Childfare : A New Direction for Welfare Reform

Abstract

In August 1996, President Clinton signed the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act, fulfilling his campaign promise to "end welfare as we know it". The legislation replaces the six-decade-old Aid To Families With Dependent Children programme (AFDC) with so-called workfare under which recipient parents may no longer receive financial assistance indefinitely. Instead, they must obtain employment or other means of support within two years, after which benefits are reduced or cease entirely. There is broad consensus that workfare is a step in the right direction. This paper challenges that consensus. The programme will intensify the plight of welfare children and deepen the economic problems of America in future years. We propose instead a programme that also promotes the work ethic as a basic premise of reform, but that seeks to reduce welfare rolls by making the education and development of assisted children the central obligation of AFDC parents.