Americans say mandatory work must form part of any welfare programme

June 18, 2002

Free Market Foundation

A Bush administration report to the U.S. Congress today says that welfare reforms enacted in 1996 have helped lower Americas poverty rate.

According to the Department of Health and Human Services study:

Four years after the reform law was enacted in 1996, 5.1 million fewer Americans were dependent on welfare a 40 percent drop.

The number of families on welfare has dropped 2.4 million, or 54 percent, most of which consist of single mothers with children.

The percentage of Americans living in poverty below $17,463 annually for a family of four in 2000 declined from 13.7 percent of the U.S. population in 1996 to 11.3 percent in 2000.

That is the lowest poverty rate in 23 years.

Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson said mandating work for welfare recipients is their best ticket out of poverty. ”The study clearly shows that work must be at the centre of any meaningful welfare reform,” he said.

Source: Richard Benedetto, Bush to use report to bolster welfare reform Study shows mandating work reduces poverty, official says , USA Today, June 3, 2002.

For text http://www.usatoday.com/usatonline/20020603/4159209s.htm
For more on the Effects of Welfare Reform http://www.ncpa.org/iss/wel/

FMF Policy Bulletin\11 June 2002