RESEARCH General Government

WELFARE REFORM
Illinois study shows mixed results for people leaving welfare rolls

Craig Chamberlain, Education Editor
(217) 333-2894; cdchambe@uiuc.edu

10/1/2000

Photo by Bill Wiend Social work professor Steve Anderson is co-author of a study of the first 137,000 people to leave welfare in Illinois. The study found many found jobs, but the wages often were low.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. -- A federally funded study of the first 137,000 people to leave welfare in Illinois as a result of reforms three years ago shows that many people found jobs, but the wages often were low.

More than half of those who left the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program between July 1997 and December 1998 were working in the months after they left the program, the study showed.

Most, based on a survey sample, also considered themselves better off after leaving the program and most who were working showed high rates of satisfaction with their jobs. But the University of Illinois study also showed average earnings below the poverty line for those working, significant unemployment and job turnover, worries about health care, and serious underutilization of support programs available to help those who had left welfare.

"The thing that stands out to me is the wages people get when they leave are, for the most part, sub-poverty," said Steve Anderson, a UI social work professor and co-author of the study. "If people were able to stay employed, then we did see some wage growth," he said. "The problem is, a lot of people couldn't stay employed," and even the increased wages averaged below the poverty line, he said.

The Illinois study, one of 14 similar state studies funded by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, was made public Sept. 20 by the Illinois Department of Human Services.

The study was conducted by the Institute for Public Affairs at the UI’s Springfield campus and the School of Social Work at the Urbana-Champaign campus. Leading the study were George Julnes, a former UIS researcher now at Utah State University, and Tony Halter, a professor of social work at the Urbana-Champaign campus.

The research was done in two parts. One was an analysis of state administrative data on the 137,000 people who left TANF during the 18-month period, including information on their reasons for leaving, their reported wages, and their use of Medicaid, food stamps, child-care subsidies and other programs. The other part was based on survey data from a random sample of 514 people who left TANF in December 1998 and were interviewed six to eight months later.

The state data showed that 55 percent of those who left TANF had job earnings during the quarter in which they left, Anderson said, but those earnings averaged only $10,100 if annualized. In the fourth quarter after exit, 54 percent had earnings, which averaged $12,680 if annualized. The survey showed higher rates of employment, with 63 percent saying they were working when they left. But the survey also showed a high degree of job instability, with only 37 percent saying they were employed continuously during the six to eight months after exit.

A key concern from the study, Anderson noted, was that many leaving TANF failed to use programs such as Medicaid, food stamps and child-care subsidies, available to support them through low-wage or unstable employment.

"We need to know more about why people are not using these services, and states need to reconsider how to arrange these services so they are understandable and accessible."