There is good news from the United States. The labour market is at nearly full employment and the number of persons receiving social assistance has reached a historically low level. This favourable economic context supported the political will for enactment of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act of 1996 (PRWORA)1 – signifying the “end of welfare as we know it.”
After decades of controversy over federal programmes for social assistance, the US Congress implemented a new activation concept, one containing a welfare-towork or Work-First approach while allowing wide discretion among the states in policy implementation. The aim was to reduce welfare dependency by helping welfare recipients leave welfare for work through supportive services and work requirements. The ultimate ambition of the reform was to convert the system from a presumption of state responsibility to one of individual responsibility. This posture regarding the government role for income security was implicit in other public programmes, and the 1996 welfare reforms replacing the Aid to Families with Dependent Children Program (AFDC) with the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families Program (TANF) brought social assistance into line with this principle.
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Abbreviations
- ADC:
-
Aid to Dependent Children
- ADCUF:
-
Aid to Dependent Children with an Unemployed Father
- AFDC:
-
Aid to Families with Dependent Children
- ATAA:
-
Alternate Trade Adjustment Assistance
- CalWORKs:
-
California Work Opportunity and Responsibility to Kids
- CCH:
-
Commerce Clearing House
- CEA:
-
Council of Economic Advisors
- CFR:
-
Code of Federal Regulations
- DHHS:
-
US Department of Health and Human Services
- DIME:
-
Denver Income Maintenance Experiment
- DUA:
-
Disaster Unemployment Assistance
- EITC:
-
Earned Income Tax Credit
- ETA:
-
Employment and Training Administration
- FAP:
-
Family Assistance Program
- FLSA:
-
Fair Labor Standards Act
- FR:
-
Federal Register
- FSEB:
-
Federal-State Extended Benefits Program
- FSEBA:
-
Federal-State Extended Benefits Act of 1970
- FUTA:
-
Federal Unemployment Tax Act
- GAIN:
-
Greater Avenues to Independence
- GAO:
-
General Accounting Office (now General Accountability Office)
- GDP:
-
Gross Domestic Product
- GED:
-
High School Graduate Equivalency Diploma
- HHS:
-
US Department of Health and Human Services
- IDA:
-
Individual Development Accounts
- IRC:
-
Internal Revenue Code
- JSA:
-
Job Search Assistance
- MEED:
-
Minnesota Employment and Economic Development program
- MOE:
-
Maintenance of Effort
- NAFTA:
-
North American Free Trade Act
- NIT:
-
Negative Income Tax
- NJTC:
-
New Jobs Tax Credit
- NLS:
-
National Longitudinal Survey
- OECD:
-
Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development
- OFA:
-
Office of Family Assistance in HHS
- OJT:
-
On-the-Job Training
- OWS:
-
Office of Workforce Security in the USDOL
- PL:
-
Public Law
- PRWORA:
-
Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act of 1996
- SC:
-
US Supreme Court
- SEA:
-
Self Employment Assistance
- SEITC:
-
State Earned Income Tax Credit
- SFAG:
-
State Family Assistance Grant under TANF
- SIME:
-
Seattle Income Maintenance Experiment
- SSA:
-
Social Security Act of 1935
- SSP:
-
Separate State Program
- TAA:
-
Trade Adjustment Assistance
- TANF:
-
Temporary Assistance to Needy Families
- TEUC:
-
Temporary Extended Unemployment Compensation
- TJTC:
-
Targeted Jobs Tax Credit
- TRA:
-
Trade Readjustment Allowances
- UC:
-
Unemployment Compensation
- UI:
-
Unemployment Insurance
- US:
-
United States
- USA:
-
United States of America
- USC:
-
United States Code
- USD:
-
United States Dollar
- USDOL:
-
United States Department of Labor
- W2:
-
Wisconsin Works Program
- WARN:
-
Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act of 1988
- WDB:
-
Workforce Development Board
- WIA:
-
Workforce Investment Act of 1998
- WIN:
-
Work Incentive Program
- WOTC:
-
Work Opportunity Tax Credit
- WPRS:
-
Worker Profiling and Reemployment Services
- WtW:
-
Welfare to Work
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Quade, B., O’Leary, C.J., Dupper, O. (2008). Activation from Income Support in the US. In: Eichhorst, W., Kaufmann, O., Konle-Seidl, R. (eds) Bringing the Jobless into Work?. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-77435-8_9
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