Work, Family and Poverty In August 1996, the United States Congress passed sweeping changes in welfare policy. The changes ended the federal guarantee of income support for poor single mothers and their children, replacing that guarantee with block grants to the states, time limits, and work requirements for both food stamps and income support. Our studies examined the special challenges that parents transitioning from welfare to work faced while trying to care for their family’s health and well being. We examined the relationship between welfare and caregiving burden. In a sample of 2,261 working mothers, we found that mothers who had been on welfare were significantly more likely than mothers who had never been on welfare to have at least 1 child with asthma and at least 1 child with a chronic condition from whom they need time to care. 14% of working mothers who received welfare for more than 2 years and 11% who received welfare for 2 years or less had a child with asthma, as compared with 7% of mothers who had never received welfare. Additionally, 41% of mothers who received welfare for more than 2 years and 32% who received welfare for 2 years or less had at least 1 child with a chronic condition whose health and development needs had to be addressed; the corresponding rate for mothers who had never received welfare was 21% More than 1 in 4 mothers who had received welfare for more than 2 years lacked flexible schedules and paid leave for the majority of the time they worked In addressing their children’s health and educational needs, all parents in the labor force need to find ways to meet the many unpredictable time demands which these needs create. Because there is no universally available paid family leave for employees, parents often must use their own paid sick and vacation leave to address their children’s needs. Thus, the availability of paid sick and vacation leave is a vital resource for employed parents. If newly-employed former welfare recipients are employed in jobs that do not provide sick and/or vacation leave, they will be faced with serious constraints in caring for their children’s health and educational needs. We compared the amount of paid leave available to employed mothers who have never been on welfare with the amount of paid leave available to employed mothers who have received welfare in the past. We found that: Mothers who returned to work from welfare were significantly more likely than other working mothers to lack the benefits they needed to succeed at while caring for their children. Additionally, those mothers who had been on welfare the longest (5+ years) before returning to work were even more likely to lack paid leave. While 15% of mothers who had never received income support have neither sick leave nor paid vacation leave, 33% of women who had received income support for more than 60 months lacked both kinds of leave. Only 17% of women who had received income support for more than 60 months had at least 4 weeks total leave, whereas 42% of women never receiving income support had adequate benefits. For more information, please see: Earle A and Heymann SJ. What Causes Job Loss Among Former Welfare Recipients: The Role of Family Health Problems. JAMWA. 2002; 57:5-10. Heymann, SJ and Earle, A. The Impact of Welfare Reform on Parents’Ability to Care for Their Children’s Health. American Journal of Public Health, 1999; 89(4): 502-505. Heymann, SJ and Earle, A. The Work-Family Balance: What Hurdles Are Parents Leaving Welfare Likely to Confront? Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, 1998; 17(2): 313-321. Back to U.S. Initiatives
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