| The reduction of child poverty should become an explicit goal of
welfare reform. TANF is not successful if families who leave the system
continue to live in poverty. Unfortunately, many families have left
welfare only to join the working poor. Many of the jobs available to
former recipients did not pay enough, nor provide enough hours, to elevate
families from poverty. Those recipients who did not obtain the
prerequisite job skills or education to adapt to changing economic
circumstances are most vulnerable to unemployment, and are likely to need
additional assistance. As the TANF law is currently written, such
assistance will not be available to recipients who have reached their time
limits for benefits. Replacing the implicit goal of caseload reductions
with the explicit goal of poverty reduction would provide an impetus to
develop and implement creative strategies for the long-term decrease in
dependence on government benefits. |
