Welfare to Work

As Congress considers various proposals to reform welfare, questions have arisen about how best to reduce welfare dependency and help recipients move from welfare to work. This report reviews the evaluation of the many state welfare-to-work experiments completed since the reforms enacted in 1988 to learn (1) How do they resemble the welfare reforms now being discussed? and (2) What approaches have been effective in increasing employment and earning or reducing benefit receipt among welfare clients.

GAO found that: (1) state welfare-to-work experiments and current federal welfare reform proposals both include work programs for welfare recipients, stricter requirements for participation in work programs and child support enforcement, and increasing work incentives; (2) states are testing proposals, such as limiting the length of time a family can receive benefits, but their evaluations are not yet complete; (3) some states have evaluated features of welfare-to-work programs, such as providing a broad mix of employment services, that go beyond some of the current proposals; (4) although the states' experiences provide information regarding some current reform features, it is not possible to project the likely effects of the entire package of reform proposals; (5) the programs that consistently showed the best employment and welfare-related outcomes for participants combined many employment-related activities and support services with some form of participation mandate and had adequate funding to serve their clients; (6) it has been difficult to move welfare recipients to self-supporting employment; (7) only one fourth of participants were self-sufficient in being both employed and off welfare after 3 years in welfare-to-work programs; and (8) the approach of increasing both work incentives and access to employment has had mixed results among states that have attempted such actions.