The Welfare Reform Law

Since the Welfare reform law was introduced in 1996 it has impacted American society greatly. The new welfare policy, named the Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF), replaced the Aid to Family and Dependent Children (AFDC) program; they have five known differences that only affect the ones who need the assistance. Critics argue that the TANF has negatively impacted the society while some argue that it has not. Linda Burnham, author of “Welfare Reform, Family Hardship & Woman of Color,” asserts that “welfare reform has increased the hardship faced by many women leaving welfare for work and their movement into low-wage jobs, exposes them to higher level of housing insecurities, homelessness, food insecurity, and hunger.” She also argues that women of color “are especially vulnerable to the negative impact of welfare reform” (38).

TANF and AFDC differ in many ways: 1) TANF provides a block grant to individual states, 2) there is no longer a guarantee of cash assistant to all eligible individuals, 3) recipients may receive benefits for no more than five years over a life time, 4) recipients must adhere to work requirement to receive benefits, and 5) current and future legal immigrants are denied benefits until citizenship (O’Campo & Rojas-Smith 421). The fact that TANF is restricted for a maximum of five years has adverse consequences for the needy. Five years is often too short for recipients to gain independence.

The reality that exists for these individuals is different than that which is assumed by many. People assume that recipients are lazy and that they do not want to work, or that they are very promiscuous women who have children in order to continue receiving help from the government. The realities for these...

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...ter, because in order to receive daycare help you must be working. A lot of times this still leaves the mother in a bind, due to the lack of hours she works and the lack of support she will receive. At times the mother has to choose a low quality daycare which only makes it worse on her children; they may not endure the proper amount of attention needed as well as nutrition.

Works Cited

Albelda, Randy. “Fallacies of Welfare-to-Work Policies”. Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science. Vol. 577, JSTOR Sept. 2001. 66-78.

O’Campo, Patricia “Welfare Reform and Women’s Health: Review of the Literature and Implications for State Policy.” Journal of Public Health Policy. Vol. 19.No. 4 JSTOR (1998), 420-46.

Harris, Kathleen. “Work and Welfare Among Single Mothers in Poverty.” The American Journal of Sociology. Vol. 99 Sept. 1993. 317-52.