Welfare

In response to a congressional request, GAO analyzed Census Bureau data on households composed of both Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) recipients and persons not receiving AFDC to determine: (1) whether household members not receiving AFDC were related to AFDC recipients and, if so, how; and (2) the incomes of the AFDC recipients and the non-AFDC household members.

GAO found that: (1) 63 percent of all AFDC households consisted solely of AFDC recipients; (2) 32 percent consisted of AFDC recipients and their relatives; and (3) 5 percent included one or more unrelated persons. GAO also found that: (1) about one-half of the households with recipients and nonrecipients consisted of two generations, with an AFDC mother as the head of the household; (2) 75 percent of these AFDC mothers were age 25 or over, and 32 percent were over age 39; (3) in 86 percent of the two-generation households, the residence was in the name of the AFDC recipient; and (4) most of the persons not on AFDC were children of the AFDC family head. GAO also found that: (1) slightly less than one-half of the households consisted of three generations, with young mothers living with their parents; (2) 53 percent of these AFDC mothers were under age 25, and 40 percent were under age 21; (3) the residence was in the name of the AFDC recipient in less than a fourth of these households; and (4) most of the non-AFDC relatives were parents or siblings of the AFDC family head. In addition, GAO found that: (1) nonrecipients in the three-generation households generally had a higher per-capita income than recipients; and (2) two-generation AFDC households averaged higher per-capita incomes than either the three-generation households or households consisting solely of AFDC recipients.