Work is not Enough
Associate Professor Kathryn Edin
Institute for Policy Research, Northwestern University, USA
Contact Email:   k-edinnorthwestern.edu

Over the last decade, the United States has embarked on one of the boldest social experiments in its history. Under its reformed welfare law, poor families with dependent children are no longer automatically entitled to public financial assistance. Instead, the federal government mandates States to impose stringent work requirements and to limit welfare receipt to 60 months over the lifetime. In the aftermath of the reform, unprecedented numbers of welfare recipients have left the assistance rolls and gone to work. Though many laud the reform and consider it an unqualified success, others point to problems. These include: the large number of former recipients who remain poor or near poor and have no health benefits; the inexplicably low take-up of childcare subsidies and transitional Medicaid and Food Stamp benefits among those workers who should remain eligible; and the large numbers who must work evening or night shifts, or in temporary or seasonal jobs. Most worrying of all is the small yet significant minority who have left welfare but have no visible source of economic support.

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