Assessing the New Federalism is a multiyear Urban Institute project designed to analyze the devolution of responsibility for social programs from the federal government to the states, focusing primarily on health care, income security, employment and training programs, and social services. Alan Weil is the project director. Researchers monitor program changes and fiscal developments. In collaboration with Child Trends, the project studies changes in family well-being. The project aims to provide timely, nonpartisan information to inform public debate and to help state and local decisionmakers carry out their new responsibilities more effectively.

Key components of the project include a household survey, studies of policies in 13 states, and a database with information on all states and the District of Columbia, available at the Urban Institute's Web site. This paper is one in a series of discussion papers analyzing information from these and other sources.

The project has received funding from the Annie E. Casey Foundation, the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation, the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, the McKnight Foundation, the Commonwealth Fund, the Stuart Foundation, the Weingart Foundation, the Fund for New Jersey, the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation, the Joyce Foundation, and the Rockerfeller Foundation.

The nonpartisan Urban Institute publishes studies, reports, and books on timely topics worthy of public consideration. The views expressed are those of the authors and should not be attributed to the Urban Institute, its trustees, or its funders.

Work-Related Activities and Limitations of 1997 Welfare Recipients

Federal welfare reform dramatically shifted the focus of welfare from cash assistance to work. The new Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program requires nearly all cash assistance recipients to move into "work activities" within two years in order to maintain benefits, and benefits end for most recipients after five years regardless of work experience. Work activities can include paid employment, subsidized employment, unpaid work, up to 12 months of education and training, and six weeks of job search activity. While some states were already operating "work first" programs that encouraged or required large shares of their caseloads to move into paid employment quickly before federal welfare reform began, many others were operating programs consistent with federal Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) rules that exempted many aid recipients from any work activity and focused on education and training activities for those who were not exempt.

Given the new focus on work nationwide, policymakers have a strong interest in understanding current work-related activities and work limitations of adults currently receiving welfare. Some part of the caseload may require substantial resources to help them overcome obstacles to employment such as low education levels, the lack of any recent work experience, personal health limitations, and the health limitations of persons in their care. Policymakers also need to assess the likelihood that new work requirements and time limits present realistic goals for all cash recipients.

This policy brief uses data from the National Survey of America¢s Families (NSAF) to examine the work characteristics of parents receiving cash assistance during 1997, a year representing a transition to the new work-focused system. We examine three questions:

• To what extent are current recipients already engaged in work activities?
• To what extent do current recipients report personal or family characteristics that could limit work activity?
• Do patterns of work activities and the incidence of obstacles vary across states?

This information provides an early look at the ability of recent welfare recipients to move into work activities and meet the goals set by the new legislation. It also provides a sense as to whether some states will require more resources than others to move their current caseload into work activities. Many hypothesize that as states move farther along in welfare reform, their caseload will become increasingly disadvantaged because those most ready to work will be the first to leave welfare. The more-disadvantaged part of the caseload will require new programs and resources to assist them in making the transition to work. One way to test this hypothesis is to examine whether states with "work first" programs prior to TANF or with the steepest declines in caseloads prior to the NSAF interviews have more-disadvantaged caseloads than states less focused on these types of reforms prior to the federal legislation.

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Disclaimer: The nonpartisan Urban Institute publishes studies, reports, and books on timely topics worthy of public consideration. The views expressed are those of the authors and should not be attributed to the Urban Institute, its trustees, or its funders.