This article outlines marriage penalties and the effect these penalties can have on low-income families. Despite recent policy reforms, these penalties still remain for mostly low-to-moderate income families. Authors offer suggestions for reducing these marriage penalties such as setting a maximum marginal tax rate for lower-income individuals and providing wage subsidies to low-income workers.

This research brief discusses the importance of work supports for low-wage earners to maintain and advance in the job market. The National Assembly's Family Strengthening Policy Center outlines the work-plus approach to support workers in the workplace by engaging employers and expanding work supports to workers such as the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) and child care subsidies.

The Rockefeller Institute of Government has released "The State Personal Income Tax Recovers," State Fiscal News Vol. 4, No. 4. After two years of decline, state personal income tax revenue grew by 6.4 percent in the January-March 2004 quarter. This growth is found in all components of the PIT, including withholding and estimated payments. Final payments with April returns also appear to be strong.

The Welfare Peer TA Network hosted a broadcast call titled, “Welfare Reform and Housing—Asset Building and Individual Development Accounts (IDAs)” on August 2, 2000. The purpose of the call was to review the asset building and IDA program concepts, present examples of cooperation between State TANF agencies and asset building programs, and identify issues related to asset building and IDAs that are likely to arise for State TANF agencies.

The Welfare Peer Technical Assistance (TA) Network, funded by the Administration for Children and Families (ACF), Office of Family Assistance (OFA), Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS), coordinated this workshop involving select representatives from fourteen States (representing eleven human services offices, and nine community partners), from across five ACF Regions, and three federal agencies. Nationally recognized private sector organizations that contributed to this workshop included representatives from the Center for Social Development (CSD) at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, and the Corporation for Enterprise Development (CFED) in Washington, DC.

The Welfare Peer Technical Assistance Network coordinated this workshop in conjunction with the Department of Labor, Employment and Training Division. The purpose of this two-day workshop was to assemble a collection of varying levels of expertise from all over the nation among the Individual Development Account (IDA) field to promote information sharing and fact finding. This workshop built on the successes of two previous IDA workshops that were hosted by the Welfare Peer Technical Assistance Network during this past year. The program for this workshop was similar to the other two workshops with the additional component of focusing on the flexibility available in using Welfare to Work funds for IDA programs.

On March 2, 2004, the Welfare Peer Technical Assistance Network hosted its first moderated Online Forum as part of the Child-Only Learning Community. Representatives from eight States logged onto this moderated discussion to engage with Federal resource personnel around the value of the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) in supporting low-income and TANF families.

The Welfare Peer TA Network sponsored this statewide Roundtable event that took place in Baton Rouge, LA, from October 25-26, 2004. Attended by over 80 Federal, State, and local representatives, this Roundtable was designed to impart the tools and knowledge to implement a statewide Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) awareness and outreach campaign.

The Welfare Peer TA Network sponsored this statewide Roundtable event that took place in Charleston, WV from January 20-21, 2005. Attended by over 60 Federal, State, and local representatives, this Roundtable was designed to impart the tools and knowledge to implement a statewide Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) awareness and outreach campaign.

The Welfare Peer TA Network sponsored this statewide Roundtable event that took place in Charlottesville, VA from July 14-15, 2005. It was attended by over 40 Federal, State, and local representatives, this Roundtable was designed to facilitate statewide discussion to impart the tools and knowledge to implement a statewide Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) awareness and outreach campaign.