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April 2001
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Monitoring Outcomes for Cuyahoga County’s Welfare Leavers
How Are They Faring?
Nandita Verma, Claudia Coulton
with
Richard Hendra, Engel Polousky
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Cuyahoga Work and Training and U.S.
Department of Health and Human Services,
Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation
Over the past few decades, welfare and other public policies for welfare-dependent
families have focused on increasing employment and economic self-sufficiency
by encouraging and supporting work. The 1996 Personal Responsibility and
Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA), which ended the federal entitlement
to cash assistance for families with children and created the Temporary
Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program, places an even greater emphasis
on work as a primary means of ending dependence on government assistance.
The new legislation limits the amount of time that families can receive
federal cash assistance and requires most families to be engaged in employment-related
activities to receive cash benefits. In conjunction with a greater emphasis
on work, federal and state welfare policies are also doing more to encourage
work among low-income families, especially those on welfare: the earned
income credit, child care assistance, and other transitional benefits have
all been expanded to encourage and promote work outside the welfare system.
This combination of strict work requirements and increased benefits and
supports for working parents provides an important context for studying
welfare leavers.
The number of individuals receiving welfare has been declining since the
mid 1990s; however, welfare caseloads have declined sharply since the passage
of PRWORA. While welfare caseloads have always been dynamic, with families
entering and leaving assistance programs each month, the unprecedented declines
have led many to raise questions about what the rapid drop in caseloads
means for states and families. National and local interest in this phenomenon
has resulted in a number of studies of welfare leavers.
The study of Cuyahoga County welfare leavers was undertaken by Cuyahoga
Work and Training as part of a grant from the Office of the Assistant Secretary
for Planning and Evaluation of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
(HHS). The Manpower Demonstration Research Corporation, in collaboration
with Case Western Reserve University, conducted the research and analysis
and prepared this final report. The Cuyahoga study was designed to inform
local administrators and policy analysts about the circumstances of families
leaving welfare. Specifically, the study was designed to address the following
key questions:
- Who are the welfare leavers, and what are their background characteristics?
How do pre-TANF leavers compare with Post-TANF leavers?
- What are the earnings and employment experiences of pre- and post-TANF
welfare leavers?
- To what extent do pre- and post-TANF leavers return to welfare? What
public and other supports do leavers rely on after they stop receiving
cash assistance?
- What is the level of material
well-being of post-TANF welfare leavers? What are their income sources,
and what types of hardship do they experience?
To address these questions, the research focused on the post-exit experiences
of two groups of welfare leavers: a pre-TANF group of leavers
who exited welfare in quarter 3 of 1996 and a post-TANF group
who exited welfare in quarter 3 of 1998. Cases of all single, female adult
parents that closed in quarter 3 of 1996 and 1998 and did not reopen within
two consecutive months of closing were included in this study. This definition
of a welfare leaver was adopted by most of the grantees funded by HHS to
undertake leavers studies.
Outcomes were examined for approximately 6,151 adult welfare leavers. Administrative
data were used to track welfare leavers for a total of nine quarters, including
four quarters pre- exit, the quarter of exit, and four quarters post-exit.
The welfare administrative records were the main source of data for selected
background characteristics of welfare leavers, as well as monthly AFDC/TANF,
Food Stamp, and Medicaid receipt. Wage files were obtained to examine pre-
and post-exit employment rates and earnings patterns for the leavers.
To supplement the administrative records analysis, in-depth interviews were
conducted with a sample of 306 TANF leavers who left cash assistance in
quarter 3 of 1998. These interviews were conducted approximately 14 to 21
months after sample members exited welfare in 1998. The survey focused on
topics that cannot be examined from administrative records alone. For example,
the survey data on reasons for leaving welfare and reasons for returning
to welfare supplement the administrative records analysis of welfare exits
and returns. Further, the survey also provides detailed information on leavers’
job characteristics, income sources, housing circumstances, and material
well-being. An 80 percent response rate was achieved on the survey.
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Funders
This research was funded by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation, under grant 98ASPE305A. The findings and conclusions presented in this report do not represent the official positions of any federal or state agency.
The findings and conclusions presented in this report do not necessarily represent the official positions
or policies of the funders.
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