Welfare

  • Case Note: Family Law Judges May Not Order Welfare Recipients to Seek Full Time Work, California Appellate Court Holds

    February 01, 2010

  • Improving Remote Communication Between Public Benefits Agencies and Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Individuals

    The ability of public benefit applicants and recipients to communicate with public benefits agencies through other than face-to-face communication is critical. Advocates should be aware of potential communication barriers, legal requirements, and best practices for effective remote communication and should take on communication-access issues in their advocacy efforts.

    Copies of this article are available for purchase online for $15 apiece.

    Related Articles

    February 01, 2010

  • The Measure of America: American Human Development Report 2008-2009

    For the first time since the United Nations Development Programme began its global Human Development series eighteen years ago, a report gauging living standards in the United States, a wealthy developed nation, has been published. The American Human Development Index—the measure of how well Americans are doing—assesses whether they are living a long and healthy life, having access to knowledge, and enjoying a decent standard of living.

    Copies of this article are available for purchase online for $15 apiece.

    February 06, 2009

  • Long-Term Federal Fiscal Problem Threatens Antipoverty Efforts in the United States

    Projected long-term federal budget deficits pose a threat to the availability of the resources needed to implement and sustain an antipoverty agenda for the new president and Congress. To help ensure that sufficient resources are available to sustain antipoverty measures, advocates of those measures need to understand the threat that these deficits pose, the reasons for the deficits, and steps that can be taken to deal with them without undermining vital federal programs

    December 08, 2008

  • Welfare Reform and Extreme Poverty: What to Do?

    Despite the steep decline in caseloads since welfare reform and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) began in the mid-1990s, the number of those categorized as living in “extreme poverty” has risen. The policies underlying welfare reform and the means by which they are applied have made TANF a porous safety net for the poor. Improved funding for child care, better programs for the hard-to-employ, and overhauling the time-limit rules are some of the ways in which TANF can be transformed to lift many out of extreme poverty.

    December 05, 2008

  • The Shriver Center's Twelve-Point National Agenda: Poverty-Fighting Ideas for a New Administration

    The United States can defeat poverty, providing we muster our resources and political will. We have many proven tools available to prevail in this battle, and we must be willing to experiment with other untested but promising approaches. The Sargent Shriver National Center on Poverty Law’s twelve-point antipoverty agenda is a framework for implementing public policies that make federal action central in overcoming our nation’s shameful legacy of poverty.

    December 05, 2008

  • Increasing Automation in State Computer Systems: Preventing Technological Barriers to Successful Public Benefits Administration

    States are increasingly relying on computer automation to administer their public benefit programs to the extent that eligibility can be determined more by software design than by caseworkers. New computer systems in several states have created serious barriers for applicants, and designing technology that works accurately across benefit programs has proven to be a challenge. Advocates should anticipate these problems and intervene early when states are considering adoption of new technology to administer benefit programs.

    July 18, 2008

  • Reconstructing the Constitutional Case Against Mandatory Welfare Home Visits

    The unconstitutional-conditions doctrine holds that government may not condition benefits on the surrender of individual constitutional rights. Nonetheless, since the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1971 decision in Wyman v. James, welfare recipients have been subject to mandatory home visits despite the Fourth Amendment’s protection from unreasonable searches. However, the essential nexus test, which is rooted in Fifth Amendment takings claims and measures the fitness between the condition and the government goal, may offer an alternative theory for challenging mandatory home visits.

    May 27, 2008

  • Public Benefits Privatization and Modernization: Recent Developments and Advocacy

    More states are contracting with private vendors to administer benefit programs and “modernizing” program administration by closing welfare offices in favor of “call centers” and online access. These changes affect low-income people—changes that are potentially beneficial but too often harmful, especially for vulnerable population groups such as those with disabilities or limited English proficiency. Advocates in four states that have implemented privatization or modernization have had some successes in protecting clients from harmful effects and have gained experience relevant in other states that pursue similar policies.

    Shriver Center

    May 27, 2008

  • Improving Work Supports: Using the Family Resource Simulator to Identify Problems and Test Solutions

    Work support programs, such as tax credits and child care subsidies, help low-income workers enter and remain in the labor market. However, too often these programs are implemented haphazardly by states rather than as part of a comprehensive workforce strategy. Eligibility “cliffs” that result when a marginal increase in earnings leads to an even greater loss in work support benefits can cause a family’s total resources to drop precipitously. A new Web-based tool, the Family Resource Simulator, can be used to calculate the impact of work-support policies on families’ resources.

    April 07, 2008

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