Review of \u3cem\u3eFrom Welfare to Workfare: The Unintended Consequences of Liberal Reform 1945-1965.\u3c/em\u3e Jennifer Mittelstadt. Reviewed by Margaret Sharrard Sherraden.

Book review of Jennifer Mittelstadt. From Welfare to Workfare: The Unintended Consequences of Liberal Reform, 1945-1965. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 2005. $49.95 hardback,$19.95 paperback

Toward Finance as a Public Good

Financial inclusion is a prerequisite for the financial stability of families and for successful economies, but common conceptualizations of it have not adequately accounted for the financialization of modern life or for the influence of social policy, which increasingly delivers public benefits through financial services. This study proposes a broader conceptualization of financial inclusion, finding support for this new understanding in results from analyses of data from the 2016 National Financial Well-Being Survey and from a case study of Child Development Accounts. Support for this publication comes from the Kauffman Foundation (Grant No. 201806-4478)

Saving and Asset-Accumulation Strategies Used by Low-Income Individuals

This paper presents quantitative and qualitative data regarding the saving and asset-accumulation strategies used by low-income participants in Individual Development Account programs (IDAs). The results of a cross-sectional survey with 298 IDA participants and case studies with 15 IDA participants—the first methods that assessed saving behavior among this population—demonstrate that low-income individuals use psychological and behavioral strategies to save, deposit, and maintain assets. The most frequently used strategies are behavioral saving strategies for increasing the efficiency of spending (e.g., shopping more carefully for food) and for reducing consumption (e.g., spending less on leisure). Qualitative results indicate that individuals also use goals and mental accounting to help them save, view their deposits as bills or pay their accounts first to help them make deposits, and create "rules-of-thumb" to maintain assets. Linear regression results suggest that the behavioral saving strategies are not predictors of savings amounts in IDAs. Additional research is needed to understand the saving process among low-income individuals.savings, poverty, asset accumulation, Individual Development Accounts

Developing Transnational Social Policy: A North American Community Service Program

Developing Transnational Social Policy: A North American Community Service Progra

Financial Capability: What Is It, and How Can It Be Created?

Note: The final version of this working paper appears as a chapter in Sherraden, M. S. (2013). Building blocks of financial capability. In J. M. Birkenmaier, M. S. Sherraden, & J. C. Curley, J. (Eds.) Financial Capability and Asset Building: Research, Education, Policy, and Practice (pp. 1–43). New York & Oxford: Oxford University Press. Financial literacy has been proposed widely as an effective approach to preparing people to manage their finances. This paper proposes an alternative concept, financial capability. Financial capability includes both the ability to act (knowledge, skills, confidence, and motivation) and the opportunity to act (through access to quality financial products and services). Low-income households, who face lack of financial knowledge and institutional barriers to participation in quality financial services, require both financial literacy and financial inclusion. The paper begins by addressing how people acquire financial knowledge and skills through financial socialization, financial education and guidance, and financial advice and counseling. Next, it addresses how financial inclusion can be achieved through financial services that are accessible, affordable, financially attractive, easy to use, secure, and reliable. Then it illustrates how financial knowledge and skills and financial inclusion are linked. The paper concludes with a call for more research

Preparing Social Workers to Improve People’s Finances

In 2020, the China Association of Social Work Education created the Financial Social Work Commission, acknowledging the potential benefits of equipping social workers to guide their clients in financial matters. But what do social workers need to know about finances, and how will they learn it? In this Perspective, Margaret Sherraden shares an address given during “Localization of Financial Social Work Education: Goals, Textbook, and Strategies,” a panel discussion convened as part of Theory and Practice for Financial Social Work: Promoting Common Prosperity, the first national Forum of the Financial Social Work Commission, Beijing, China, January 8, 2022. Panelists discussed the forthcoming Chinese translation of Financial Capability and Asset Building in Vulnerable Households: Theory and Practice, the 2018 textbook Sherraden coauthored with Julie Birkenmaier and J. Michael Collins. The textbook provides a roadmap for training social workers in financial capability

Start Lifelong Asset Building With Universal and Progressive Child Development Accounts

This policy action statement was developed by members of the networks engaged in the Grand Challenges to Build Financial Capability and Assets for All and to Reduce Extreme Economic Inequality. The Grand Challenges initiative’s policy action statements present proposals emerging from Social Innovation for America’s Renewal, a policy conference organized by the Center for Social Development at Washington University in collaboration with theAmerican Academy of Social Work & Social Welfare, which is leading the Grand Challenges for Social Work initiative to champion social progress through a national agenda powered by science

The Potential for Inclusion in 529 Savings Plans: Report on a Survey of States

The Potential for Inclusion in 529 Savings Plans: Report on a Survey of State

Effects of Participating in an Asset-Building Intervention on Social Inclusion

The United States is arguably one of the richest countries in the world. However, poverty is still an issue of great concern. This observation suggests the need for more innovative interventions to reduce severe need and create terms for meaningful participation of vulnerable individuals in economic, political, and social exchange. Using a sample of IDA program participants (N=840), who were randomly assigned to a control and experimental group, this study explores the relationship between an asset-building intervention and social inclusion from the human capabilities perspective. Results reveal a significant relationship between participating in an IDA program and social inclusion. Although modest, these results provide a useful framework for examining factors that may affect an individual’s capacity to move from vulnerability into enhanced economic, political and social participation. They also point to a role for policy and asset-building programs in effort to empower vulnerable individuals and groups

Impact of Asset Ownership on Social Inclusion

Persistent poverty and social exclusion suggest the need for more innovative interventions to reduce severe need and create terms for meaningful participation of vulnerable individuals in economic, political, and social exchange. One such innovation is asset ownership. This study explores the relationship between asset ownership and social inclusion using the human capabilities approach. Findings indicate a significant relationship, suggesting a role for asset-based policy and programs in interventions to foster social inclusion