The MFIP evaluation addressed four major issues that remain on the minds of decision-makers:
 

• What can states do to minimize the chances that long-term welfare recipients reach a welfare time limit without any way to support themselves?
   
• How should policymakers help low-income workers stay in their jobs and provide for their families?
   
• How can social policies avoid penalizing marriage?
   
• How have the kinds of policy changes states have made since the 1996 federal welfare reforms affected families and children?

Integrating policies that would become the backbone of Minnesota’s current statewide welfare program, MFIP was distinguished from the traditional welfare program by these key features:
 

• A requirement that long-term recipients work or participate in employment-focused services
   
• Financial work incentives for recipients who worked
   
• Payment of working recipients’ child care costs directly to providers (rather than reimbursement of recipients later)
   
• Simpler public assistance rules and procedures that combined different programs into one and provided food stamps as part of the cash welfare grant

MDRC’s evaluation of MFIP examined the program’s implementation, costs, and effects on economic, family, and child outcomes.