-level) poverty had declined by only 15 percent.

In reducing the number of people on welfare, the law was a success. But in helping to lift the poorest Americans out of poverty, the law was an utter failure, instead burying them even deeper.

The Personal Responsibility Act was based on the American ideals of personal responsibility, hard work, and sexual morality in its targeting of welfare-dependent single mothers. It is strange to think that these middle-class values could end up harming American society to this degree. There's a point to be made here about the impact of culture on stratification.

Relevance: 4/5 (relevant)
Salience: 4/5 (salient)

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