The New World of Welfare - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0815710119 ISBN 13: 9780815710110

Publisher: Brookings Institution Press, 2001

Synopsis

Congress must reauthorize the sweeping 1996 welfare reform legislation by October 1, 2002. A number of issues that were prominent in the 1995-96 battle over welfare reform are likely to resurface in the debate over reauthorization. Among those issues are the five-year time limit, provisions to reduce out-of-wedlock births, the adequacy of child care funding, problems with Medicaid and food stamp receipt by working families, and work requirements. Funding levels are also certain to be controversial. Fiscal conservatives will try to lower grant spending levels, while states will seek to maintain them and gain additional discretion in the use of funds. Finally, a movement to encourage states to promote marriage among low-income families is already taking shape.

The need for reauthorization presents an opportunity to assess what welfare reform has accomplished and what remains to be done. The New World of Welfare is an attempt to frame the policy debate for reauthorization, and to inform the policy discussion among the states and at the federal level, especially by drawing lessons from research on the effects of welfare reform. In the book, a diverse set of welfare experts—liberal and conservative, academic and nonacademic—engage in rigorous debate on topics ranging from work experience programs, to job availability, to child well-being, to family formation. In order to provide a comprehensive overview of the current state of research on welfare reform, the contributors cover subjects including work and wages, effects of reform on family income and poverty, the politics of conservative welfare reform, sanctions and time limits, financial work incentives for low-wage earners, the use of medicaid and food stamps, welfare-to-work, child support, child care, and welfare reform and immigration.

Preparation of the volume was supported by funds from the Annie E. Casey Foundation and the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation.

About this title

About the Author

Rebecca Blank is dean of the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy at the University of Michigan. She was senior staff economist with the Council of Economic Advisers during the first Bush administration and was appointed to the council under President Clinton. Ron Haskins is a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and a senior consultant at the Annie E. Casey Foundation. A former adviser to the President for welfare policy, he spent 14 years on the staff of the House Ways and Means Human Resources Subcommittee, first as welfare counsel to the Republican staff, then as the subcommittee's staff director. He is the author of Work over Welfare: The Inside Story of the 1996 Welfare Reform Law (Brookings, 2006) and coeditor, with Rebecca Blank, of The New World of Welfare (Brookings, 2002).

Review

"A coherent portrait of contemporary welfare. Their inspired format pairs reseachers of opposing ideologies in papers and responses, which sift the numbingly complex research into clear areas of consensus and contention.... brilliantly clear about the confusing new world of welfare." —Corine Hegland, National Journal reporting intern, National Journal, 5/11/2002

"'The New World of Welfare' is an invaluable and much appreciated contribution to the on-going municipal, state and national debates on efforts to redesign and implement effective welfare and 'workfare' programs." — The Bookwatch, 2/1/2002

"Haskins and Blank have effectively summarized the key findings and issues in the upcoming debates about reauthorization of welfare reform legislation." —Bruce A. Weber, Oregon State University, Poverty Research News, 11/1/2001

"This book provides a compendium of valuable information about welfare reform. The books is undoubtedly one of the most comprehensive and infomative accounts of welfare reform currently available." — Journal of Sociology and Social Welfare

"The New World of Welfare has something of value for just about everyone interested in the welfare reform debate. Its vividly written chapters and vibrant commentary will serve as an invaluable resource for assessing the merits of welfare reform issues for many years to come." —Philip Robins, University of Miami, Industrial and Labor Relations Review

Edition details

• Publisher: Brookings Institution Press
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 0815710119
• ISBN 13: 9780815710110
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 531
• Editor: Haskins Ron, Rebecca M. Blank INDUSTRIAL AND LABOR RELATIONS REVIEW