Wage Indexing. (Compare Price Indexing). Adjusting amounts by the change over time in average national earnings; the current system wage-indexes earnings to compute Social Security benefits.
Waivers. Instruments by which federal officials release states from some of the statutory and regulatory requirements of federal programs, such as Medicaid, Food Stamps, or (formerly) AFDC.
Welfare. Most often used to refer to cash assistance to low- or no-income people under TANF or AFDC.
Welfare Magnet. The idea that poor people are more likely to move to states with more generous welfare benefits.
Welfare-to-Work (WtW). A federal grant program to fund training of hard-to-employ TANF recipients and noncustodial parents. Congress funded the grant in FY 1998 and 1999. Because this money could be used over a five-year period, some WtW programs were still operating as of early 2004.
Welfare Rules Database. A longitudinal database of state AFDC and TANF policies since 1996, developed and maintained by the Urban Institute with funding from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Work-First. Employment services approaches, especially in welfare programs, whose primary goal is to promote finding work immediately.
Workforce Investment Act. A 1998 statute establishing a federal block grant that provides aid to the states for job training. A hallmark of the program is a "one-stop system" to provide coordinated services for would-be workers.
Work Supports. (Compare Income Supports.) Assistance programs that promote employment, such as childcare, transportation, education, and training.
Latest Research
