A Thematic Literature Review : Low Income Single Mothers

This sort of rhetoric cannot possibly encompass every family that needs help paying for child care. Not every person seeking help for child care is single. Sometimes it maybe two parents working low paying jobs. Low income workers average $8.24 and with living wages in the D.C. area being $24.92 leaving double-earners, falling short of the living wage by 34% (Caplinger D.,2013). The disparity in pay is clearly a reason why some families choose to keep one parent home in combination to child care

First, if the government were to make welfare eligibility stricter it would impede on the attempts of those below the poverty line trying to find a job. TANF ?can free up additional dollars for work related expenses and other basic needs and thus aid families? efforts to move from welfare to work? (Sard and Daskal). It is needed to help pay for those ?necessities that often accompany employment, such as additional clothing and food costs, child care, and transportation to and from work? (Sard and Daskal). The program does not just hand out money, but provides the aid needed to ?achieve self-sufficiency? through employment (Cohn). Without the additional money for clothing, food costs, child care, and transportation, an individual would not be able to maintain employment and abide by the TANF requirements. It is evident that TANF is necessary for those individuals that live in poverty and are seeking employment. If the requirements were to become stricter, the number of the employed and those living below the poverty line would increase simultaneously.

The effects of the 1996 welfare reform bill helped declined caseloads on the social and economic well-being of fragile families, single mothers, and children. Although, the welfare reform was documented for making several positive changes such as reducing poverty rates, lowering the out of-wedlock childbearing, and formulated a better family structure, it is undeniable that poverty remained high among single mothers and their children. The reality of the matter was that most welfare recipients experienced serious barriers to maintain a stable employment due to their lack of skills, not having anyone available to take care of their young children when they leave for work as well as not gaining long-time employment with decent pay to help foster the family. As a result, most poor women and children were faced with the instability of economic and social future as welfare eligibility exhausted their efforts of supporting their families.

"The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act of 1996, or the welfare reform law established the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF). TANF is a block grant program designed to make dramatic reforms in the nation's welfare system."(http://www.acf.dhls.gov/HyperNews/get/opre2/wtwreg.html) This grant became effective as of July 1, 1997. This grant replaced the Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) program. It also replaced several other programs such as Emergency Assistance or EA program. The goal of TANF is to promote family responsibility and self- sufficiency. This program will provide this by placing welfare recipients into the workforce. Under the TANF program assistance is given to individuals for a limited time. When that time period has expired, it is the State's

The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act also shifted the spotlight of welfare from family maintenance through government-supported financial assistance to family economic self-sufficiency through paid employment. This federal welfare reform policy known as TANF encourages employment and personal responsibility by mandating states to provide financial benefits to families on a temporary basis, having recipients participate in a work requirement while receiving aid, and providing incentives for recipients to transition off welfare. The programs name indicated its purpose and the social message to the recipient.

The Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program is intended to assist families that are living in poverty to achieve self-sufficiency by providing the family with cash benefits. The TANF program has several characteristics of early U.S. social welfare programs. Although today, the policies regarding the TANF program are much different than the early programs and changes continue to occur to change the TANF policy. Today the TANF policy provides funding sources, strict income limits, and has incorporated employment programs to promote self-sufficiency of individuals that receive benefits, to name just a few.

They hope that the recipients will work towards someday leaving the program. While this is the goal, many recipients will not attempt to find work or the job is consider too low paying for them. Therefore, they continue to be a welfare recipient or are forced out of the program. There have been many changes in the welfare system and how to deal with the poor and less fortune. If you are having a difficult time paying your medical bills, housing and most important food for yourself and your family, you are definitely not alone even in 2014. Temporary assistance for needy families TANF replaced the traditional welfare programs known as Aid to Families with Dependent Children ( AFDC) . The welfare system would be an unlikely model for anyone designing a welfare system 1996. The type and amount of aid available to individuals and dependent children varies from state to state. Failure to comply with work requirements could result in loss of benefits . Current

