Welfare Reform in Iowa: Some Economic Progress, While Marriage Impacts Add to Growing Debate

How are welfare families in Iowa faring after the implementation of reforms designed to promote self-sufficiency and family stability? Are they adapting to the change, or has their well-being taken a turn for the worse?

Mathematica has been evaluating Iowa welfare reform since 1994. Researchers have taken an in-depth look at Iowa's Family Investment Program (FIP) and Limited Benefit Plan (LBP-a sanction for those on FIP who fail to comply with work requirements).

The latest report notes that welfare reform succeeded in getting recipients into training and then into jobs. However, the reforms did not always succeed in raising family income and may have reduced it for some families. Furthermore, researchers noted negative impacts on some measures of family and child well-being, including less marriage for those who began receiving welfare after the reforms started.

Other reports look at families that left welfare in spring 1999, families with very low incomes, and family well-being. (For the summary report on well-being, click here.) We have also examined the increase in employment and earnings during the first three and a half years of welfare reform, the process of implementing a postemployment pilot program, the impacts of FIP on families, a cost-benefit analysis of FIP, and several aspects of the LBP. There are reports on other topics, including the design of the evaluation, survey questionnaires, and nonresponse bias in surveys of families that left welfare.

To find other publications from the study, click here. To order copies, please contact Jackie Allen, (609) 275-2350.

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