How did welfare originate? Has it provided ample assistance to poverty-stricken individuals?

There are many books written on the subject, but a typical response follows: local communities provided welfare at the turn of the century to prevent widows and their children from severe material deprivation. Mothers were not supposed to work so when the father died, the community assisted the family. Later, during the Depression, welfare programs were designed to prevent extreme poverty and to get men back to work.

Welfare has also been used to force a certain lifestyle on individuals. At one time, mothers could only qualify for assistance if they presented a suitable home -- free of smoking, drinking, and other inappropriate behavior.

We are now learning quite a bit about the living standards of families who leave welfare. Many are better off than they would have been had they stayed on welfare. However, many are not. Some mothers earn as much on welfare as at work, so there is no incentive to leave welfare. Lack of child care and transportation are just a two examples of reasons many mothers remain on welfare instead of working.

To find out more about welfare, including how much is spent and how many families receive it, peruse the "Green Book" published every year by the United States House Ways and Means Committee.

What is TANF?

The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 (PRWORA) created the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families(TANF) block grant, replacing the Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) program and giving states flexibility to create new cash assistance programs for families with children. Although the federal legislation establishes a variety of minimum requirements in some areas, there is considerable flexibility for states to exceed these minimum requirements, and a number of areas are open to state discretion.

The new law reflects a number of key principles:

• Welfare reform should help move people from welfare to work.
• Welfare should be a short-term, transitional experience, not a way of life.
• Parents should receive the child care and the health care they need to protect their children as they move from welfare to work.
• Child support programs should become tougher and more effective in securing support from absent parents.
• Because many factors contribute to poverty and dependency, solutions to these problems should not be "one size fits all." The system should allow states, Indian tribes, and localities to develop diverse and creative responses to their own problems.
• The federal government should focus less attention on payment accuracy and program procedures and place more emphasis on program results.

Source: "One Year after Federal Welfare Reform: A Description of State