Study Supports County Welfare Reform Strategy

Los Angeles County’s decision to revamp its welfare program and push poor mothers to find jobs quickly has paid off, boosting employment and earnings and markedly reducing welfare spending, a new study concludes.

The study, released today by New York-based Manpower Demonstration Research Corp., found that recipients enrolled in the county’s welfare-to-work program were more likely to get jobs and earn higher wages than those not enrolled in the program.

But critics discounted the study, arguing that its data are out of date and that a booming economy has had a far greater impact in providing jobs for welfare recipients than the county’s welfare-to-work program--known as GAIN, or Greater Avenues for Independence.

The study is yet another volley in the war of philosophies over what works best in promoting self-sufficiency: education and training or quick entry into the job market. In fact, many have begun to agree that combining work and education may be the best course.

Supporters say the new report shores up past findings that Los Angeles County is a model for other big cities struggling to retool enormous bureaucracies in a new era of welfare reform. The county is home to more welfare recipients than any state except New York and California.

From August 1996--when landmark reforms were enacted--to this April, the number of families in the county on welfare has tumbled to 584,000 cases from 863,000.

“These results are not the end of welfare reform, but they represent a singular improvement and a milestone as Los Angeles County addresses ways to improve their welfare employment program,” said John Wallace, regional manager for Manpower Demonstration, a social research group that has studied Los Angeles County’s GAIN program for nearly a decade.

Wallace added that, given the increasing concentration of welfare recipients in large cities, the study’s results have important implications nationally.

“Los Angeles County has done a remarkable job in transforming its welfare program into one that focuses on early employment and that is achieving positive results for families,” said Olivia Golden, the U.S. Health and Human Services Department’s assistant secretary for children and families.

The study shows that the number of employed single parents in GAIN increased 10%, and that their earnings increased an average of $1,627, from 1996 to 1998. Welfare expenditures for those in GAIN dropped, with an average saving of $972 for single parents and $1,429 for two-parent families.

The program also increased the number of participants at or above the poverty line by 5% in the first year of study and 10% in the second year, the report found.

Moreover, the GAIN program was effective for a wide range of people on welfare, improving prospects for even the most disadvantaged, according to the study. For example, 70% of the enrollees had been on welfare for at least two years, 60% had not worked during the three years before the study was conducted and more than 50% had not finished high school.

“It really validates that we’re on the right track,” said Lynn W. Bayer, director of the Los Angeles County Department of Public Social Services. “It is relevant whether we should be spending more time in putting people into education classes rather than going with the ‘work first’ approach. This says testing people out in the labor market first works and works best.”

But Bayer acknowledged that the study also uncovered several troubling findings. One-third of the people who began working while in the program were no longer employed at the end of two years; many remained below the poverty level, and as more parents entered the job market, unreliable child care affected their ability to hold a job and get to work on time.

In a setback to the long-held claim that a working mother has a beneficial influence on her family, the study found that overall employment had neither a positive nor a negative effect on children’s school achievement. Among one group of preschool children, increased employment actually led to more academic and behavioral problems.

County officials concede that their philosophy is shifting toward individual assessments to determine the right combination of work and education.

Karen Klabin, a policy analyst with the Human Services Network, a Los Angeles social advocacy group, said the study is irrelevant in light of recent research questioning the value of a work-first approach to helping poor mothers become self-sufficient.

“They are now realizing that it doesn’t work to get a mother a job at McDonald’s,” she said. “Our experience has shown that it behooves us not to try to keep recycling people in and out of very low-income jobs but to look at a more integrated approach.”