Welfare Reform: Work Status of Single Mothers, In Brief

Introduction. The 1996 welfare reform law (P.L. 104-193) was the culmination of decades of efforts to revamp how needy families with children were assisted. In particular, the welfare reform debates focused on needy single mothers and their children because it was this group that comprised most of the families receiving cash assistance (often called “welfare”). Cash assistance for needy families had its origins in “mothers’ pensions” and the New Deal program of Aid to Dependent Children, which was created to help single mothers stay out of the workforce in order to care for their children. Decades of social change and policy debate led to the policy presumption that single mothers should work to support themselves and their children. Policies were put in place to support working parents (e.g., child care assistance); supplement low wages (e.g., the refundable tax credits of the Earned Income Tax Credit and Child Tax Credit); and, in 1996, repeal the cash assistance program (