Aid to Families with Dependent Children
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Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) was a federal assistance program in effect from 1935 to 1997,[1] which was administered by the United States Department of Health and Human Services. This program provided financial assistance to children whose families had low or no income.
The program was created under the name Aid to Dependent Children (ADC) by the Social Security Act of 1935 as part of the New Deal; the words "families with" were added to the name in 1960, partly due to concern that the program's rules discouraged marriage.[2] By 1996 spending was $24 billion per year. When adjusted for inflation, the highest spending was in 1976, which exceeded 1996 spending by about 8%.[3]
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[edit] Criticism
[edit] Reform
In 1996, President Bill Clinton negotiated with the Republican-controlled Congress to pass the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act which drastically remade the program. Among other changes, a lifetime limit of five years was imposed for the receipt of benefits, and the newly-limited nature of the replacement program was reinforced by calling AFDC's successor Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF). Many Americans continue to refer to TANF as "welfare" or AFDC.
In light of the results, by 2006 the welfare reforms appear to be less controversial. The New Republic suggested, "A broad consensus now holds that welfare reform was certainly not a disaster--and that it may, in fact, have worked much as its designers had hoped."[4]
Part of the reason that welfare reform became so popular was because of changing views and demographics of welfare and poverty. In 1935, when the legislation was first enacted, the dominant view was that women should stay home for the benefit of their children; by the late 20th century (and probably due to the Women's Rights Movement of the 1970s), staying home with children was seen as a privilege and most mothers should have the obligation to work. Furthermore, in 1935, most of the single-mother beneficiaries of welfare were widows; by 1988, most of these women with children were either unmarried or divorced.[2]
[edit] See also
- Administration for Children and Families
- King v. Smith - ruling based on AFDC
- Goldberg v. Kelly
[edit] Notes
- ^ PBS.org, Timeline of National Welfare Reform
- ^ a b futureofchildren.org FULL JOURNAL ISSUE: Welfare to Work A Brief History of Work Expectations for Welfare Mothers Susan W. Blank and Barbara B. Blum
- ^ U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (website) “Federal and State Expenditures for AFDC”
- ^ New Republic September 4, 2006, page 7
[edit] Bibliography
- Keith M. Kilty, Elizabeth A. Segal. The Promise of Welfare Reform: Political Rhetoric and the Reality of Poverty in the Twenty-First. (2006)
- Clarita A. Mrena and Patricia Elston. Welfare Reform: State Sanction Policies and Number of Families Affected (2000)
- Robert P Stoker and Laura A Wilson. When Work Is Not Enough: State and Federal Policies to Support Needy Workers 2006
- Webster G. Tarpley and Anton Chaitkin. George Bush: The Unauthorized Biography
- Joel N. Shurkin. Broken Genius: The Rise and Fall of William Shockley, Creator of the Electronic Age. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. 2006. ISBN 1-4039-8815-3
- Herrnstein, R. J. and Murray, C. (1994). The Bell Curve: Intelligence and Class Structure in American Life. New York: Free Press. ISBN 0-02-914673-9
- Charles Murray, 1984. Losing Ground: American Social Policy. 1950-1980
- Nick Gillespie. "Transcendental goods". Reason (magazine), April 1, 2004
- "The Bell Curve Flattened" by Nicholas Lemann, in Slate (magazine) (January 1996)
- "Is the Great Society to Blame? If Not, Why Have Problems Worsened Since '60s?" by Michael Fumento, Investor's Business Daily, June 19, 1992
- "Cracked Bell" by Professor James Heckman in Reason (March 1995)
- "Federal and State Expenditures for AFDC" from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services website
- "A Brief History of the AFDC Program" from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (website)
- "The New Child Care Block Grant, State Funding Choices and Their Implications" by Sharon K. Long & Sandra J. Clark, posted to the Urban Institute website October 1, 1997
- "Women, Children, and Poverty in America" by Prudence Brown, Ford Foundation website
- "Timeline of National Welfare Reform" from PBS.org
