Bridging Disciplinary Boundaries (January 11 - 14, 2007)

Purpose: Lifetime limit policy was a key element of 1996 welfare reform, aimed at moving welfare recipients off welfare and into the work force. Some studies examined the characteristics of former welfare recipients who reached their 5-year lifetime limits and other studies focused on explaining the effects of lifetime limit policies on the former recipients. However, little attention has been paid to the issues of the employment and economic status among the former recipients living in rural areas where economic resources and public transportation service are limited. The purpose of this study is to explore the determinants of unemployment and economic hardships of the former welfare recipients in an Appalachian state.

Methods: A cross-sectional survey design was used to explore the determinants of unemployment and economic hardships of former welfare recipients who reached their five-year lifetime limits in a sample of 276 former WV WORKS recipients in West Virginia. In this sample, most respondents were female (87.2%) and White (87.9%). In terms of marital status, 44 percent of the respondents were married and 28 percent were never married. The respondents ranged from 19 to 57 with a mean age of 35 years old. Nearly all of the respondents (90.8%) reported that they had less than $10,000 annual household income in 2002. Around three quarters of the respondents (73.1 %) did not have a job. In addition, the respondents had more material hardships since leaving WV WORKS than while on WV WORKS.

Results: Logistic regression results showed that people with mental problems were more likely than those without mental problems to be unemployed (Odd Ratio = 20.3). People with physical disability were more likely than those without physical disability to be unemployed (Odd Ratio = 3.2). People who did not have transportation were more likely than people with transportation to be unemployed (Odd Ratio = 2.5). The respondents who did not have childcare providers were more likely than people with childcare providers to be unemployed (Odd Ratio = 3.5). Those who did not have high school degree were more likely than the respondents with high school degree to be unemployed (Odd Ratio = 3.1). The OLS regression results also showed that the respondents' mental problems were significantly associated with their economic hardships (B=1.507, p <.001). Those without transportation were significantly associated with their material hardships (B=1.233, p <.01).

Implications for Policy and Practice The findings of the study provide important policy and practice implications for future welfare reform reauthorization. First, policy makers should consider five-year lifetime limit policy to exempt people who have mental problems or physical disability, people who take care of the mentally or physically disabled, and people who have children under age two. Second, policy makers should extend lifetime limits for people who follow mandatory work requirements but the family still is poor or faces economic hardships, people completing job training or education programs, and people in high unemployment areas. Finally, policy makers should provide appropriate safety net programs for people who reached their lifetime limits.