Volume 7, No.2
Summer 2001

ILMR Homepage

Feature Articles:
Work, Welfare, and Well-being: An independant look at welfare reform in Illinois

The Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act (WARN) part 2

Archives

Work, Welfare, and Well-Being: An independent look at welfare reform in Illinois
Contributed By Amy Bush Stevens, Project Coordinator and Dan A. Lewis, Principal Investigator

In 1997 the Illinois state legislature mandated that the Illinois Department of Human Services (IDHS) seek out university researchers to design and conduct a six-year panel study of welfare reform. The Illinois Families Study (IFS) is being conducted by a consortium of researchers from four Illinois universities in response to that legislative mandate.

Purpose of the study
The goal of the study is to inform policymakers about how Illinois families have been faring since the implementation of Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) and other welfare reform policies. The first in a series of annual reports to the state legislature was released in November 2000. The report described findings from interviews conducted during the first phase of the study. Key findings on employment and training are summarized in this article.

Methods
The Illinois Families Study is longitudinal and tracks the same families over a six-year period. The study has two primary components:
1) Annual in-person surveys of a random sample of adults who were primary TANF grantees in the fall of 1998, a little more than a year after TANF was first implemented, and
2) Administrative data from several Illinois state agencies about the same sample of families.

IDHS administrative data were used to select a random sample of TANF recipients from nine counties, stratified alongtwo geographic regions:
• Cook County and
• Selected “downstate counties” (St. Clair, Peoria, Tazewell, Fulton, Knox, Marshall, Woodford and Stark).

Together, these nine counties represent 75 percent of the state TANF caseload. They also represent cities and towns of varying sizes and demographic makeup, affording important comparisons across subgroups of recipients. The six counties surrounding Peoria are grouped together under the heading “rural counties” in this report.

A total of 1,362 Phase One interviews were conducted between November 1999 and September 2000. The overall response rate was 72 percent.

Interview Results
Respondent characteristics

Work status and welfare use
Half of the respondents were working; half were still on TANF. Many were combining work and welfare. About half of those surveyed (53 percent) were employed at the time of the first interview, including 38 percent of the entire sample who were working full time (30+ hours per week). Similarly, half of the respondents (55 percent) were still receiving TANF, including 42 percent who had been continuously receiving TANF over the past 12 months.

Among those who were no longer receiving TANF, 65 percent were working, while 43 percent of those still on TANF were working (see Figure 1). Overall, 23 percent of the total sample were combining work with TANF (not shown).

Figure 2 displays regional differences in two of the key goals of welfare reform: work and leaving TANF. Peoria County had the highest proportion of employed respondents (73 percent), while the rural counties had the largest proportion of respondents who were no longer receiving TANF (61 percent).

Workforce participation
As mentioned earlier, 53 percent of the IFS sample were working at the time of their interview. Employed respondents worked an average of 33 hours per week, and 57 percent said they preferred to work more hours if their employer would allow it. Most workers were employed in regular positions (86 percent), as opposed to temporary (12 percent) or seasonal (2 percent) jobs.

The median hourly wage for working respondents was $7.00. The median monthly earnings for working respondents were $960 (See Figures 3 and 4). Nearly all respondents (94 percent) reported that they had worked for pay at some point in their life. Forty-five percent had more than three years of full-time work experience.

Fifteen percent of respondents were receiving health insurance through their employer, although 45 percent said medicalcoverage was available through their job immediately (11 percent) or after a waiting period (34 percent). Paid sick days were the most common employer benefit respondents received, although only 25 percent were getting this benefit. Very few respondents were participating in a retirement program (13 percent) or receiving dental insur-ance for their children (13 percent) through their employer (see Figure 5).

One-third of respondents (33 percent) said it takes them one hour or more to get to work, including the time it takes to drop off children at child care. Nearly one-fourth (21 percent) said their work-place was located more than 20 miles from their home.

Among those who were not working at the time of the interview, 41 percent reported that they had held at least one job in the past 12 months; 46 percent said they had looked for a job but could not find one; 12 percent did not look for employment during this time period.

