This discussion paper, from the Urban Institute, summarizes how States are serving clients with multiple barriers on their TANF caseloads and provides information on recent changes in States’ approaches to serving this population. Authors interviewed TANF program officials in the States of California, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Washington, and Wisconsin.

Through MDRC’s Employment Retention and Advancement project, this report presents findings after two years of a program in Riverside County, California. The program’s objective was to promote job retention and advancement among employed individuals who recently left the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program. It was found that participants in the program had increased employment rates of four percent above the control group, and increased earnings of 11 percent.

This paper summarizes findings from MAXIMUS studies about the awareness and use of the EITC among welfare recipients, leavers, and applicants. The findings are based on surveys conducted in five states: California, Illinois, New Mexico, North Carolina, and South Carolina.

This bulletin reviews a microenterprise development organization in California. This company provides tax preparation in an effort to build assets for the low-income population through the Earned Income Tax Credit.

Since the inception of PRWORA in 1996, welfare clients were given a 60-month time limit for the amount of time on case assistance. The first time that clients reached their time limits in California was January of 2003. This report outlines how time limits were implemented in California and the effects that the time limit has on low-income families.

From the Welfare Policy Research Project, this research article reviews a study in California on the effects of the 60-month TANF time limit. As a result of 1996 Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act, all adults receiving welfare are subject to a five year lifetime limit for cash benefits. Authors discuss how these time limits have affected families enrolled in the CalWORKS TANF program.

This Mathematica Policy Research, Inc. issue brief was authored by Christopher Trenholm. The Santa Clara County Children's Health Initiative (CHI), launched in January 2001, seeks to extend health coverage to all uninsured children in that California county. This issue brief measures the effect of the initiative on enrollment in Medi-Cal and Healthy Families, the two major State insurance programs. The study found that CHI increased enrollment by almost 13,500 children, or 28 percent. As a result of the gains, CHI increased State and Federal spending in Santa Clara County for the two programs by an estimated $24.4 million during 2001-2002.

Efforts to replicate the experience of the Center for Employment Training (CET) in San Jose, California -- a uniquely successful program that helped at-risk youth develop skills needed to compete in today's labor market -- showed mixed results. This examination of 12 replication sites after two-and-a-half years found that only four sites that implemented the CET model with high fidelity to the original program increased youths' participation in employment and training activities, leading to fairly large increases in the receipt of training credentials. The study found that CET worked best for young women enrolled at the high-fidelity sites, where participation resulted in a substantial increase in the number who worked during the follow-up period and a large increase in the number who were still working at the two-and-a-half year point. The lack of positive impacts for young males continues a disappointing pattern for disadvantaged men whose barriers to acquiring training that would help them to move into better jobs have yet to be addressed successfully by any employment programs.

By researching sanction policies across four counties in California, this article found that, for the most part, county workers reach out to participants to prevent sanctioning. Specifically, one county has found success with contracting out to community-based organizations to address barriers to work with noncompliant participants. The study also found gaps in case worker and recipient knowledge of sanction policies.

This report from the Welfare Policy Research Project in California examines predicting factors to sanctioning of welfare recipients in 1999 and the affect of sanctioning on future outcomes. It was found that only a small proportion of recipients were sanctioned in a given month. Also, speaking a primary language other than English decreased the likelihood of being sanctioned and the number of months in sanction status. Additionally, having young children also decreased the likelihood of being sanctioned and the number of months in sanction status.