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 Issue #4 Who Gets Welfare Money? Nearly three out of every four dollars spent on welfare aid to children goes to single-parent families. Not surprising, considering over 80 percent of long-tern child poverty occurs in broken or never-married homes. Federal and state governments spend about $200 billion annually in means-tested aid, with some $149 billion- roughly 74 percent-going to kids in one-parent families. The aid includes a variety of programs such as Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF), the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC), public housing, food stamps, Medicaid, WIC Food Program, Social Security and dozens of other programs. The erosion of marriage and the increase in single-parent families are major causes of child poverty and welfare dependence in the United States. But if welfare reform is not reauthorized this year, there will be no money available to promote and encourage healthy marriage. Millions of families will remain in poverty because government is not addressing its fundamental cause-- out-of-wedlock childbearing and the erosion of marriage.
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Welfare Watch is a regular e-mail update designed to inform the Senate's reauthorization of welfare reform. The 1996 welfare reform law has been a dramatic success, moving welfare dependents to independence, reducing child poverty and increasing employment. Yet the full potential of this reform has not been realized. The House of Representatives has already acted to advance welfare reform. The Senate must take action this year to ensure that welfare reform is sustained and strengthened.
Click here to enter the Welfare and Marriage Briefing Room for additional welfare research Key Papers Increasing Marriage Would Dramatically Reduce Child Poverty "Marriage Plus": Sabotaging the President's Efforts to Promote Healthy Marriage
Welfare
Watch is published by the Domestic Policy Studies Department
of The Heritage Foundation.
Robert
Rector: Senior Research
Fellow
To arrange a welfare policy briefing, please contact Tripp Baird at (202) 608-6070.
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