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Number of Mothers on Welfare Decreases, Census Bureau Reports
The number of mothers participating in the primary public assistance
program for families decreased by about 50 percent between 1996 and 2000
from 3 million to 1.5 million, according to data collected since the
passage of welfare reform and released today by the Commerce Department's
Census Bureau.
"This report provides initial insight into how the actions of mothers
receiving public assistance corresponded with the intent of welfare reform
in the context of economic growth to end long-term dependence on
government benefits," said Census Bureau analyst Pete Fronczek about the
report, Work and Work-Related Activities of Mothers Receiving Temporary
Assistance to Needy Families: 1996, 1998 and 2000. [pdf]
In 1996, about 8 percent of all mothers were participants in Aid to
Families with Dependent Children (AFDC), which was replaced by Temporary
Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) that year. The proportion on TANF had
fallen to about 4 percent by 2000.
Some highlights from the report:
- Median monthly earnings of TANF participants increased significantly,
from $472 in 1996 to $738 in 2000.
- Of TANF mothers who worked in 1998, 2-in-3 did so voluntarily while
the other third said they were required by the welfare office to work.
- About 278,000 mothers receiving TANF were in training in 1998;
nearly 3-in-4 were learning skills for computer, clerical, machinery or
other vocational jobs. About 62 percent of these mothers also received
training in how to find jobs.
- About 1-in-4 mothers on TANF who were working or in job training
received a subsidy for child care in 1998.
- About 1-in-5 TANF mothers received their welfare benefits by using a
debit card at an ATM in 1998.
A second report, with tables, released today, Fertility and Program
Participation in the United States: 1996, [pdf] provides information
not only on mothers participating in AFDC, but also those in the Food
Stamp Program; the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women,
Infants and Children; and Medicaid. This report is an update of three
earlier Census Bureau reports based on mothers' fertility and program
participation in 1993.
"These are benchmark data on the fertility, marital status and household
characteristics of mothers who participated in at least one assistance
program in 1996, the year welfare reform was enacted," said Jane Dye, the
report's author.
The report said more than 1-in-5 mothers (8 million) in the childbearing
ages of 15-to-44 received public assistance from at least one of four
public assistance programs in 1996. About 2-in-5 mothers with infants were
receiving assistance.
Among teenage mothers, 70 percent received at least one form of public
assistance in 1996. Average fertility was higher among participants (2.4
births per mother) than nonparticipants (2.1).
Nearly 6-in-10 mothers participating in at least one assistance program
in 1996 had a nonmarital first birth, compared with 1-in-4 mothers not
receiving assistance.
Both reports use data from the Survey of Income and Program
Participation. Statistics from sample surveys are subject to sampling
and nonsampling error.
available free from Adobe.
