Working After Welfare: How Women Balance Jobs and Family in the Wake of Welfare Reform

This book, tapping into the quantitative and qualitative evidence gathered in the Women’s Employment Study (WES), offers insights into the lives of women in an urban Michigan county who left welfare for work and the role their family decisions play in their labor market decisions.https://research.upjohn.org/up_press/1031/thumbnail.jp

Moving from Welfare to Work

This book, tapping into the quantitative and qualitative evidence gathered in the Women’s Employment Study (WES), offers insights into the lives of women in an urban Michigan county who left welfare for work and the role their family decisions play in their labor market decisions.https://research.upjohn.org/up_press/1031/thumbnail.jp

Saving among Low-Income Women: Motivation and Obstacles

How do low-income households think about saving? What motivations do they identify for saving, and what obstacles to meeting their goals? We use data from qualitative interviews with 51 households in Detroit to shed light on these questions. We find that they wish they could save - primarily for protection against the unexpected or to put children through college - but that most of them cannot. Friends and family surface as a major obstacle to saving, since those who have liquid assets are asked for help. When savings is feasible in this population, it occurs largely through relatively inaccessible vehicles such as pensions and 401Ks.Social Security Administrationhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/61828/1/wp199.pd

How Do Lower-Income Families Think about Retirement?

How do low-income households think about retirement? Do they think about retirement? If so, when do they think they will retire, and what is it they plan to live on? In this paper, we present evidence on these questions based on 51 qualitative interviews with low-income families in the Detroit area. We find that the great majority of low-income households think about retirement, although this does not necessarily mean they are able to plan and/or save actively for retirement. Most respondents plan to retire as soon as they become eligible for Social Security or, in a few cases, private pensions.Social Security Administrationhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/61824/1/wp195.pd

We Know Better Than We Do: A Policy Framework for Child Welfare Reform

The need for comprehensive reform of child welfare policies and systems has long been evident. This Article reports observations from the WK Kellogg Foundation-sponsored Families for Kids Initiative that seeks to expand services and support to families and reduce the time children spend in temporary care. The authors first provide an overview of the need for reforms such as those proposed by this initiative, suggesting that many child welfare studies, critiques, and proposed reforms have had similar objectives. The authors highlight lessons learned from how these reform goals are being developed, implemented, and practiced in ongoing programs across the nation and argue that change at multiple levels must occur for reform of this system to succeed. They identify nine methods being used to varying degrees by some of these initiatives to institutionalize reform goals and improve the quality and outcomes of child welfare legal and social service practice. By highlighting these evolving models of state law, agency administrative procedure and professional practice, the authors identify areas of reform for other jurisdictions. Child welfare reform rests upon new legislation mandates; more specific reasonable efforts requirements, adoption of flexible funding mechanisms, capitated foster care contracts, timely court processes better trained professional or cross-system data capability to monitor children in care. All of these policy and system reforms must be designed and implemented collectively for child welfare ideals to become operational

Correlates of Employment Among Welfare Recipients: Do Psychological Characteristics and Attitudes Matter?

This study examines whether and how a wide range of potential barriers to work,including psychological characteristics and attitudes, are associated with current employment in a recent sample of welfare recipients in Michigan ( N = 672 ). Psychological factors include measures of depressive symptoms, work attitudes, and perceived risks associated with leaving welfare. Over and above demographic, economic, and contextual factors, positive psychological characteristics and attitudes were found to be moderately associated with currently being employed. Implications for welfare-to-work programs and policy are discussed.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/44056/1/10464_2004_Article_343149.pd