Divorce: Texas As A Case Study

Divorce is something that affects millions of Americans. When my grandmother got divorced, she was left with little money and no job. She was able to get a job and provide for herself, but with the poverty rates for divorced women being significantly higher than for divorced men, it is a problem in society (Gadalla, 2008). When women feel unable to provide for themselves, and in some cases their children as well, they will likely seek government benefits. This will inevitably cost the taxpayers money. A recent study of Texas showed that 13.8 billion dollars’ worth of government benefits a year was the result of poverty after a divorce (Schramm et al., 2013). It has been found that after a divorce, women are left as the main caregivers

The researchers in this study looked at various types of welfare such as food stamps, Women, Infant, and Children (the nutritional program), and many others. All of these government welfare programs used as a result of divorce cost taxpayers a total of $3.18 billion, 12% of Texas’ budget (Schramm et al., 2013). This article also discusses the possible implications that these statistics may have on future policy. One of the policies suggested in this paper is that the government should allocate money towards assisting couples who seek nonessential divorces and help them resolve their problems (Schramm et al., 2013). The author likens divorce to an illness. It is better to take preventative measures that may stop one from getting sick than it is to treat the symptoms of the illness (Schramm et al.,

This study found that divorced women are four times more likely than men to be in poverty, even though the poverty rates have steadily decreased since 1992 (Gadalla, 2008). The author, Tahany M. Gadalla, attributes the 1997 Amendments to the Divorce Act as the reason why women are poor for a shorter time period now (Gadalla, 2008). These amendments made it so that once a financial agreement was made after a divorce, the amount of child support money would increase. This encourages parents to speedily settle their financial problems (Gadalla, 2008).

A study called “Accelerating Recovery from Poverty: Prevention Effects for Recently Separated Mothers” studies how divorced mothers are best kept out poverty. The researchers tried to see how these mothers fared financially by having one group that went to intervention groups and one that did not. They found that women who attended the intervention sessions were better able to rise out of poverty than those who did not (Forgatch & DeGarmo, 2007). It was also reported that the intervention lead to an increase in the income-to-needs ratio and a decrease in the mother’s stress (Forgatch & DeGarmo,