centrists: how many lives have been bettered by welfare reform?

How're we doing?

:D

:shrug:

I don't know the stats, but I've personally worked with at least 20 families who have been "bettered" by welfare reform.

Due to TANF funding of families first, they are now fairly good parents. They all have gotten high school degrees, and they all have been employed and are bringing in more income than they were on welfare.

At least half of them are now making significantly more, with full benefits, and four are making over 50k/year (2.5X the per capitia income in my state)

Pre-welfare reform, the resources such as ongoing Medicaid, childcare, etc. wouldn't have been available, so for these people it has had a definate upside.

Every reform has its success stories and the kind you describe are important to note because with the next attempt to help people to self-sufficiency these are "lessons learned." Attaching supportive assistance was a direct result of lessons learned on earlier welfare reforms. My family was better off than most in my community but we benefited as did other children of AFDC/ADC families from Model Cities, CDBG, JOBS, JTPA, etc. None of us bootstrapped on our own. I also know quite a few who stayed in poverty and never found the way out.

TANF came along at a time when the economy was booming and that made it far more successful than it would be if launched today. I tend to think that we've seen most of the success stories under current guidelines. It's time to look for modifications to help those with more barriers to self-sufficiency. IMHO the model is too rigid as it stands now.

Was the effect on African Americans.The truth of the matter is that white people got a majority of the funds put into welfare but it did have a residual effect of hurting the African American entrepenurial class.There were more black owned businesses before welfare came about.

I do think that tightening the standards to receive welfare was correct before Bushco came into office because while there has always been a history of pandering to corporations and the wealthy in this country it hasnt been on anything close to this level since the 19th century and the robberbarons.Now the cards are stacked even more against them.



Id like to see more programs in inner-cities that teach young people how to start their own business and not have to look only for dead end jobs if they arent at the top of their class or exceptional.That isnt a requirement to start a business.Hard work and determination is and there are plenty of people in the African American community among others who are poor that fit that description and deserve a chance.

37 million Americans live in poverty. Welfare reform has cut the welfare rolls, due to the time limits, but the poverty rate is increasing. Is it really lifting many families up?

From my perspective, it has nothing to do with welfare, it’s about mentality. The well being of a society is a relative distinct reflection of who you are.

who was a single parent at a very young age and I will say this,welfare needs to be identified as a road to work.Single mothers(the majority of welfare recipients)need government paid for education,child care and money to get them on their feet.I have known some "welfare mothers" in my life and not one of them was happy being there,but some never got off the dole.It is a debilitating way to live.I think those who argue that lifelong welfare should never be questioned for able bodied people have never lived close to that experience.If the purpose of welfare is not to become self sufficient than you create families that are living as dysfunctional people in a functional world and they know it.I don't understand the fear behind accepting that a good part of a persons self esteem comes from being able to take care of themselves and their families,I know mine did.There should not be this much hand wringing over the need to make welfare a start to a self sufficient life.To not acknowledge this is to degrade the very people we are trying to help.

I have always been against welfare being permanent for people who are able to work and can find work, which is why I'm mostly in favor of Clinton's Welfare Reform act (but even Clinton said he wasn't 100% supportive of it, but signed it anyway because he didn't think the Republicans would budge any more than they already did; Clinton vetoed 2 previous Welfare reform bills passed by the Republican congress).

I too had a child at a young age. Just what were my options if there was not welfare? I worked before, I worked after. I don't know if anyone other then another single mother knows the stark terror when you have to leave your job? The terror about rent and food?

Wow, now look at it. I wonder if they will become criminalized?

Before welfare reform I had success stories of battered women who went on to college and got good jobs, which they still have. They received financial assistance and child care assistance. Without that help, they'd either still be on or would would have needed help for longer periods of time. At the initiation of welfare reform in our area, I was at a meeting where at top welfare official in the area said, "Our philosophy is any job is better than no job." And I asked, "Any job that pays less than minimum wage? Any job that violates health or safety rules? Any job that discriminates against women or minorities in pay or responsibility? Any job is better than non job?" And she replied, "Well, no, I didn't mean that." And I responded, "Well, then you'd better change your philosophy."

I have no problem with real welfare reform that is truly designed to help move people on welfate to work. But then we need adequate transportation assistance, adequate child care---including in particular sick child care (more low-income people lose their jobs because of sick children than any other reason), a true opportunity for education to lead to living wage jobs, more mentoring, more job coaching." Most welfare reform assistance consists of helping people learn how to fill out a job application and sending them out to apply, and then criticizing where they apply.

It is interesting, when welfare reform went into place, the economy was booming, so welfare reform got lots of credit for helping people move from welfare to work. But frankly, as some posters have already noted, most people don't want to be on welfare, so if they can find a job they take it. The folks who worked in job placement programs told me there jobs were really hard, because the people who weren't working, were the people with really significant barriers to employment.

And I was a meeting last week where folks were talking about living wage jobs to be sure one parent could stay home because kids are really needing their parents to be around, and I thought about all the single parent families who have no choice.

I strongly support Welfare Reform, it's the welfare deform that's been passing as reform that I oppose.

and maybe the simple answer here is to not make it an either or situation.A mother who works in a low paying job should be able to be subsidized through the welfare program and not be "punished" for being unable to find a good paying job with benefits.How hard would it be to come up with a fair financial equation for making sure that a woman can work and still be compensated and insured by the govt.?
Eventually,most people would find their way out of the low paying strata and not need the services.Some will not and have to be subsidized throughout their lifetimes.I can life with a system like that and I bet most americans would consider it a fair alternative.