LAST month, President Donald Trump issued an executive order directing federal agencies to find ways to add new work requirements to welfare programmes and strengthen those that exist. He said that a bipartisan welfare reform made in 1996 had made progress in ending “long-term government independence” but that welfare designed to help families often still had the opposite effect, trapping many, “especially children, in poverty.” Tying welfare more closely to work would, the president said, “increase self-sufficiency, well-being and economic mobility.”
For some, perhaps. But it will also prevent welfare programmes from targeting many of the families who need them most. Indeed, this approach helps explain America’s comparatively poor performance in lifting children out of poverty.
A new paper shows how effective America’s welfare programmes are at ameliorating the effects of poverty on children. Its authors, Hilary W. Hoynes, and Diane Whitmore Schanzenbach, both...Continue reading
Source: United States https://ift.tt/2IZZTnu
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