North Carolina’s Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program is one of the primary forms of Medicaid. TANF is also called Work First, which is based on the premise that parents have a responsibility to support themselves and their children. Through Work First, parents can get short-term training and other services to help them become employed and self-sufficient later on, but the responsibility is theirs to find the actual job. Most families have two years or less to move off Work First Family Assistance and after that they are completely on their own. According to a document found on Civic Report, the sixty percent of the rise employment among single mothers is due to the fact the

When TANF first started, there was an unknown decline in the number of families receiving cash assistance, and an unknown increase in the share of single mothers working, more in the ones who had less than a high school education. There was a decline in caseloads at about 60% over the past 18 years. In 1990 the was a fall of poverty rate among families, but started rising again in 2000. The incline on deep poverty has grown a lot from 1996-2013. It has grown from 2.7 million to 3 million. Employment in single mothers improved significantly in the early years of TANF, however they started declining more than a decade ago. The percentage went from 51% in 1992, to 76% in 2000, but fell back to 63% in 2013. While some people who left TANF went to work, others just left because they stopped because of they time limits or because they did not reach the requirements. There has been research that shows that these have barriers such

A social problem is an undesirable condition that affects individuals or groups of people. Single mothers’ is the population that I will be discussing in this paper. Welfare reform and its impact on single mothers’ well-being is the social problem that I’ve chosen to analyze. Single mothers that are welfare recipients often go through different experiences that affect their well-being. However, the Welfare reform changes have been a factor that has contributed to their well-being positively and negatively. The goal of the reform is to cut down on social spending

The time limit on welfare would not affect the already employed single mothers as much as it would the unemployed mothers. It was found that in certain cases single mothers who were unemployed were without a job not out of personal desire to continue on governmental assistance, they just could not find a reliable job that provided them with their necessary needs in relation to the responsibilities they had with their children. A solution to the single mothers on welfare factor would be that certain applicants under critical circumstances can file for an extension in welfare, if they meet set requirements.

While another review of families who left welfare and are working, tend to earn minimum wage eight dollars and twenty-five cents per hour. Many families left welfare not due to obtaining employment, but because they either fail to comply, or reached their sixty month time limit and was terminated from the program. While others experienced barriers such as: housing, child-care, domestic violence, learning disabilities and mental and physical illness. One of the future challenges will be to address the barriers facing TANF families, in order to prepare them for success in the workplace. The research published in the past used two design models. They both lack recent data specific to Illinois and various variables make it hard to formulate a clear outcome on the impact of Work First programs on Illinois TANF

Access to child-care, financial aid support and a close networks of significant others on low-income single mothers' access

Edin and Lein wanted to discover the surviving strategies of single mothers who are on welfare or work on a low-waged job. They argue “neither welfare nor low wage work gives single mothers enough income to meet their families’ expenses” (253). To find out the set of survival strategies of single mothers to make ends meet Edin and Lein interviewed 379 low income single mothers. They chose their interviewees from different cities, different aged group, and different ethnic background. Most mothers who are on welfare wanted to find a job and be out of the welfare but the primary problem that single mothers face was that “family economics”. With the minimum wage income it was impossible for the single mothers to bring the ends meet. Neither working nor being on welfare was enough to survive therefore mothers who are on welfare supported their budget by generating substantial supplementary income. Edin and Lein states that “welfare recipients generated extra income by working at side jobs, obtaining cash from network members, community groups and local charities”. They also get cash help from the family members, child’s fathers, and from a boyfriend. Because they were afraid to lose welfare benefits they did not tell anyone about the extra income they have. To survive they needed both the welfare benefits and the extra income. It was very difficult to establish a trust with the interviewees in the beginning because they were afraid if they talk about it they might lose the

In 1996, the federal government came to the conclusion that the welfare system should be placed in the hands of the state governments. With this in mind, the Temporary Aid to Needy Families was established. The TANF is more governed towards getting people back into the workforce by requiring recipients to engage in job searches, and participate in community service. The previous phase of welfare was more for providing people with capital in the hopes that he/she would use it to get back on his/her feet. The TANF is still known as welfare to the public (“Government Spends”). In the new welfare program,