Welfare for the Unemployed: The Rise and Fall of a Social Experiment

The development of a US public welfare policy for unemployed families is discussed via an assessment of: the history of current welfare programs for the unemployed; the Washington State Aid for Families with Dependent Children Employable (AFDC-E) program; characteristics of the population in that program; & the results of terminating the program. The AFDC-E program operated from 1963 to 1981; of the 7,758 families who lost their benefits at program termination, 531 were interviewed to determine household changes & other forms of assistance used during the 7 months following termination, & then again 17 months after termination (using only cash-assistance cases). In the first 7 months, 40% of the families moved, primarily due to an inability to pay rent, & 10% moved due to marital separations. Medical assistance & food stamps were the major forms of aid used by the families. While the termination of the program clearly threatened marital stability, it was not the cause of separations: it presented the dilemma of choosing between separation & difficult economic circumstances. Single-parent families continued to receive assistance, implying that two-parent families did not suffer similar deprivation. It is suggested that policy changes for the program, reinstated in 1983, should focus on: the discriminatory basis for eligibility (the situation of the children, rather than the adults, should be studied); welfare for the unemployed to allow families to survive; & the vulnerability of work as the base of economic survival. Free education might provide the AFDC-E families with better opportunities. 17 References. D. Graves.