View Research by Author - Stephen H. Bell

Publications

Ten research papers explore the prospects for success of the nation's new system for paying providers of rehabilitation and employment services for people with disabilities. Ticket to Work reimburses providers when clients receiving federal disability benefits become self-sufficient through work. In May 2002, the Social Security Administration convened a conference to look at Ticket's provider payment incentives, with input from leading researchers in the field and a dozen expert commentators. Issues explored include access for the hardest to serve, potential economic and budgetary efficiencies, and the role of provider incentives in generating services with larger net impacts on benefits and earnings.

The Social Security Administration (SSA) contracted with the Urban Institute and its subcontractor, Westat, and several individual consultants to develop an intervention, evaluation, and survey design for a demonstration project to assist Supplemental Security Income participants. The SSA proposed demonstration program would pay "Job Monitors" (JMs) to assist working SSI recipients with simple problems that may affect their employment. The program would be funded primarily through a Plan for Achieving Self Support (PASS), an SSA-approved written plan that specifies an employment goal and the expenditures necessary to achieve that goal.

Sound research on Federal food assistance programs requires high-quality data. This report describes 10 potential data development initiatives, each of which holds promise for improving the quality or reducing the cost of data resources at the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The initiatives were selected to reflect the research needs of all three of the largest Federal food assistance programs: the Food Stamp Program (FSP), the Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC), and the National School Lunch Program (NSLP). The initiatives also were chosen to provide information for several types of research, especially the measurement of program impacts and the dynamics of program participation. The initiatives were developed by a consortium of research organizations, made up of The Urban Institute, Health Systems Research, Inc., and the Research Triangle Institute. In a second phase of this project, the consortium will produce a more detailed task list and cost estimate for three of the initiatives discussed in this report. If USDA chooses to pursue one or more of these initiatives, this second phase will provide a foundation for further development.

This paper critiques and summarizes the literature on how the economy, policy, and other factors contributed to falling welfare caseloads during the 1990s. There is broad agreement that economic growth contributed importantly to this decline but less unanimity on the role of policy. Some researchers conclude that welfare reform contributed nearly as much to reduced dependency as the economy, while others find little influence. The author identifies additional research that, if undertaken soon, would help to decide this critical question as Congress debates TANF reauthorization.

[Christian Science Monitor] With his proposal to boost the role of religious groups in providing taxpayer-funded social services, President Bush is pushing a sharp change in social policy. But, as the nation reconsiders who delivers social services, shouldn't we also look again at who gets government assistance?

There are nearly 5 million able-bodied adults age 25 to 49 without dependents in America with incomes at or near poverty. More than half lack health insurance, and almost none receive government assistance. New data show this group to be trying as hard as anyone to get ahead, through both work (almost 80 percent hold jobs, 60 percent full time) and training (20 percent each year), yet failing. Non-custodial fathers - a quarter of the men in the group-work even harder but remain equally strapped, even without considering child support payments.

One in six adults (16 percent) engaged in some skill-building activity outside the workplace in 1996 according to this new report based on the 1997 National Survey of America's Families. Though federal reforms mandating work as a condition for public assistance were just being legislated, the percentage investing in new skills was significantly greater for welfare recipients and food stamp recipients (28 percent and 21 percent respectively). The report reviews five types of investments in stronger work habits and substantive job skills by welfare status and level of education. The report also finds significant state variation in the proportion of all adults and of food stamp recipients participating in education and training activities.

This paper describes the welfare-to-work systems in 13 states and the nation just prior to implementation of federal welfare reform as background for tracking changes under PRWORA. It reviews the extent and sources of employment and training services for welfare recipients, the emphasis states placed on rapid workforce attachment and human capital development, integration of welfare-to-work and related employment and training systems at the state and local levels, and the financial resources devoted to welfare employment and training services.

This paper explores the challenges of evaluating social policies directed by states and highlights several lessons learned in this area through the Assessing the New Federalism project: broad-based analyses are hard, limits on research breadth are essential, data needs cannot be compromised, and clear, timely presentation of results is more important than ever. The paper also focuses on a particularly daunting analytic challenge: determining which state reforms are helping low-income citizens and advancing broader social objectives and which are not. The author examines four basic analytic techniques to determine their potential for measuring the contribution of policy reforms to outcomes.

Helping families and individuals become self-sufficient through increased employment is a major goal of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996, as well as many other federal and state income support programs. Many people receiving public support now face benefit reductions or termination if they are not working or preparing for work. Among those affected are adults in families receiving support from the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program and childless adults receiving food stamps.

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