Informal networks (45 percent) and self-initiated contacts (31 percent) were by far the most common way respondents found their current jobs. Fourteen learned of their job through the welfare office, WorkFirst, or some other job program (see Figure 6).

Training, education, and support services About one third of all respondents (35 percent) participated in a job search/job readiness, job skills training, and/or self-employment training or technical assistance program within the past 12 months. This includes 50 percent of those who reported that they asked their welfare worker for more help with job skills and training. Excluding respondents who had been off TANF continuously for the past 12 months, 38 percent of Cook County residents had participated in these activities, followed by St. Clair County (32 percent), Peoria County (20 percent), and the rural counties (17 percent).

About half of the participants in these job search/ job readiness and training programs (52 percent) said someone from the program had explained the EITC (Earned Income Tax Credit) to them; 58 percent said the Work Pays program was explained to them; and 38 percent were advised about budgeting and paying bills.

These job programs received mixed reviews from respondents. About half said the program had taught them skills to be successful in a job (45 percent) or gave them more confidence to succeed (51 percent) “pretty much” or “a lot.” Twenty-eight percent, however, felt their participation in the program was “pretty much” or “very much” a waste of their time (see Figure 7).

Ten percent of the sample had participated in an educational program within the past 12 months, and 43 percent of these respondents said someone from the welfare office helped them enroll in classes. This included 17 percent of those who had told someone from the welfare office that they needed more education.

Only 20 respondents (less than 2 percent) reported that they asked the welfare office for help with mental health, substance abuse, or domestic violence. Few findings about these services can be reported at this time.

Conclusions
• Many current and former TANF recipients are finding work, but their earnings, in general, are very low and many do not receive employer-sponsored benefits. The majority of respondents (more than two-thirds) had worked within the past year, although only half were employed at the time of the interview. These findings indicate that merely getting a job cannot be equated with self-sufficiency.

• Many respondents approve of the changes brought by welfare reform, particularly the implementation of work requirements and improved work supports. Confusion about welfare rules, problems with TANF service delivery, gaps in training and education programs, and limited access to health insurance, however, remain as major stumbling blocks for some Illinois families.

• Existing training and education programs may not be meeting the needs of some recipients. Many who said they requested this kind of help did not receive it, and those who did participate in job search and job training programs gave them mixed reviews.

• Some families experienced instability and hardship over the past year, such as temporary loss of health insurance or phone service. There was little evidence, however, of major ongoing threats to the health and well-being of most people interviewed for this study. Employment alone does not appear to make families immune from material hardship; those who combined work and welfare were least affected by these problems.

• Future reports from the Illinois Families Study will draw upon state administrative data, follow-up surveys, and in-depth qualitative interviews to provide more detailed evidence on workforce attachment, service use, child well-being, and the relationships between these and other aspects of welfare reform.

Future reporting from the Illinois Families Study
This first-year report sets the stage for future reports that will be made available to policymakers over the next six years. While this report draws exclusively upon survey data gathered in 1999 and 2000, future reporting will integrate information from a rich combination of sources. Most important, future research will link survey data with the following state administrative records:

*The Illinois Department of Human Services client database will provide monthly reports on TANF, Food Stamps, and Medicaid use.

*The Illinois Department of Employment Security will provide quarterly reports on Unemployment Insurance use and wages.

*The Illinois Department of Children and Family Services will provide monthly information on child abuse and neglect reports and child welfare intervention.

In summary, the ongoing surveys with the same group of families over six years, combined with administra- tive records and supplementary studies of special topics, will allow the Illinois Families Study to answer many key policy questions in coming years.

Credits and other info:
The first phase of the study was funded by: The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, The Joyce Foundation, The Woods Fund of Chicago, The Polk Bros. Foundation, and The Annie E. Casey Foundation.

The report was prepared by:

• Dan A. Lewis, Professor of Education and Social Policy, Northwestern University
  
  
• Amy Bush Stevens, Illinois Families Study Project Coordinator, Northwestern University
  
  
• Kristen L. Shook, Assistant Professor of Social Work, University of Wisconsin

The summary and full technical report are available at: www.northwestern.edu/IPR/research/IFS.html or for more information, contact Amy Bush Stevens at a-stevens4@northwestern.edu.