Mediterranean Living

American welfare reform hailed 'remarkable success'

Daily Mail
17:54pm 21st August 2006

America's biggest welfare reform programme was yesterday hailed as a "remarkable success" ten years after it was launched.

Bill Clinton, pictured with wife Hillary, signed a the welfare reform bill a decade ago.

When former President Bill Clinton signed a bill 'that would end welfare as we know it,' liberal critics claimed it would cause homelessness and starvation.

It put a time limit on welfare payments, forced single mother out to work and rammed home a conservative policy that welfare was not a life time entitlement.

Ten years on it was being hailed yesterday as a remarkable success. The number of people on welfare has plunged 60 per cent and the employment of single mothers has soared 70 per cent.

Grants from the federal government to the states for welfare have been cut in real terms by 30 per cent since 1996.

The architect of the reform Congressman E.Clay Shaw, a Florida Republican, said: 'We have been vindicated by the results. Welfare reform was one of the most successful policy changes in the nation's history.'

It also delighted taxpayers who saw soaring welfare costs devouring tax money and encouraging people not to work. One of the prime targets was the single mother who enjoyed free housing and increased benefits for each child conceived out of wedlock.

They were known as 'The Welfare Queens' and their offspring were linked to the rising crime rate. The fathers who deserted them, also became thesubject of a nationwide hunt.

Some states refused to renew driving licences until they paid court ordered maintenance. Child support payments have now doubled.

One of the most surprising results came from the disputed five-year life time limit on assistance. Opponents said it would cause immense hardship. In fact welfare recipients came nowhere near the limit.

Professor Geoffrey Grogger, an economist at the University of Chicago, said that people were aware of the deadline and got off welfare after a couple of years so 'they could save benefits for a rainy day.'

He observed: 'The 1996 law was more successful in promoting working and reducing the rolls than anyone imagined.'

While it neutralised welfare as a political issue, it also removed much of the stigma of welfare. The recipients who have to undergo job training or take educational classes are being seen as in a temporary state.

'Welfare mothers are seen in a more favourable light now that most of them are required to work. Welfare has become more supportable and acceptable....The new law sent a very strong message:'We can help you, if you help yourself,' said Professor Richard Nathan, director of the Nelson Rockefeller Institute of Government.

Mr Clinton who vetoed two earlier versions of the bill as 'too harsh', has now concluded: 'The bill has done far more good than harm. Most of the people who got jobs are still working.'

Analysts say that welfare payouts usually meant a monthly cheque that could be converted to cash. Now more than half goes into childcare, retraining, education and other services aimed at clearing the hurdles towards employment.

Welare reforms have not been perfect. At the bottom of the scale some single mothers can't hold jobs or can't earn more.

Mr Clinton said: 'The problems of the working poor who came off welfare are mainly the problems that all low wage earners have in America. They are not unique to people who came off welfare.'