Most former TANF recipients who find work are working at jobs that pay between $5.50 and $7.00 per hour. Median monthly earnings amount to $1,149, which is below the official poverty line for a family of three. Many former recipients lose income even if their cash earnings rise, because they lose benefits.
A Government Accounting Office survey of the effects of welfare reform in seven states found that between 19% and 30% of families returned to welfare soon after leaving. In the same seven states, between 29% and 39% of the adults who left welfare had not found employment.
A national study found that one-fourth of former welfare recipients moved because they couldn't pay their rent. In most states the median monthly fair market cost of housing for a family of three is considerably higher than the entire TANF grant. An Atlanta survey found that one-half of homeless families with children interviewed in shelters had lost TANF benefits in the previous 12 months.
One-third of those who left TANF had to cut the size of or skip meals. In Illinois, 63% of employed former welfare recipients reported that there were times when they could not buy needed food. In 1997, among families who had left welfare, only 42% of those eligible for food stamps were receiving them. Over half a million legal immigrants remain ineligible for food stamps due to the 1996 welfare law.
Nearly 75% of employed former recipients in Chicago were working nights, weekends, or rotating shifts--times when it is nearly impossible to find child care. In California, 200,000 families are on waiting lists for subsidized childcare.
Less than one-fourth of those moving from welfare to work are covered by health benefits.
