Content by Keyword: Poverty and Income Dynamics

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Leavers, Stayers, and Cyclers: An Analysis of the

Leavers, Stayers, and Cyclers: An Analysis of the Welfare Caseload

This report looks at the changing nature of the caseload by examining the characteristics and circumstances of three groups: people who leave welfare and stay off for at least a year (leavers), people who stay on welfare persistently (stayers), and people who cycle on and off the rolls (cyclers). The report uses a unique data set consisting of ove
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Transition Events in the Dynamics of Poverty

Transition Events in the Dynamics of Poverty

This project addressed transition events associated with people entering and exiting poverty using data from the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP) and the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID). The study found that poverty entries and exits changed over the past two decades, with an increase in both poverty entries and exits (i.e.,
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Study to Examine UI Eligibility Among Former TANF

Study to Examine UI Eligibility Among Former TANF Recipients: Evidence from New Jersey

This study examines the extent to which former TANF recipients who leave welfare and find jobs would be potentially eligible for Unemployment Insurance (UI) in case of job loss, considering both monetary and nonmonetary eligibility, as well as potential benefit levels. The study also examines how many former TANF recipients who found jobs and even
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Interactions of Workers and Firms in the Low-Wage

Interactions of Workers and Firms in the Low-Wage Labor Market

This research, while directly supported by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation, (grant number 01ASPE372A to the Urban Institute) and by funding from the Rockefeller/Sage Foundation is a part of the U.S. Census Bureau's Longitudinal Employer-Household Dynamics Program (LEHD
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References

Leavers, Stayers, and Cyclers An Analysis of the Welfare Caseload. References

Acs, Gregory, Pamela Loprest, and Tracy Roberts. 2001.  Final Synthesis Report of Findings from ASPE “Leavers” Grants. Washington, DC: The Urban Institute.   Bloom, Dan, Mary Farrell, and Barbara Fink. 2002.  Welfare Time Limits: State Policies, Implementation, and Effects on Families. New York: Manpower Demonstration Research Corpora
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Appendix A

Leavers, Stayers, and Cyclers An Analysis of the Welfare Caseload. Appendix A

Table A1 Stayers and Leavers:  Demographic Characteristics and Barriers to Employment   Characteristics Stayers
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Conclusions

Leavers, Stayers, and Cyclers An Analysis of the Welfare Caseload. Conclusions

This report uses data from several evaluations of welfare-to-work programs to divide the caseload into three groups: leavers, stayers, and cyclers. The study finds that people who leave welfare and stay off long term differ in a range of expected ways from people who stay on welfare persistently. These leavers are more educated, for example, and t
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Results for Individual Programs

Leavers, Stayers, and Cyclers An Analysis of the Welfare Caseload. Results for Individual Programs

There are several reasons to expect that the differences between stayers will differ by program. Programs with generous incentives should encourage people to stay on welfare who would have otherwise left, since they can now earn more and remain eligible for some benefits. Thus, stayers in these programs might be somewhat less disadvantaged than st
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Economic Status

Leavers, Stayers, and Cyclers An Analysis of the Welfare Caseload. Economic Status

Table 11 presents data on income and material hardship for stayers in the program and control groups. Stayers in the program groups were somewhat less likely to be poor, and they were somewhat more likely to have been working at the time of the survey; 28.3 percent of program group stayers reported earnings in the prior month, compared with 21.2 p
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Characteristics

Leavers, Stayers, and Cyclers An Analysis of the Welfare Caseload. Characteristics

Table 10 presents the demographic characteristics and barriers to employment of stayers in the program and control groups. Although the two groups of stayers look similar, a few differences suggest that program group stayers are slightly more disadvantaged than control group stayers.
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How Have Welfare Programs Affected the

Leavers, Stayers, and Cyclers An Analysis of the Welfare Caseload. How Have Welfare Programs Affected the Composition of the Caseload?

Not surprisingly, people who stay on welfare persistently are different from people who leave. As discussed earlier, stayers are more likely than leavers to face a range of potential barriers to work. In this sense, long-term stayers are the most disadvantaged segment of the caseload at a point in time. One question that has arisen in the wake of
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Stayers

Leavers, Stayers, and Cyclers An Analysis of the Welfare Caseload. Stayers

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Leavers

Leavers, Stayers, and Cyclers An Analysis of the Welfare Caseload. Leavers

The most direct way to assess how the caseload decline has affected families is to track the economic status of welfare leavers. This task has been the focus of a substantial amount of research over the past several years (Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation, 2001; Cancian, Haveman, Meyer, and Wolfe, 2000; Brauner and Lop
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Defining Leavers, Stayers, and Cyclers

Leavers, Stayers, and Cyclers An Analysis of the Welfare Caseload. Defining Leavers, Stayers, and Cyclers

 
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Samples

Leavers, Stayers, and Cyclers An Analysis of the Welfare Caseload. Samples

For the analysis in this report, the samples in each program are restricted to people for whom data were available for at least 36 months but no more than 60 months after they were randomly assigned into a program. The evaluations have varying lengths of follow-up, and this restriction is imposed so that “staying on welfare” and “leaving wel
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Data

Leavers, Stayers, and Cyclers An Analysis of the Welfare Caseload. Data

The data used in this report come from several programs that have been evaluated by MDRC. Each of the programs was evaluated using a random assignment design, in which ongoing recipients or new applicants to welfare were assigned to either an experimental group that received the new treatment or a control group that was subject to the existing wel
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Results for Individual Programs

Leavers, Stayers, and Cyclers An Analysis of the Welfare Caseload. Results for Individual Programs

For the pooled sample, nonworking leavers are more disadvantaged than working leavers, in terms of demographic characteristics and barriers to employment. But they do not appear to be significantly worse off in terms of income and hardship, owing partly to the fact that they were more likely to have returned to welfare by the time of the survey. H
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Economic Status

Leavers, Stayers, and Cyclers An Analysis of the Welfare Caseload. Economic Status

Table 9 presents data on income and material hardship. Despite some of the large differences in demographic characteristics, the two groups of leavers had similar incomes at the time of the survey, although nonworkers had a slightly higher poverty rate. Nonworkers appear to have made up for the lack of earnings with other income sources.
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Characteristics

Leavers, Stayers, and Cyclers An Analysis of the Welfare Caseload. Characteristics

Table 8 presents demographic characteristics and employment barriers for working and nonworking welfare leavers. A glance through the differences shows that nonworkers are, not surprisingly, more disadvantaged than workers; 55.0 percent of nonworkers do not have a high school diploma, compared with only 40.9 percent of workers.
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Nonworking Leavers

Leavers, Stayers, and Cyclers An Analysis of the Welfare Caseload. Nonworking Leavers

The results so far show that the average welfare leaver faced fewer barriers to employment than the average stayer and, as of the follow-up survey, had somewhat higher income. But what about leavers who are not “average”? Focusing on the average may mask the fact that many people who leave welfare do not fare well. The previous section showed,

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Form Approved OMB# 0990-0379 Exp. Date 9/30/2020