Related UI Researchers

Publications on Welfare

U.S. public policy has increasingly been conceived, debated, and evaluated through the lenses of politics and ideology. The fundamental question--Will the policy work?--too often gets short shrift or even ignored. A remedy is evidence-based policy -- a rigorous approach that draws on careful data collection, experimentation, and both quantitative and qualitative analysis to determine what the problem is, which ways it can be addressed, and the probable impacts of each of these ways. Examples of how evidence informs good policy and lack of evidence can invite bad include health insurance coverage, welfare reform, sentencing policy, and redress for housing discrimination.

This report examines benefit payments in Ohio’s unemployment insurance (UI) program. The report compares average recipiency rates and replacement rates with national averages over the past four decades. It then reviews detailed aspects of benefit recipiency including monetary eligibility, first payment rates, benefit duration and replacement rates. The report identifies four areas where access to benefits could be broadened: reduced base period earnings requirements, enhanced eligibility for part-time workers, establishment of worksharing and establishment of self-employment assistance.

During the 1990s, the federal government promised low-income families that work would pay. Parents moved into jobs in response to new welfare rules requiring work, tax credits and other work supports that boosted take-home pay. Unfortunately, the record shows that low-income families have not progressed much. Many don't bring home enough to cover the everyday costs of living. This paper synthesizes the current status of low-income families along with the findings from a set of essays that address key shortcomings in the safety net. The paper summarizes ideas for policies that would make work pay in today's economy.

Low-wage jobs can be unstable, leaving families struggling to cope with employment gaps and financial emergencies that can strike without warning. About four in five low-income families are "asset poor," lacking enough liquid savings to live for three months at the federal poverty level without earnings. In this essay, McKernan and Ratcliffe suggest a cluster of policies that would improve financial markets and savings opportunities for low-income families across the life cycle.

Welfare programs require people to work, but some low-income adults struggle with major personal challenges that make it hard to find or hold down a job. In this essay, Loprest and Martinson recommend both short term changes to current programs and longer term efforts through a program for competitive federal matching block grants to states. These grants would support efforts to integrate programs that alleviate barriers to work with employment services and to evaluate these initiatives so policymakers can better understand what works.