Open AccessImpoverished Women With Children and No Welfare Benefits: The Urgency of Researching Failures of the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families Program
Author(s) -
Eugenie Hildebrandt,
Patricia E. Stevens
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
american journal of public health
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.284
H-Index - 264
eISSN - 1541-0048
pISSN - 0090-0036
DOI - 10.2105/ajph.2006.106211
Subject(s) - welfare , poverty , welfare reform , population , aid to families with dependent children , cash , public assistance , economic growth , public health , safety net , social policy , environmental health , demographic economics , medicine , business , political science , economics , nursing , finance , law
In the United States, the numbers of impoverished women with children and no cash safety net are increasing and constitute an emerging population. Many have exhausted cash benefits from Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, the work-based welfare program that replaced Aid to Families With Dependent Children in 1996. We examine empirical evidence about poverty and use of welfare programs in the United States, jobs for women on welfare, the consequences of leaving welfare, health disparities disproportionate to those of the general population, and outcomes for children of needy families. It is important that public health researchers investigate the experiences of the families for whom Temporary Assistance for Needy Families has failed.