the extent that such services were necessary for a
family member’s employment or participation in an
education and training activity of which the state ap-
proved. The law also required a state to continue a
family’s Medicaid eligibility for six months after the
family loses AFDC eligibility because of specified
circumstances; retained the entitlement nature of
AFDC; and authorized appropriations for fiscal year
1990 through 1992 for grants to states. These grants
were to fund demonstration projects testing the effi-
cacy of early childhood development programs on
families receiving AFDC benefits and participating
in JOBS and of JOBS on reducing school dropouts,
encouraging skill development, and avoiding sole
reliance on AFDC payments.
Impact One impact of welfare activities over the
decade was to reduce the rate of increase in expendi-
tures and the numbers of beneficiaries. According
to the House Committee on Ways and Means’ 1994
Green Book, total costs for AFDC in 1980 had nearly
tripled in a decade, reaching $11.5 billion from $4.1
billion in 1970 after adjusting for inflation. The
number of families receiving AFDC benefits had in-
creased from 1.9 million to 3.6 million; the number
of recipients had grown from 7.4 million to 10.6 mil-
lion. By 1989, total AFDC expenditures had reached
$17.2 billion, a 48 percent increase, while the aver-
age number of families increased by 3.5 percent to
3.8 million and the total number of recipients lin-
gered around 11 million annually throughout the
decade.
The Manpower Demonstration Research Corpo-
ration (MDRC) was hired to evaluate these pro-
grams using experimental and control groups at
various sites throughout the United States. Summa-
rizing the results, Judith Gueron concluded that the
programs did lead to consistent and measurable in-
creases in employment and earnings and also led to
some welfare savings. Women with no work experi-
ence showed the most significant gains, while long-
term welfare recipients with no recent employment
did not show consistent gains. However, Gueron cau-
tioned that work programs did not offer an immedi-
ate cure for poverty or dependence on government
for cash assistance. The impact of the programs
that MDRC evaluated was modest, with many par-
ticipants remaining dependent and many of those
who moved off welfare remaining poor. In addition,
the rates of individual and family poverty during
the Reagan administration were several percentage
points higher than those on average throughout
the 1970’s.
Poor women also benefited from the increased ef-
forts to obtain child support throughout the 1980’s.
Of the 2.6 million women below poverty with their
own children twenty-one years of age or younger
present from an absent father in 1981, 39.7 percent
were awarded child support, but only 19.3 percent
actually received any payments. In 1987, of 3.2 mil-
lion such mothers, 27.7 percent received payments.
Although the immediate impact of Title I of the
FSA on poor persons was deemed negligible, with
25.4 percent of poor eligible mothers receiving pay-
ment in 1989, the child support provisions applied
to everyone, regardless of income level. These provi-
sions enhanced the role of the federal government
in family matters traditionally left to the states. In
particular, by requiring states to establish automated
information systems, the federal government in-
creased the capacity of government in general to
identify and track noncustodial parents who change
jobs, cross state lines, and the like, for purposes of
garnishing wages if necessary to secure child sup-
port payments due custodial parents.Further Reading
Caputo, Richard K. “The Limits of Welfare Reform.”
Social Casework: The Journal of Contemporar y Social
Work70 (February, 1989): 85-95. Argues for shift-
ing public debate and intervention programs for
poor persons from welfare reform to poverty re-
duction.
_______. “Presidents, Profits, Productivity, and Pov-
erty: A Great Divide Between the Pre- and Post-
Reagan U.S. Economy.”Journal of Sociology and So-
cial Welfare31 (September, 2004): 5-30. Shows the
persistence of high rates of poverty despite an im-
proved economy and welfare reform efforts in
the decade.
Ellwood, David T.Poor Support: Poverty and the Ameri-
can Family. New York: Basic Books, 1988. Docu-
ments the nature and effects of income support
programs for poor persons on families in the
United States.
Garfinkel, Irwin, and Sara S. McLanahan.Single
Mothers and Their Children: A New American Di-
lemma. Washington, D.C.: Urban Institute Press,- Describes the nature and extent of single
motherhood in the United States.
1040 Welfare The Eighties in America