Authored by Lashawn Richburg-Hayes and Stephen Freedman. This MDRC report analyzes the experiences of welfare "cyclers" using five MDRC studies of welfare reform initiatives during the mid- to late-1990s. Overall, cyclers constituted a relatively small portion of the welfare caseload (9 percent).

Since the inception of PRWORA in 1996, welfare clients were given a 60-month time limit for the amount of time on case assistance. The first time that clients reached their time limits in California was January of 2003. This report outlines how time limits were implemented in California and the effects that the time limit has on low-income families.

From the Welfare Policy Research Project, this research article reviews a study in California on the effects of the 60-month TANF time limit. As a result of 1996 Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act, all adults receiving welfare are subject to a five year lifetime limit for cash benefits. Authors discuss how these time limits have affected families enrolled in the CalWORKS TANF program.

This research project, an intensive study in Boston, Chicago, and San Antonio, assesses the well-being of low-income children and families in the post-welfare reform era. The project examines strategies families have used to respond to reform, in terms of employment, schooling or other forms of training, residential mobility, and fertility. This project focuses on how these strategies affect children's lives, emphasizing their health and development, as well as their need for, and use of, social services.

Authored by Deanna T. Schexnayder, Daniel Schroeder, Laura Lein, David Dominguez, Karen Douglas, and Freddie Richards. This research was conducted as part of the Ray Marshall Center for the Study of Human Resources, The University of Texas at Austin. This report explores the characteristics of families who left or were diverted from TANF and addresses a number of measures including obtaining employment and participation in other government programs such as Medicaid and Food Stamps.

Authored by Robert G. Wood and Anu Rangarajan. Based on four rounds of annual follow-up surveys with an early group of New Jersey TANF recipients, this issue brief focuses on those who have left the welfare rolls and are not working. About one in four recipients in this group were in this status throughout much of the study's follow-up period. The researchers note that the group is diverse; some recipients have substantial alternative sources of financial support, such as Supplemental Security Income, unemployment insurance, or earnings from a spouse or partner. However, those who lack alternative supports (the "least stable" leavers -- representing about 1 in 10 of this early group) get by on very little income and are at high risk of extreme economic hardship. Although relatively few people spend extended periods in this status, a substantial number spend at least some time in it.

This is the fourth in a series of working papers designed to examine what has been learned since the enactment of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA) of 1996 (effective through September 30, 2002). PRWORA ended Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC), the Federal entitlement to assistance for eligible needy families with children, and created the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) block grant.

HHS Secretary Donna E. Shalala announced that 28 states have been awarded high performance bonuses created to reward superior results in welfare reform. The $200 million in annual bonuses, established in the 1996 welfare reform law, was given to the states with the best achievement in moving parents on welfare into jobs and their success in staying employed and increasing their earnings.

Three-city study from Johns Hopkins University examines who is affected by sanctions and case closings and why.

This transcript from the Brookings Institution provides information from a Brookings briefing on the latest Census numbers on poverty and income. Experts on the panel included Ron Haskins, Senior Fellow, The Brookings Institution; Larry Aber, Professor of Applied Psychology and Public Policy, New York University; Ron Mincy, Professor of Social Policy and Social Work Practice, Columbia University; Gary Burtless, Senior Fellow, The Brookings Institution; and Brigid Schulte, Staff Writer, The Washington Post.