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Welfare Reform: More Information Needed to Assess Promising Strategies to Increase Parents' Incomes

GAO-06-108 Published: Dec 02, 2005. Publicly Released: Jan 03, 2006.
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Highlights

Following major welfare reform in 1996, the number of families receiving cash assistance was cut in half to 2 million. While many former recipients now rely more on their earnings, they often work at low-wage jobs with limited benefits and advancement opportunities. To better understand how to help these individuals and their families attain economic self-sufficiency, GAO is reporting on (1) strategies designed to increase income for TANF recipients through employment; (2) the key factors related to implementing and operating such strategies; and (3) actions the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has taken to facilitate the use of these strategies. GAO consulted experts to gather information about promising strategies and visited 26 programs.

Recommendations

Recommendations for Executive Action

Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of Health and Human Services To help ensure that the federal government considers research on these promising strategies and better informs welfare agencies and programs about how they might incorporate such strategies for TANF recipients, the Secretary of HHS should review its current research agenda and identify opportunities to conduct and promote additional research on increasing earnings capacity among low-income parents.
Closed – Implemented
While the agency disagreed with our recommendation, claiming that it was already conducting relevant research, it did keep our recommendation in mind when contracting for a new study, according to study researchers. This study--"Innovative Employment Approaches and Programs for Low-Income Families"-- was issued in February 2007 and HHS took steps to broadly disseminate it. HHS has also recently undertaken a broad, multi-year effort that will explore relevant issues, including strategies discussed in the report such as postsecondary education and training to enhance incomes. The effort, called the "Innovative Strategies for Increasing Self-Sufficiency" project (ISIS), began in 9/07 and will end in 9/14.
Department of Health and Human Services To help ensure that the federal government considers research on these promising strategies and better informs welfare agencies and programs about how they might incorporate such strategies for TANF recipients, the Secretary of HHS should review existing research dissemination and technical assistance efforts across its relevant units to better ensure a comprehensive process for distributing information and implementation assistance to the wide range of program administrators and programs involved in welfare reform.
Closed – Implemented
HHS initially said that our recommendations were not warranted because of its existing efforts and it has not identified for us a systematic review of its existing efforts. However, it has used several mechanisms to disseminate information on the topic of former welfare families moving ahead. These include an electronic newsletter, a website, peer technical assistance listserve, as well as a national research conference. In addition, in 2008, its peer technical assistance listserve was revamped to more effectively reach all parties who could benefit. Lastly, as part of its new research project (ISIS) noted above, it performed extensive outreach to understand the research needs of key stakeholders in welfare programs. It conducted semi-structured discussions with over 250 individuals between May and September 2008. Respondents included a diverse selection of state executive office and agency staff, state legislators and staff, federal officials, researchers, advocates, and foundation representatives to understand the research needs of multiple entities. Results informed the design of the project and were issued separately (Innovative Strategies for Increasing Self-Sufficiency (ISIS) Project: Stakeholder Views from Early Outreach April 2009, HHH/ACF/OPRE at http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/opre/welfare_employ/isis/reports.) In addition, HHS is formally partnering with the American Public Human Services Association, National Governors' Association, and the National Conference of State Legislatures on this project. The organizations are extensively involved in disseminating useful information to state and local officials on a regular basis.
Department of Health and Human Services To help ensure that the federal government considers research on these promising strategies and better informs welfare agencies and programs about how they might incorporate such strategies for TANF recipients, the Secretary of HHS should seek out additional opportunities to work with the Secretaries of Labor and Education to jointly conduct and promote research and distribute information and implementation assistance related to enhancing skills and earnings capacity among low-income parents.
Closed – Not Implemented
While HHS initially said that our recommendations were not warranted because of all its existing efforts, an HHS official did cite at least four joint efforts with Labor on helping welfare and other low-income families move ahead in the labor market. While some of these had begun before our study, at least one of these began after our study was issued. In addition, new study efforts under way include many partners, with the acknowledgement of the cross-cutting nature of the issues. More specifically, HHS' new long-term project ISIS, noted above, addresses education and employment training issues and HHS conducted extensive outreach efforts that included other federal agencies. While the new project under way include many partners, Education and Labor are not formal partners in the project.

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Topics

Disadvantaged personsEmployment assistance programsLife skills trainingLocally administered programsProgram evaluationPublic assistance programsStrategic planningVocational educationWelfare benefitsWelfare recipientsWorkfare