From 1996 to 2002, the total number of welfare recipients in the nation declined by 58 percent ( DHHS 2003b, II–5). 1 The law continued and extended an upswell of state initiatives, with dramatic results. The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 ( PRWORA) replaced welfare as the country then knew it-Aid to Families with Dependent Children ( AFDC)-with Temporary Assistance for Needy Families ( TANF). Thirty percent of recent adult women awardees also came from families with links to TANF or Aid to Families with Dependent Children. One-third of the children receiving SSI benefits in December 2002, whose awards had been granted in the previous 24 months, had come from TANF families. Overlap and interaction between the two programs is substantial: in 2002, 17.1 percent of all TANF cases included an adult or a child recipient of the SSI benefits. Nationally, between 19, the average gain for a family of three from transferring one child to the SSI program grew by 3.8 percent (in constant dollars). Trends in TANF benefits show an increase in the gain for recipients from doing so. Welfare reform has increased the financial incentives for state governments to promote movement by recipients of assistance from Temporary Assistance for Needy Families to the Supplemental Security Income program.
Additionally, although most states have formal policies to exempt persons with disabilities from various requirements, studies of results in the states have consistently found that families with reported disabilities or health problems were sanctioned at a higher rate than were other families.
Not surprisingly, surveys have consistently found that TANF recipients with disabilities were substantially less likely to be working than those without disabilities. Because persons with disabilities often have substantial barriers to employment, TANF work requirements and time limits potentially could have a more pronounced effect on them.īecause the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act is intended to encourage through incentives and penalties most welfare recipients to work, two key outcomes reviewed are employment and sanctions for noncompliance with program requirements. The difference in estimates, most of which are based on national surveys, is in part due to differing definitions of disability used in the surveys and possibly also to timing. Various surveys since its enactment show that between 32 percent and 44 percent of TANF recipients of report having impairments or chronic health problems. The enactment of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act in 1996 replaced Aid for Families with Dependent Children with Temporary Assistance for Needy Families ( TANF) and had important implications for persons with disabilities and for the Supplemental Security Income ( SSI) program. The findings and conclusions presented in the Bulletin are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views of the Social Security Administration. Nadel and Wamhoff were at ODIAP at the time this article was written. Mark Nadel is a Visiting Professor at the Georgetown Public Policy Institute Steve Wamhoff is a Senior Policy Associate at the Coalition on Human Needs and Michael Wiseman is a Visiting Scholar in the Office of Disability and Income Assistance Policy ( ODIAP), Office of Policy, Social Security Administration.
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